Some thoughts on Sr. Lucia’s vision of the Blessed Trinity
+Feast of the Holy Trinity+
Introduction
In the past, I have expressed serious doubts about the Fatima message as concerns Russia, simply because Pope Pius XII himself expressed these same doubts in his final years, and with good reason. All that we know is that at some point Sr. Lucia dos Santos was replaced with an imposter, but exactly when is not known. Nor can we be certain she was not the victim of coercive persuasion (brainwashing) even before her replacement was installed, presumably upon her death, which might explain some inconsistencies in her statements. It seems best, then, to trust her earlier statements, some of which have either been altered, minimized, misrepresented or never properly assessed. Among these is her vision of the Trinity at Tuy, Spain. Little has been written on the possible meaning of this vision, even though it is striking in three respects. But before addressing these, we want to clear up some possible objections to the vision itself.
Some might object that the image in Sr. Lucy’s vision suggests that the Holy Ghost proceeds only from the Father and not the Son, a heresy condemned by the Church. But this 1455 painting above by Francesco di Steffano (Pesselino), situated over the high altar of the Church of the Holy Trinity in Pistoia, a small city north-west of Florence, Italy, is proof that the Church did not condemn the illustration of the Holy Trinity represented in this fashion. Other such illustrations in Catholic church art worldwide attest to this. And some will object the wound of the lance was inflicted on Christs’ left side, but Holy Scripture does not tell us which side the lance pierced. The right side is more often portrayed, since Ezekiel 47 speaks of water flowing from the right side of the temple. From a tiny trickle of water it increases to become a mighty stream, healing all in its path. The Church treats this as a prophecy of the blood and water issuing from the pierced side of Christ, the true Temple, as it is expressed in the Easter liturgy.
The chalice and the Host
Having addressed these objections, we move on to the three notable qualities of the vision. The first of these, and what will stand out most to those seeing it for the first time, is the Host and chalice suspended under the wound in Christ’s side. From our Lord’s side issues the Sacred Blood and the water (bodily fluids) which symbolizes His union with the Mystical Body, the Church. Sister Lucy does not mention this fact, (stating that she sees only blood from Christ’s head and side dripping on to the Host), but there is most certainly a mingling of the water with the blood. For it is a teaching of the Church, as seen below, that both blood and water flowed from the wound of the lance.
St. Thomas Aquinas wrote, in his Summa Theologica, (III pars q 74, 6-8): “Water ought to be mingled with the wine which is offered in this sacrament. First of all, on account of its institution: for it is believed with probability that our Lord instituted this sacrament in wine tempered with water according to the custom of that country: hence it is written (Proverbs 9:5): ‘Drink the wine which I have mixed for you.
“Secondly, because it harmonizes with the representation of our Lord’s Passion: hence Pope Alexander I says (Ep. 1 ad omnes orth.): ‘In the Lord’s chalice neither wine only nor water only ought to be offered, but both mixed because we read that both flowed from His side in the Passion.’
“Thirdly, because this is adapted for signifying the effect of this sacrament, since as Pope Julius says (Concil. Bracarens iii, Can. 1): ‘We see that the people are signified by the water, but Christ’s blood by the wine. Therefore when water is mixed with the wine in the chalice, the people [are] made one with Christ.’
“Fourthly, because this is appropriate to the fourth effect of this sacrament, which is the entering into everlasting life: hence Ambrose says (De Sacram. v): ‘The water flows into the chalice, and springs forth unto everlasting life.'”
And from St. Cyprian: “For because Christ bore us all, in that He also bore our sins, we see that in the water is understood the people, but in the wine is showed the blood of Christ. But when the water is mingled in the cup with wine, the people [are] made one with Christ, and the assembly of believers is associated and conjoined with Him on whom it believes; which association and conjunction of water and wine is so mingled in the Lord’s cup, that that mixture cannot any more be separated.
“Whence, moreover, nothing can separate the Church — that is, the people established in the Church, faithfully and firmly persevering in that which they have believed — from Christ, in such a way as to prevent their undivided love from always abiding and adhering. Thus, therefore, in consecrating the cup of the Lord, water alone cannot be offered, even as wine alone cannot be offered. For if any one offer wine only, the blood of Christ is dissociated from us; but if the water be alone, the people are dissociated from Christ; but when both are mingled, and are joined with one another by a close union, there is completed a spiritual and heavenly sacrament.”
St John Chrysostom wrote: “There flowed from his side water and blood.” Beloved, do not pass over this mystery without thought; it has yet another hidden meaning, which I will explain to you. I said that water and blood symbolized baptism and the holy Eucharist. From these two sacraments the Church is born: from baptism, “the cleansing water that gives rebirth and renewal through the Holy Ghost and from the holy Eucharist.” The people were made one with Christ on the Cross, when the lance pierced His side, not just daily in the Holy Sacrifice when receiving Holy Communion, the renewal of Christ’s sacrifice. If actual Communion is what the vision was referring to, why didn’t Sr. Lucy’s vision take place above an altar where Holy Mass was being celebrated, with a priest and communicant at the altar rail? But no, the altar in the vision is bare, in all but a very few artistic depictions.
This is much like the vision of the Sacred Species the children saw when the Angel appeared to them before the Fatima apparitions occurred; the significance is unmistakable. Swiss Catholic author Michael Mottet commented in the 1980s: “The abolition of the Perpetual Sacrifice has clearly been predicted in Fatima in the apparition of the Angel of Peace carrying a Host and a Chalice and giving the Most Holy Communion to Lucia, Jacinta and Francisco. This is the clear prediction that a time will come when the Most Holy Communion will descend straight from Heaven and will only be possible under this form. The Faith tells us moreover that this communion of desire is not only possible, but highly desirable, which is indeed normal for the most spiritual of all sacraments, (sacrament meaning mystery),” (“Fatima: Apocalypse?,” Sangre de Cristo Newsnotes, Sept. – Dec., 1989).
Isn’t Sr. Lucy’s vision of the Trinity further confirmation of this?
Our Lady and the Rosary
The second aspect is the presence of Our Lady as she appeared at Fatima. In her vision, Sr. Lucy saw the Host, positioned above a chalice, into which the Sacred Stream flows. Under the Host and chalice, suspended in mid-air, stands Our Lady of Fatima, (the Sorrowful) and Immaculate Mother, but not with a sword piercing her heart. Our Lady, however, is standing on the right side of the Cross, just as she stood at the Passion. She is holding the Rosary and her body is slightly inclined, her hand extended, as if offering it for recitation. Again the Host and Chalice are just to the left of Our Lady. She points to her flaming heart burning with love for us and encircled with thorns, begging for reparation, just as the Head of Her Divine Son is encircled. This positioning and gesture are but further proof that the Holy Sacrifice will be suspended and the faithful will only have recourse to the rosary and the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary. The vision came with a request for reparation — the Five First Saturdays — filling up what is wanting to the Passion of Christ (Col. 1:24).
We read in the Catholic Encyclopedia: “By voluntary submission to His Passion and Death on the Cross, Jesus Christ atoned for our disobedience and sin. He thus made reparation to the offended majesty of God for the outrages which the Creator so constantly suffers at the hands of His creatures. We are restored to grace through the merits of Christ’s Death, and that grace enables us to add our prayers, labours, and trials to those of Our Lord “and fill up those things that are wanting…” Just as Christ made reparation to His Father, so also must we make reparation to Him and His holy Mother. We must atone for our disobedience and sin, but first we must understand what it has cost us.
Antichrist was given the power to take away the Holy Sacrifice and to destroy the papacy; this we read in the Book of Daniel. “And the little horn was magnified even unto the strength of heaven and it was magnified even to the Prince of the strength: AND IT TOOK AWAY FROM HIM THE CONTINUAL SACRIFICE AND CAST DOWN THE PLACE OF HIS SANCTUARY. And strength was given him against the continual sacrifice BECAUSE OF SINS: and truth shall be cast down on the ground, and he shall do and shall prosper” (Dan. 8: 9-12). Who is this Prince of strength? In his commentary on verses 10 and 12, Rev. Leo Haydock identifies them as the Jewish high priests: “…Many priests gave way to idolatry…The sacrifices were neglected… Ambitious pontiffs kept not their promises.” It was the sins of the Jewish hierarchy, but also the people, “the strength of heaven,” who Haydock refers to as the “army of the Jews, the people of God.” And so it was the faithless Catholic hierarchy, and those meant to be soldiers of Christ, who in our time likewise brought on the destruction of the Church.
This image is a representation of the Passion of the Church, for any who have eyes to see. Christ entrusted the Church to His mother at the foot of the Cross. Her presence in this vision is a warning that the Sacrifice will be suspended because of sins, unless reparation is made for them. It is a virtual invitation to participate in Christ’s Passion. It is also a warning that if a significant number of the faithful would not make this reparation during Pius XI’s reign, as requested, then the Pope would not consecrate Russia, and Russia would spread its errors. It is my belief that the last sentence purportedly conveyed to the children during the third apparition was later added to the original locution received by the children. Remember, this message was not revealed until Dec. 8, 1941. By then, WWII had already begun, with its ensuing chaos. Enemy agents already had infiltrated the Church.
That message read: “IF MY REQUESTS ARE HEARD Russia will be converted and there will be peace. If not, she will spread her errors throughout the entire world fomenting wars and persecution of the Church. The good will suffer martyrdom; the Holy Father will suffer much; different nations will be annihilated. But in the end my Immaculate Heart shall triumph. The Holy Father will consecrate Russia to me, which will be converted, and some time of peace will be granted to humanity.” This last sentence is suspect, and I believe that Pope Pius XII considered it suspect as well. The time for the consecration and Russia’s conversion ended with the reign of Pope Pius XI, for before his death, already the “night illumined by an unknown light” had appeared on Jan. 25, 1938. The pope died in 1939. Also, the last sentence contradicts what our Lord later told Sr. Lucy in 1943. This will be addressed below.
Graces and mercy
The third aspect of the vision is the graces and mercies descending in crystalline rivulets to the left of the Cross, the water flowing from the right side of the Temple in Ezekiel 47. We also are put in mind of the verse in Apocalypse 21: 6-7: “And he said to me: It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. To him that thirsteth I will give of the fountain of the water of life gratis. He that shall overcome shall possess these things and I will be his God, and he shall be my son.” Rev. Haydock comments on this as follows: “The state of Christ’s Church on earth and in this world is now finished and the time is come to reward the good and punish the wicked. The living water is God himself of which the Saints shall be inebriated at the source…” The vision is of Christ’s Sacred Body hanging from the cross following His death. Yet He continues to provide sustenance to His Church on earth through the merits of His Body and Blood — Blood mingled with water.
We find reference to this “inebriation at the source” in Rev. Henry Semple’s Heaven Open to Souls, where he cites Rev. Von Driesch: “To give you confidence in your ability to make acts of perfect contrition, you must be reminded that for many thousand years before the time of our Lord, in the old law, perfect contrition was the only means whereby men could obtain forgiveness of sins and enter heaven. And, at the present time, there are many millions of heathens and heretics, and all of these who are saved will be saved only and entirely by perfect contrition.” Semple then comments: “The great Dominican theologian, Melchior Cano, was present in the Council of Trent and took a leading part in its discussions…He writes: ”In the Sacraments of the old law, there was no other merit but that of faith… [this] by itself was enough for the remission of sins.” The living water is the inebriating symbol of that source.
The graces and mercies we receive can be likened to this image found in a Roman church. Salvation comes from Christ’s sacrificial death on the Cross into the Church, founded on the Rock of St. Peter. And from this Rock flow the rivers of salvation from which the faithful drink. Sister Lucy’s vision of the Trinity reminds us that while the earthly renewal of Christ’s Sacrifice on the Cross may be suspended, the means of salvation are yet available to the faithful. In the words of St. Cyprian, “…nothing can separate the Church — that is, the people established in the Church, faithfully and firmly persevering in that which they have believed — from Christ, in such a way as to prevent their undivided love from always abiding and adhering.” The Church’s time on earth is ”done.” It is left to us remaining to be those overcomers mentioned in Apoc. 21 and to drink of the living water of graces and mercy that is now the Perfect Act of Contrition and Spiritual Communion.
The Fatima Consecration was “TOO late”
Sister Lucy related that she also received “an intimate communication” from our Lord shortly after the Tuy vision occurred. “Our Lord complained to me saying: “They did not wish to heed my request, like the King of France. They will repent and do it, but it will be late. Russia will have already spread her errors throughout the world, provoking wars, and persecutions of the Church; the Holy Father will have much to suffer.” This is the translation of that message printed in every book I have ever examined regarding Fatima and in every Internet translation. In their recent works on Fatima, Robert Sungenis and Taylor Marshall both report that the actual wording is “TOO late” (see HERE). Why after all these years would they report differently? Well there is a very good answer to that question, and it applies to more than one of the Fatima iterations as conveyed by Sr. Lucy. This is just one of the mistranslations referred to above.
The actual reference, however, appears in yet another mistranslated text. The Portuguese words as relayed by Sr. Lucy in letters to Rev. Fr. José Bernardo Gonçalves May 18, 1936, were at one time reported on a website page that is now no longer accessible. They read in Portuguese: [Lucy] Nas cartas para o Rev. P. José Bernardo Gonçalves, S. J. , afirmou ela, em 18-5- 1936: “Mas, meu Deus, o Santo Padre não me há-de crer, se Vós mesmos o não moveis com uma inspiração especial.” [Jesus]: “O Santo Padre: Ora muito pelo Santo Padre. Ele há-de fazê-la, (a consagração da Rússia), mas será tarde.”
The English translation of these letters to Rev. Gonçalves, S.J. reads:
Sister Lucia: “But, my God, the Holy Father will not believe me if you yourself do not move him with a special inspiration.”
Jesus: “The Holy Father… Pray much for the Holy Father. He will do it (the consecration of Russia), but it will be late.”
Yet these Portuguese words, when entered into numerous translation programs, (ImTranslator, Translitz, Translationly, Online translation pro, Translate, Free translations) all translate these last two words as “TOO LATE.” And if anyone would think for one moment about the translation of the words of Our Lord regarding the King of France, they immediately would know that this communication also was deliberately mistranslated. The King of France, Louis XIV, refused to consecrate France to the Sacred Heart, as Christ requested through St. Margaret Mary Alacoque in 1689. King Louis XV also ignored the request and died of smallpox after traveling with his mistress to participate in a hunt. One hundred years after St. Margaret Mary Alacoque’s request, Louis XVI, having never performed the consecration, lost both his kingdom and his life during the French Revolution. It was definitely too late for her kings to save France as a Catholic country. And it boded ill for the kings of the Church as well.
Pope Pius XI died under suspicious circumstances without ever making the consecration. And the purpose of that consecration died with him. Poor Pope Pius XII tried to make good on his predecessor’s omission, but he had much to suffer. He fought Communism up to the time of his death, but the damage had already been done; it was too late. As reported on this site a few years ago, there is very little about Fatima that can be trusted after about the mid-1940s, when it is thought that the real Sr. Lucy passed away, to be replaced by a series of imposters. And even some of her comments before then are suspect. It is most likely that, relatively uneducated and therefore more vulnerable, Sr. Lucy was expertly subjected to coercive persuasion, especially since she was indeed a simple peasant girl and wished only to be obedient to her superiors. And to be fair, it is most likely that she knew nothing of the mistranslations.
Pope Pius XII suspected there was something amiss about the Russia consecration and was most likely poisoned after discovering the imposture and possible additions/alterations to the Fatima message, among other troubling revelations regarding Montini (see HERE). Perhaps, seeing his firm stance against ecumenism, he was alerted by the alleged change in the prayer between the decades. For this too was the victim of mistranslation and, it would appear, deliberate alteration.
Fatima prayer between the decades
This is from yet another website, no longer available for viewing: “We have been alerted to the fact of a troubling alteration in the prayer given by Our Lady to the three seers of Fatima, to be recited after each decade of the Rosary. The most common form of this prayer today is the following: “O my Jesus, forgive us our sins, save us from the fires of Hell, lead all souls to heaven, especially those most in need of Thy mercy.”
“This form of the prayer, however, is very different from that given in the earliest book on the Fatima apparitions, written by Fr. Manuel Nunes Formigão, under the pseudonym of\Visconde de Montello, Os episodios maravilhosos de Fátima (1921), and subsequently in many novenas and devotional works approved by ecclesiastical authorities through the 1950s. Fr. Formigão was in charge of interrogating the seers, including Lucia dos Santos, who received the prayer from Our Lady on July 13, 1917. According to Formigão’s account, the prayer should read: “O my Jesus, pardon us, deliver us from the fire of Hell, and relieve the souls in Purgatory, especially the most abandoned.” We have also found a letter, written by Lucia, giving the original text of the prayer below.
“According to this letter, the original words of the prayer are as follows in Portuguese: O meu Jesus, perdoai-nos e livrai-nos do fogo do inferno, levai as alminhas todas para o Ceu, principalmente aquelas que mais precisarem.” In English, this may be translated as: O my Jesus, forgive us and save us from the fire of Hell, lead all little souls toward Heaven, especially those who are most in need.” It is our understanding, that the word “alminhas”, literally, “little souls,” is an idiom in Portuguese for the souls in Purgatory, similar to the phrase in English, “Poor Souls.” This interpretation is supported by the fact that the priest responsible for questioning Lucia, Fr. Formigão, a native speaker of Portuguese, transcribed this part of the prayer as a petition for the relief of the souls in Purgatory (see scan from Formigao book below).
“It is alleged that Lucia, long after the fact, corrected the wording of the prayer to refer to “all souls,” rather than to the souls in Purgatory. The earliest first versions of the prayer with the revised wording, to our knowledge, began to appear twenty to thirty years after the apparitions.”
And of course that would fit in with the timeline for the appearance of the Sr. Lucy imposters. According to his work, Our Lady of Fatima, on July 15,1946, the author William Thomas Walsh interviewed Sr. Lucy in her convent in Vilar and it was at this time that she corrected the prayer to read: “Oh my Jesus, pardon us and save us from the fire of Hell. Draw all souls to heaven, especially those in most need.” Sr. Lucy told Walsh she “corrected” it in her memoirs because it had previously been misreported. But what about her letter then to Rev. Goncalves?! And if that, then what else? Was she persuaded to change it? Ordered? Threatened? Certainly the sudden appearance of her “replacement” suggests something was afoot. Can we still recite the original prayer that she recited to Rev. Formigao?
It seems we can, for it is duly imprimatured and indulgenced, according to this 1947 booklet, available online HERE. Perhaps the question should be asked why, if it was not accurate, that the prayer was ever indulgenced in the first place, and why the author felt both prayers should be included in his booklet? If Pope Pius XII approved the booklet, wouldn’t that be enough to assure the recitation of the original version? And given that G. B. Montini issued the announcement of the pope’s blessing, might it not have served his own purposes well, seeing that the prayer between the decades was “corrected”?
Now more than ever, it is important that we say this prayer between the decades, since the most powerful means of freeing the souls in Purgatory in the past, Holy Mass, has been lost to us. It seems right to assume that this is the reason that it was given to the seers in the first place. And since the Rosary is one of the most indulgenced prayers we can offer, it is the best choice for freeing our loved ones from Purgatory or relieving their suffering there.
If we had never known what we know now about Fatima and the destruction of the Church, these discrepancies wouldn’t matter. But we can’t very well “unknow” it. We know what the changing of one word did to the consecration of the wine in the Latin Mass, and what the omission of qualifying adjectives can accomplish. The La Salette message was similarly attenuated, and the seers harangued and harassed for years. Melanie Calvat’s own confessor even added to and twisted her accounts of the message and printed them; at least one of these accounts was condemned by the Holy See. So why should anyone be surprised now, with the enemy fully in control of things, that these deceptions have become so obvious?
Our Lord’s last message
The last known communication of our Lord to Sr. Lucy occurred in 1943. He expressed his joy at Pope Pius XII’s 1942 consecration but said it was not complete. World War II would end, He told her, but Russia would not yet be converted. In this last message He defined exactly what type of penance and reparation Fatima demanded. “The sacrifice demanded of everyone is the fulfillment of his duties in life and the observance of My law. This is the penance that I now seek and require.” Our Lord complained bitterly to Sr. Lucy that so few would be willing to make whatever sacrifices the observance of His law would require. (From the book Fatima or World Suicide, Rt. Rev. Wm. C. McGrath, P.A., 1950). And if this is the true message of Fatima, the real secret to fulfilling Our Lady’s wishes and those of her Son, then it is no wonder we have lost the visible Church. God’s law can only translate as the 10 Commandments and the laws enacted over the centuries by His vicars, for “He who hears you, hears Me.” And of course Christ already knew how few would obey these laws and fulfill the duties of their chosen vocations.
This final message seems to indicate that a rough road lay ahead for the faithful. It almost sounds as though Catholics were being called to white martyrdom, which indeed was the case. This final communication, coupled with the vision at Tuy, has been scarcely mentioned and never explained, unlike the rest of the message regarding the consecration and Russia’s conversion. And of course there is a reason for this — they do not wish to consider the real import of the message or its consequences.
Conclusion
In this author’s opinion, the Holy Trinity is portrayed in the Tuy vision as a pictorial presentation of the third secret. The Trinity will always be with us, just as the Three Persons were with the people of Israel prior to their defection — God the Father, Christ the (coming) Messiah and the Shekinah, or Holy Ghost. If we truly keep the faith, the Holy Trinity will send the streams of grace and mercy we need to save our souls, just as they did in Old Testament times, before there was a pope, a Mass or the sacraments. Sr. Lucy may have been granted this vision because God knew that the message of Fatima would be derailed and corrupted by the enemies of the Church. As St. John Chrysostom says, in the blood and water flowing from Christ’s side, we have Baptism and the Eucharist (Perfect Contrition and Spiritual Communion); these means of salvation cannot be taken from us. Lucy saw only the blood; she did not see (or did not mention) the water. Could it be that this signifies that now only Christ’s Sacrifice on the Cross suffices, because there can be no mingling of the water in the absence of Holy Mass?!
I have no idea who the artists were that painted the vision of Tuy. But in one of the older ones, the one that I have included above, something strange can be seen when it is printed out. Just past the graces and mercy on the left side of the Cross, a faint image can be seen of what appears to be a priest dressed in alb and surplice, his head down, leaving the altar. Go in peace, the Mass has ended. The Church’s time on earth is done. The prince of strength’s sanctuary has been cast down; he who withholdeth has been taken out of the way. “I will strike the Shepherd” and disperse the flock, Christ announces in Matt. 26: 31. And after the pattern of Our Lord, the Holy Father, Pius XII, had much to suffer. God has given us so many indications of the times in which we live, if we only read the signs.
Fatima is merely a private revelation, and as such can be taken as true on human faith or ignored entirely. Many have hijacked and perverted its true meaning for decades. But if it is stripped of its dross, this seemingly prophetic representation of the Holy Trinity may yet be able to confirm what we should already know.
