Season 6 Episode 20: Children of the Pastures (Pt. 2 of 2)

waiting for her, but the mayor, Arter de Santos. De Santos told Lucia to take a seat and then explained that both Jacinta and Francisco had refused to admit to their lies, and now they were dead. But Lucia had one final chance to save herself. Lucia thought for a moment, but needed little time to make up her mind. It was not a lie, she told the mayor, and she was prepared to die to defend that truth. The exasperated De Santos was forced to finally reveal his own charade.

There was, of course, no pot of boiling oil, and Jacinta and Francisco were not dead, but rather alive and well, playing back at the Mayor's residency. Back in Algustrelle Lucia, Jacinta and Francisco's parents had spent a fraught few days agonizing over what might have happened to their children. News filtered through eventually, however, that they'd been seen playing happily at the Mayor's house in Oragne, though there was still no indication of when they might see their children again.

On August fifteenth, Jacinta and Francisco's parents, Manuel and Olympia were attending Father Manuel Ferreira's mass at Saint Anthony's Church in Fatima when a loud disturbance was heard outside. A crowd of the children's supporters had descended on the church, demanding to know where the children had been taken, believing that Father Ferreira, who was known to be skeptical of the children's story, might have had something to do with

their disappearance. All in the crowd that day had traveled to Covert area on the thirteenth, hoping to witness the children communicating with the Virgin Mary, or indeed a sighting of the blessed Virgin herself. Despite the children not having shown up that morning. What the people saw in their absence left them in no doubt that they hadn't been

making any of it up. In the wake of the third apparent visitation of the Virgin Mary in thatcham A, Portugal, on July thirteenth, nineteen seventeen, talk of the extraordinary things said to be happening there had only intensified. By the morning of August thirteenth, What had been a crowd of hundreds the month before had now grown well into the thousands. That day, however, a strange nervous energy spread among the people waiting in the pasture even before news of the

children's abduction had reached them. This was due to a pernicious rumor going round that the children hadn't actually been talking to Mary in the last few months, but were in fact being manipulated by the devil to trick people into traveling to covert Aria so that when the time was right, he could open the earth beneath them and

swallow them all up. When the people then received word that the children would not be making an appearance that morning, many began to worry that there might be some truth to the rumor. As the time approached eleven a m the time in which the children usually claimed that Mary appeared. A huge clap of thunder rang out through the valley, causing hundreds to scream out in terror that the devil had come to take them to hell. Only the earth

did not move and the people were not swallowed up. Instead, as was reported by many witnesses afterwards, in the moments after the thunder was heard, a strange, multi colored light shone down on the crowd from above, as though a rainbow had opened up over their heads, that shimmered on the ground and in the faces of all who were there. To the believers, it was a clear sign that Mary had come to speak with the children, even though they

hadn't been there to receive her. Clearly, they thought something very special was taking place in the pastures of Fatima. Back outside Saint Anthony's Church on August fifteenth, as the crowd chanted for the release of the three enigmatic young shepherds from algia Strell, it was clear that the mayor's efforts to put an end to the growing hysteria surrounding

them had completely backfired. Thankfully, just as things threatened to get out of control, the Mayor's coach pulled up at the front of the church, out of which stepped ten year old Lucia, nine year old Francisco, and seven year old Jacinta. Seeing their children, Manuel and Olympia ran to greet them, scooping them up in their arms and promising to never let anyone take them again, And with the crowd satisfied that the children were safe and well, it

eventually dispersed. On August nineteenth, the children spent the morning watching sheep in covert Aria, after which Jacinta returned home to al Giustrell, while Lucia and Francisco headed on to Velinos, the small field just next to it, where they were joined by Lucia's sister and brother in law, as well as Jacinta Francisco's older brother John. At some time around

four pm, Lucia ordered John to fetch Jacinta immediately. Fifteen minutes later, he and Jacinta arrived, and John watched, along with Lucia's sister and brother in law, as Lucia, with Jacinta and Francisco standing silently by her side, apparently communicated once more with the Virgin Mary. When news of this fourth communication then spread beyond the village. Attention among the rapidly growing band of believers turned to the next scheduled

appearance of September thirteenth. That month, as many as thirty thousand people descended on Fatima for what was set to be the Virgin Mary's fifth appearance. The day proceeded much like Mary's previous apparent visitations, the children standing in front of the usual home oak Tree, while Lucia dictated Mary's words to the crowd as she received them, telling them more that Mary wanted nothing more than for all those present to continue to pray for all sinners and to

pray for an end to the war. Most sat listening in awe, while some stood up loudly denouncing the children and demanding that they be burned or hung for their blasphemous deceptions. Unmoved by it all, Lucia once again asked aloud for Mary to give a sign of her presence, and once again she told the crowd that Mary promised only to show herself on the sixth and final visit the following month, and with that she threw her hands toward the sky and shouted the now familiar refrain, look

there she goes. Some claim aimed that shortly before Mary appeared, a luminous globe drifted down from the sky and perched above the sacred tree, where it remained for the duration of Lucia and Mary's apparent exchange, until when it was over and it was seen flying back into the sky. With all the joy of the children's return from prison and the seemingly continuing miracle of the Virgin Mary's appearances, little attention was paid to the small matter of the

secret that Mary had apparently entrusted the children with. It was clear from their refusal to divulge it to Mayor de Santos, even under threat of death, that there was little point in trying to extract it from them. Shortly after the events of September thirteenth, Doctor well for Migau, a professor at the Seminary and Lyceum of Saint Urram who'd been in the crowd that day, managed to secure an interview with the children in the hope of gaining a little more insight into them and what Mary had

apparently been telling them. Doctor for mcgou hadn't seen anything unusual in the sky on the thirteenth, However, after speaking to the children, he was left in no doubt that

they were being entirely sincere in their story. On the question of the secret, he learned only from Jacinta that one of the reasons why they didn't want to spill it was because the whole world would be sad if they did, And so all attention turned solely to the apparent miracle that Mary had allegedly promised to perform at her next appearance, in the hope that this would put an end once and frall to the question of whether

the children had been telling the truth or not. A heavy rain that had started to fall on the eleventh of October did little to dampen the enthusiasm of the lines of people as they clogged up all roads leading to Fatchima en route to coverd area. They came in their tens of thousands, some on horseback or ox drawn carts, while those who could afford to came with their cars and bicycles, but most came simply on foot, trudging endlessly through the mud in their desperation to witness the miracle.

In the village of algustrell As, news that the steady throng of people making their way to Fatima reached the children's families. They became understandably concerned. They had already how quickly a crowd could turn. What if the miracle didn't happen. They wandered, and all those people had traveled there for nothing. Lucia's mother, Maria Rosa, had even heard a rumor that their house would be bombed if her daughter was shown

to be a liar. On the thirteenth of October, the sky was practically black, so dark were the clouds that blotted it out, while the rain continued to pummel down. When the children, dressed in their finest communion clothes, white dresses for the girls and a smart gray suit for Francisco, stepped out of their homes that morning, they were confronted

by a sea of faces crying out to them. They had come from all over the country, some simply to witness the miracle and see the children, while others pleaded for them to pass messages to Mary so that they or their loved ones might be cured of whatever ailment had befallen them. The crowd was so big the people had to be pushed back as the children stepped onto the village's single sodden and muddy track and began their journey toward coverd Aria, barely noticing the rain as it

soaked them through. Shouts of makeway for the children who saw our Lady went up as they passed, while many dropped to their knees in the mud and genuflected toward them. It was sometime around eleven am when the children were finally spotted at Covidiria, and gasps of excitement rippled through the crowd as they watched Lucia, Jacinta, and Francisco take their place at the base of the home oak tree, where an arch had now been constructed to mark the

momentous spot. No sooner had they arrived, a local priest shouted out to the children, demanding to know when Mary would appear, to which Lucia replied midday, And so the crowd stood patiently while the rain fell, waiting for her arrival, their excitement growing steadily with each passing minute, until finally it was noon, but nothing happened. At ten minutes past

there was still no sign of the virgin mother. Manuel and Olympia Marto could only watch on from afar as the usual cry sprung up, accusing their children of lies and blasphemy. Then that local priest stood up again and jabbed his finger aggressively toward them. Where is she? Then he demanded, are you saying our lady is a liar? Or perhaps it is you who are lying? Is that right? Turning to the crowd, he shouted, can't you see it's

all a lie? Everyone go home now. Then he began to shove the children, pushing them away from the tree in anger. Others eventually stepped in to calm things down, while Lucia reassured them more that their lady would come. Then, with the time approaching one pm, Lucia said loudly to just Center, as the rain continued to pour, Neil, our

lady is coming. I have seen the lightning. What followed were the usual exchanges between Lucia and the invisible Mary, with one additional request from Mary, according to Lucia, that a chap will be built in covert to Aria in honor of her appearances there. And then, just as she had done each time before, Lucia threw her arms into the air and announced Mary's departure from the pasture. But

what about the miracle? Shouted someone from the crowd. Just wait, said Lucia as she then described how Mary had suddenly stopped midway into her ascent back to Heaven, and how she then turned her palms outwards to reveal a bright light from inside her hands. And just then something incredible happened. The rain stopped, and the dark gray clouds that had hung above the valley for the best part of three days suddenly began to part. Look, said Lucia, Look at

the sun. The crowd turned their heads in unison toward where Lucia was pointing, and cried out in joy. Not only had the sun been unexpectedly revealed through the clouds, but it looked like nothing anyone had ever seen before. As described in Lisbon's oh Secular Paper the following day, the sun had a transparent gauzy veil, so that the

eyes could easily be fixed upon it. The gray mother of pearl tone turned into a sheet of silver, which broke up as the clouds were torn apart, and the silver sun, enveloped in the same gauzy gray light, was seen to whirl and turn in the circle of broken clouds. Cries went up from every mouth, and people fell on

their knees on the muddy ground. Then all about. The light turned a beautiful blue, as if it had just come through the stained glass windows of a cathedral, and spread itself over the people who knelt with outstretched hands. The blue faded slowly, and then the light seemed to pass through yellow glass. Yellow stains fell against white handkerchiefs, against the dark skirts of the women, on the trees,

and on the stones of the pasture. Witnesses also reported that clouds were seen to move behind the sun, as though it had somehow become detached from the sky. Others claimed that the sun also danced and jerked about, and appeared at one point as though it might actually fall

out of the sky. Entirely seventy thousand people as said to have witnessed what would become known as the Miracle of the Sun, with reports of people claiming to have seen it coming in from as far as twenty five miles away, and in the eyes of all who were there, the children had finally been vindicated. In the days that followed, the sight became a place of pilgrimage, as hundreds continued to flock to it to bask in the after glow of the miraculous event and touched the sacred oak tree

above which Mary had apparently appeared. Not everyone was so easily convinced, however, and on October twenty third, ten days after the supposed miracle, a group of men from the Masonic lodge in Santarem cut down the tree in an

act of protest against the children and their followers. Regardless, over time, a small chapel was built on the site which took the place of the tree, and though at the time the church refused to officially recognize any of the apparently miraculous events or the children who claimed to witness them, the location continued to serve as an unofficial

site of pilgrimage to thousands of local Catholics. As for the children, in the aftermath of the Miracle of the Sun, they became celebrities throughout Portugal and continued to be harassed in the street, either by those who refused to believe them or by supporters who wanted them to make requests of the Virgin Mary on their behalf. Of the three of them, Francisco seemed the most affected by the unusual fame.

Perhaps it was simply the insistence from Lucia that he and Jacinta would be taken to Heaven soon that preoccupied him, or merely the sheer fact that Mary had supposedly been visiting them from heaven. Either way, the events had left a profound mark. When asked a few months after Mary's apparent last visit what he wanted to be when he grew up, the nine year old boy replied simply that he wanted to die and go to heaven. It was as though he already had an understanding of something that

was about to come. Haskell County in Kansas, USA lies just under five thousand miles west of the village of Algustrel. It was there in January nineteen eighteen that local physician, doctor Loring Minor, noticed large numbers of his patients being struck down by an unusually virulent strain of flu, and

then they began to die. Over the next few months, all Army personnel from Heskil County who were due to be shipped off to Europe to fight in the Great War reported to Camp Funston, about three hundred miles away, and it was there on the morning of March eleventh that Army cook Albert Gitchell reported to the Camp Funstone Hospital complaining of a severe saw throat and a high fever. Soon, hundreds of fellow soldiers from the same camp started presenting

at the hospital with similar symptoms. An estimated eighty four thousand US troops left for Europe in March, with another one hundred and eighteen thousand crossing the Atlantic the following month, and before long, similar flu like symptoms were being seen all over Europe. As the seriousness of the virus became apparent to many of the countries currently engaged in the war, news of just how lethal it was proving to be

was suppressed by their respective governments. In Spain, however, whose government remained neutral throughout the conflict, there was no such censorship, being one of the few countries that wrote openly about it. What may well have actually started in the United States subsequently became known as the Spanish Flu, though there are conflicting theories as to where it originated exactly, with some believing it may have been already present in trenches in

France as far back as nineteen sixteen. Albert Gitchel, who survived his brush with it, is often cited as the first known individual to contract it. The flu would eventually go on to kill six hundred and seventy five thousand Americans, with anywhere between twenty to fifty million people estimated to have died worldwide from it, with five hundred million thought to have contracted it at some point, equal to a

quarter of the world's population at the time. Among those who contracted it in October nineteen eighteen were nine year old Francisco and seven year old Jacinta Marto. On April fourth, nineteen nineteen, having suffered from various complications in the wake

of contracting the flu, Francisco Marto died. It would take another eight months before Jacinta two succumbed to the infection, having suffered terribly from bronchial pneumonia and abscesses on the membranes of her chest as a consequence of catching the virus. She died on February twentieth, twenty at the age of nine,

as the last remaining of the three children. Just as Mary had apparently predicted, Lucia dos Santos, only twelve years old at the time, was left not only shoulder the burden of their incredible story, but also to be the sole bearer of the grave and profound secret that she and her cousins had apparently been tasked with keeping Amazingly, though she had the support of thousands behind her, few in her hometown, including her family, actually believed her and

her cousin's story. As such, it was decided in nineteen twenty one by the Diocese of Laria, which oversees the parish of Fatima, to have her enrolled at the School of the Sisters of Saint Dorothy in Villa near Porto, while the church made arrangements to have her apparent communication with the Virgin Mary officially investigated. For most of her time training and preparing to become a nun, Lucia refused

to disclose the secret. However, for the church to make an official judgment of all that she claimed had happened, it was essential that she shared it, and so in nineteen forty one, with great reluctance, she finally revealed it, or at least part of it. As it turned out, According to Lucia, writing in a memoir in nineteen forty one, it wasn't just one secret they'd been given, but three. The first secret was revealed to have been a vision

of Hell. It was this that Lucia had apparently seen on the July thirteenth visitation, when her face had been seen to drain of color and a look of abject terror came over her. The second secret was a warning that although the Great War that was raging at the time would end, if people did not stop offending God, a far more terrible war would eventually break out, with the Virgin Mary having a particular concern over the state

of Russia. According to Lucia back in July nineteen seventeen, the Virgin Mary was concerned that russias slide toward a new type of government in the wake of the nineteen seventeen Revolution would only serve to cause further suffering throughout the world. Lucia refused, however, to reveal the third secret until nineteen forty three, when, after a bout of severe flew, perhaps fearing that she might die before it was ever disclosed,

she was ordered to reveal it by her superiors. The third Secret was finally written down in nineteen forty four and delivered to the Bishop of Laria, who was said to have been so troubled by it he hung on to it for thirteen years before eventually sending it on to his superiors at the Vatican. Then controversially. In nineteen sixty, the Vatican, having allegedly been so troubled by it, too, released a statement saying that it was most probable that

the secret would remain forever under absolute seal. To find out more about the secrets than to hear the incredible story of what happened next listening to next week's Unexplained extra until then. If you enjoy Unexplained and would like to help support us, you can now do so via Patreon. To receive access to add free episodes, just go to

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