Three shepherd children tending sheep near the Portuguese village of Fátima reported six apparitions of a lady "brighter than the sun," who identified herself as "the Lady of the Rosary." Her message was consistent across the visits: pray the Rosary daily, do penance for the conversion of sinners, and, in a request that would carry enormous geopolitical weight decades later, that Russia be consecrated to her Immaculate Heart.
On October 13, 1917, roughly 70,000 people gathered at the apparition site, many drawn by rumors of a promised miracle. Witnesses, including secular journalists hostile to the claims, reported the sun appearing to spin, change color, and plunge toward the earth before returning to its place, an event now known as the Miracle of the Sun.
The Fátima apparitions left behind three "secrets," the last of which, concerning an attempt on the life of a pope, was not published by the Vatican until 2000, after Pope John Paul II survived his own 1981 assassination attempt on May 13, the anniversary of the first apparition. Sister Lúcia, the last surviving visionary, lived until 2005 and left behind four memoirs that remain the primary written record of the events.