The Miracle of Our Lady of Fatima

The Miracle of Our Lady of Fatima is a Warner Color feature film made in 1952. It was promoted as a fact-based treatment of the events surrounding the apparitions of Our Lady of Fátima, in Portugal, in 1917. It stars Susan Whitney as Lúcia dos Santos, Sherry Jackson as Jacinta Marto and Sammy Ogg as Francisco Marto, with Gilbert Roland as a fictional character named Hugo, a kindly but agnostic friend of the three children, who rediscovered his faith in God through the Miracle of the Sun. The musical score by Max Steiner received an Academy Award nomination. The film was released on DVD on April 4, 2006. Plot It is 1917. Portugal is feeling the after-effects of a storm of anti-religious sentiment and the violent overthrow of the monarchy and the government in the 5 October 1910 revolution. Churches in Lisbon and the rest of Portugal are boarded up. Many priests, nuns, monks and friars are shown being fingerprinted, photographed and registered as possible criminals before being jailed. The rural town of Fátima is small enough to have escaped much of this persecution; their church remains open, and most of the people are reasonably devout. Watching their flocks and playing in a field outside town on May 15 (the actual date of the first apparition was May 13), Lúcia Santos (Susan Whitney) and her cousins, Jacinta Marto (Sherry Jackson) and Francisco Marto (Sammy Ogg) decide to pray their version of the Rosary by yelling out, "Hail Mary!" but not finishing the prayer. In the midst of this activity, they hear a clap of thunder and see a flash of lightning from a distance. Thinking it is about to rain, the children gather their sheep and head for their homes. Another flash of lightning causes them to run straight into an unusual "cloud of light" surrounding a little tree on which a mysterious Lady stands. Speaking slowly and gently, the Lady asks them to return on the 13th of each month, and to offer their sufferings to God for the salvation of sinners. She entreats them to say the Rosary for world peace. Later, they encounter their agnostic friend Hugo da Silva (Gilbert Roland), who tells them it is best not to reveal the vision to anyone else, but of course on returning home, Jacinta immediately divulges her sightings.