Fatima: The 'Beautiful Lady' Vision and Connections to Revelations 12

CHAPTER TWELVE of the Book of Revelations says that, during the supposed Endtimes --

"And a great portent appeared in heaven, a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars..."

Now, it is all-important to appreciate that the reason God gives us signs is to stir belief. We must believe in order to be saved from Satan and hell.

The greatest proof-sign of this kind was of course the bodily Resurrection and Ascension of Jesus Christ; God gave us this extraordinary sign (and many others recorded in the New Testament) in order to assure mankind of the truth of the New Testament and of its inspiration by the Spirit.

Now, the Fatima apparition is a perfect "updating" and re-affirmation of Christ's Resurrection and Ascension. If God can cause the sun to gyrate in the sky before 70,000 witnesses, and to descend and re-ascend miraculously, then God also surely lifted Jesus into Heaven to reign there with Him. This critical re-affirmation of the Christ narrative is the primary significance of the Fatima event !

note: For your convenience, the Book of Revelation chapters 12-19 are at this link. (large file !)

MANY FATIMA COMMENTATORS have thought that the "sign" mentioned in Rev. 12, which apparently refers to the mother of Christ, was prophetically fulfilled by what was indeed a "great heavenly sign" at Fatima; thereby these commentators believe that the Beautiful Lady at Fatima was indeed the Virgin Mary.

For one example of this interpretation, in May 1967, Pope Paul VI concurred in an apostolic exhortation that--

"The great sign which the Apostle John saw in Heaven, 'a woman clothed with the sun,' is interpreted by the sacred Liturgy, not without foundation, as referring to the most Blessed Mary, the Mother of all men by the grace of Christ the Redeemer."

The passage in Rev. goes on to say of Her that:

"She was with child and she cried out in her pangs of birth, in anguish for delivery."

Of this point, a papal theologian and future cardinal, Fr. Ciappi, O.P., wrote in 1977:

"The apocalyptic image of the woman glowing with the sun's light may well be applied to the person of the Mother of God, seen by the beloved apostle as crowned with twelve stars and at the same time crying as she laboured in birth."

But the "sign" significance goes beyond a confirmation of Christ's Advent, to reveal to us and to reaffirm that Christ and God are engaging in a momentous battle on earth, against evil. The Book of Rev. continues:

"And another portent appeared in heaven; behold, a great red dragon, with seven heads and ten horns, and seven diadems upon his heads.

"His tail swept down a third of the stars of heaven, and cast them to the earth.

"And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to bear a child, that he might devour her child when she brought it forth."

This is a powerful cosmic figure, which compels our attempt at interpretation, especially in light of Fatima.

One question may come to your mind concerning the anachronistic or dreamlike quality of this revelatory timeframe. John's vision looks back in time at the birth and life of Christ -- and yet, simultaneously, and quite explicitly, he also sees a future event. Or, one might ask: Is John seeing a timeless or ongoing spiritual event that occurs beyond the bounds of space-time?

What is crucial here, is to decipher the image of the catastrophic Fall, in which one-third of the angels ally with Satan in a rebellion, and are cast out of Heaven by God.

For the modern mind this mythological language is probably hard to believe as literal fact. However, through my own years of spiritual study and reflection, and especially from my reading of many near-death visions (elsewhere on my web site), I've come to realize that there truly is a diabolical and monstrously evil metaphysical phenomenon on earth. It is anti-human and Christ-despising; yet it somehow infects, corrupts and takes-over the minds of people, who then imitate evil, whether consciously or unconsciously, and join its fold.

In John's vision, the Dragon and his fallen angels menaced the Woman so as to destroy her child. This same infanticide motif was developed in the Gospel narrative concerning Herod's mass-murder of Bethlehemites and others under the age of two (Matt. 2.16) in order to assure the killing of the Christ child .

Jesus, throughout his ministry, fought against incarnate spiritual evil, confronting Satan himself directly. We must grasp the utter centrality of this battle, in the life and mission of Jesus.

Early Christian theology seems to have concluded that Jesus ultimately won these battles decisively (e.g., 2 Co. 5, Eph 4.8). The apparent "defeat" against Christ on the Cross was overturned spectacularly, as "Death was swallowed up in victory" in the Resurrection.

Now, however, we read in John's Apocalyptic Revelation, a timeframe strongly suggesting that the spiritual battle is still ongoing. In fact, the text makes is clear that Christ's followers are today being "called up for service" as if drafted to fight in a continuous, spiritual War Effort.

This message about a necessary, collective, lifelong struggle against Evil is confirmed again and again throughout the New Testament. Jesus won his lifelong confrontation with Satan; now, so must each of us.

With this understanding in mind, we can reconsider the Fatima vision in the correct larger context of a War in Heaven, as alluded to in Revelations. In my view, the Fatima event serves as a strategic spiritual breakthrough for the entire world, and particularly Christians. In it we have a powerful and almost unstoppable reinforcement to help in our private and personal, as well as our collective battles with Satan.

In fact, the combined effect of the Fatima Event -- which is of course undeniable and historically CERTAIN -- together with proliferating testimonies og near-death Christic and Heavenly visions and with other large-scale Marian apparitions, now give each of us overwhelming reason to Believe in God. And, armed with stronger faith than ever before, we can receive spiritual aid to FIGHT God's enemy, with greater resolve than ever.

These particular spiritual "reinforcements" are so timely because the world has also simultaneously entered an era of unprecedented capacity for evil. The past century has witnessed vast destructiveness, and above all, the advent of large-scale organized political oppression bringing great misery (primarily, from Communism and now globalization). Those who clam faith in Christ must stand firm in the Struggle to assist Christ in delivering to the world his Gospel of Salvation.

Indeed, this profound spiritual conflict between the Serpent and the Saints -- now joined by the Hosts of Heaven -- is occurring all around us in our times!

The Book of Revelation says that the Woman gave birth to a son, presumably Jesus, who then ascended to Heaven. (v. 5) -- expressing all of this, of course, in the past tense. The Woman then fled into a Wilderness place prepared for her, for 1,260 days. (v.6)

Next, "A war arose in Heaven" between the angelic hosts of Michael and those of the Serpent ("called the Devil and Satan," v. 9), which were defeated in Heaven and cast down to earth, there to become --

"The deceiver of the whole world..." (v. 9)

Now, in effect the Great Battle shifts from heaven and the past tense, down to earth and the present era; and it occurs between those expelled members of the "Deceiver species"(who are somehow reincarnated here), and others, who are willing to stand and oppose this evil deceiving force.

What, then, is the nature of this battle?

From the New Testament Gospels we find the recurring theme: incarnate Satan engages in pervasive lying, deception and accusation. And, speaking purely on historical grounds and not on theological or polemical terms, this has in fact has been occurring in the Satanic religions, which advocate and practice intense deception.

And, moreover, Satanic ideologies of many kinds have programmatically been engaging in what I personally view as the making of monstrous and false allegations against innocent peoples. Often this occurs in demagogic so-called "liberation" rhetoric, in which groups of people (often Christians) and the "bourgeoisie," or "male oppressors," etc., are crudely defamed, out of sheer mindless hatred.

This Satanic behavior is referred to in the next passage of Revelation:

"... the accuser of our brethren has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God." (Rev. 12.10)

However, now the Good News:

"And I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying,

'Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come... And [the brethren] have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death."

"Rejoice then, O heaven and you that dwell therein! But woe to you, O earth and sea, for the devil has come down to you in great wrath, because he knows that his time is short!" (v. 10-11)

My interpretation of this is that those who want to be saved must in effect "enter Heaven" by practicing ascetic withdrawal from worldly entanglements, and by meditating on Christ and Heavenliness, day and night, through spiritual discipline. (Yes, it IS possible to "overcome" Satan's earth -- e.g., Rev. 6, 11, 13 etc.)

Next, the vision in Revelations portrays the Dragon pursuing the Woman; but she receives wings and escapes. (v. 13-14).

The Dragon opens a flood to drown her, but the earth rescues her (v. 14)

Enraged, the Dragon makes "war on the rest of her offspring, on those who keep the commandments of God and bear testimony to Jesus..." (v 17)

Alas, the Beast prevails. But in the end, after a struggle described for many chapters, the earth is saved.

Several astounding parallels between Fatima and the biblical Revelation can be seen, such as war, great suffering and persecutions. To me, these passages might easily relate to the great persecution of the Church foretold by Our Lady on 13 July 1917. She announced that a formidable enemy of God would rise up in Russia (i.e., the stronghold of Communistic lying and slandering) and that it would "spread its errors throughout the world, raising up wars, revolutions and persecutions against the Church." All of which has come true.

The flight of the woman "clothed with the sun" in Revelation would correspond to this persecution (which was unquestionably the most severe in Church history, costing tens of millions of souls in Russia, Ukraine and other Eastern European nations). Ultimately the power of God would prevail, however: "In the end, my Immaculate Heart will triumph." she promised

Alluding to this theme, Abbe' Andre' Richard, D.D., of Paris wrote in the January-February 1979 edition of Soul magazine:

"As a professional philosopher, what I find most remarkable in the event of Fatima is that it is a heavenly intervention in the history of mankind in order to redirect history. Fatima is . . . an intervention to change the march of the entire caravan of mankind which is on the road to a precipice over which it would inevitably fall unless its route is changed. Fatima concerns not only the pious Christian, but the man in the street -- every man in the world. And as a theologian, what impresses me about Fatima is its reaffirmation of the entire gospel and its emphasis on the source of moral evil: offences against God which today mount even to the ultimate offence of militant atheism. . . "

"How can any of us fail to be conscious of Our Lady appearing in the sky, reminding us of the great sign in chapters 11 and 12 of the Apocalypse? How can any of us consider Fatima to be less than the presentation of that apocalyptic message of Our Lady, dressed with the sun and announcing her triumph over the dragon?"

Several years earlier, Fr. Louis Kondor, S.V.D., a noted theologian and vice-postulator of the causes of Francisco and Jacinta, expressed the same conviction in the July-August 1975 edition of his regular bulletin, Seers of Fatima. "In view of this similarity, which seems a telling fulfillment of Apocalypse 12, who would venture any longer to speak of a private revelation? Fatima is an eschatological sign that reveals the saving victory of the 12th chapter of the Apocalypse." He adds:

"Vatican Council lI spoke much of charisms and of the prophetic mystery of the Church. Relying on these words of the Church, we can consider Fatima as the great eschatological sign given by God to our times, so that we will not deserve the rebuke that Our Lord made to the Jews: 'You know how to read the face of the sky, but you cannot read the signs of the times.' (Matt. 16:4). Fatima is a sign of the times. The lightning flash that preceded each of Mary's apparitions at Fatima is an announcement of the lightning that will flash from east to west before the coming of the Son of Man. (Matt. 24:27). And the remaining atmospheric phenomena which belong to the complexity of Fatima are a presage of those signs in the sun, in the moon and in the stars that Our Lord speaks of in His eschatological discourse. (Luke 21:25). Fatima is a great sign of the times."

Table of Contents