[3] Pope Pius XII granted a pontifical decree of canonical coronation via the papal bull Celeberrima solemnia towards the venerated image on 25 April 1946.

The designated papal legate, Cardinal Benedetto Aloisi Masella, carried out the coronation on 13 May 1946, now permanently enshrined at the Chapel of the Apparitions of Fátima.

The children reported a prophecy that prayer would lead to an end to the Great War, and that on 13 October that year the Lady would reveal her identity and perform a miracle "so that all may believe.

A provincial administrator briefly took the children into custody, believing the prophecies were politically motivated in opposition to the officially secular First Portuguese Republic established in 1910.

"[9][full citation needed] In the following months, thousands of people flocked to Fátima and nearby Aljustrel, drawn by reports of visions and miracles.

[15] Father John De Marchi, an Italian Catholic priest and researcher wrote several books on the subject, which included descriptions by witnesses who believed they had seen a miracle created by Mary, Mother of God.

De Marchi documented that in the two years prior to the deaths of Francisco and Jacinta Marto in the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic,[24] the three children periodically refused food and water, or else drank dirty water such as from a laundry pond, as a penance; De Marchi noted that Jacinta's mother had forbidden drinking from the pond due to the risk of illness.

"[25] and described Jacinta as being hospitalized for severe bronchial illness, after which she confided to her older cousin that she was still abstaining: "I was thirsty, Lúcia, and I didn't drink, and so I offered it to Jesus for sinners.

"[29] De Marchi states that Lúcia told her cousin prior to traveling to Cova da Iria in anticipation of the 13 July 1917 apparition, "If she [the Lady] asks for me, Jacinta, you tell her why I'm not there.

"[30] Lúcia wrote in her memoir that on the following day, she was overtaken by a certainty that she should go, despite her earlier dread: "...when it was nearly time to leave, I suddenly felt I had to go, impelled by a strange force that I could hardly resist.

Her cell was sealed off by the order of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith as part of examination for her canonization, due to the revelations that Sister Lúcia still had after the events at Fátima.

The largest crowds gather on 13 May and 13 October, when up to a million pilgrims pray and witness processions of the statue of Our Lady of Fátima, both in the day and by the light of tens of thousands of candles at night.

Later in Spain during the 1920s and 1930s, as the forces of the Republic gathered strength, armies of faithful Roman Catholics carried images of the Virgin Mary, as protest and protection against groups they called godless.

[44] These visions gained much credence in Integrist and Carlist circles and conservative elements in the Spanish Catholic Church actively encouraged the Fátima devotion as a way of countering the threat of atheistic Communism.

[45] The Blue Army is made up of Catholics and non-Catholics who believe that by dedicating themselves to daily prayer (specifically recitation of the Rosary), they can help to achieve world peace and end to the error of Communism.

Now they fell back on every side like sparks in huge fires, without weight or equilibrium, amid shrieks and groans of pain and despair, which horrified us and made us tremble with fright (it must have been this sight which caused me to cry out, as people say they heard me).

"[53] On 25 January 1938 (during solar cycle 17), bright lights, an aurora borealis appeared over the northern hemisphere, including in places as far south as North Africa, Bermuda and California.

[60] However, in the Blue Army's Spanish magazine, Sol de Fátima, in the September 1985 issue, Sister Lúcia said that the ceremony did not fulfil the Virgin Mary's request, as there was no specific mention of Russia and "many bishops attached no importance to it."

Some sources, including Chanoine Barthas and Cardinal Ottaviani, said that Lúcia insisted to them it must be released by 1960, saying that, "by that time, it will be more clearly understood", and, "because the Blessed Virgin wishes it so.

The New York Times wrote that speculation over the content of the secret ranged from "worldwide nuclear annihilation" to "deep rifts in the Roman Catholic Church that lead to rival papacies.

Among many other practices, Lúcia wrote that she and her cousins wore tight cords around their waists, flogged themselves with stinging nettles, gave their lunches to beggars, and abstained from drinking water on hot days.

"[87] Lúcia also said that she heard Mary ask for the following words to be added to the Rosary after the Gloria Patri prayer: "O my Jesus, pardon us, save us from the fires of hell.

[100][93] In 1984, John Paul II offered to the statue of Fátima one of the bullets that struck him in the assassination attempt in St. Peter's Square, which is now enchased in the image's crown.

"[101] On the second day, Pope Benedict spoke to more than 500,000 pilgrims; he referred to the Fátima prophecy about the triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary and related it to the final "glory of the Most Holy Trinity.

[112] Several statues of Our Lady under Fátima's title are notable, among which are the following: The phenomenon of Fatima apparitions has been embroiled in great controversy since its inception, with heated arguments involving not only atheists and agnostics, but also Catholics.

[123] Alfredo Barroso, journalist and politician, claims that the "Miracle of Fatima" never existed, and that it is a "product of illiteracy, ignorance and the beliefs of three children terrorised by the image of a cruel, vengeful and punishing God".

For Barroso, the "miracle of Fatima" became a weapon to hurl against the Republic, freedom and democracy, against atheism and communism, in a classic alliance between "the sword and the hyssop" under the aegis of the dictator Salazar.

He claims that three priests – Manuel Marques Ferreira, Benevenuto de Sousa e Abel Ventura do Céu Faria[125] – decided to promote apparitions for purely profitable purposes, but the evidence is very weak.

[127][128] The journalist and writer Patrícia Carvalho states that the gratuitous attacks and accusations against specific figures of the Church, without irrefutable proof, characterised the first texts opposing Fatima, as well some of the books later published about it.

[129] Soon after the events of 1917, the parish priest, Manuel Marques Ferreira, carried out successive interrogations of the three children after each of the apparitions; Father José Fereira de Lacerda, and the Rev.