The devotion of the First Five Saturdays
in the form given by the bishop of Leiria on 13 September 1939.

The translation from Portuguese of the two first articles

concerning the service of the First Five Saturdays

The voice of Fatima, XVIII year, Fatima, 13 October 1939, No 205, p. 1.

Voz da Fátima, Ano XVIII, Fátima, 13 de Outubra de 1939, N.°205, p. 1.

Translation, comment, and internet adaptation:

Dr. Wojciech Kosek

The date of this publication: 17 September 2013.

The translation was corrected on 2 June 2022.

To compare the translation text with the original text and its photo – click, please!

Contents:

1. Wojciech Kosek, Commentary – the comparison of the confirmed form of the service with this which is unrighteously propagated.
2. Two articles from Voz da Fátima, 13 October 1939, p. 1:

• Without an author, The Reparation to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. The practice of the First Five Saturdays – here is published the form of devotion the Bishop of Leiria approved.
• Visconde de Montelo, The Pilgrimage on 13 September – here is the fragment describing the act of the bishop of Leiria, who officially published the devotion of the First Five Saturdays.

1. Wojciech Kosek, Commentary

On 13 September 1939, in Fátima, the bishop of Leiria, officially proclaiming the service of the First Five Saturdays, steered it to reparation for God, who is continuously insulted by offenses and blasphemies. This direction is visible in the below-placed translation of the article published in the Voice of Fatima (Voz da Fátima) one month after that event, so important for the development of the Fatima cult, took place.

The piety devotion directed to consoling Mary, which she asks in her apparitions, must be understood as the devotion directed to console God, particularly the Lord Jesus. It is such because the thorns that hurt the Immaculate Heart of Mary are an image of Her suffering along with Jesus, who is the One who suffers above all, as is visible in the dramatic scene on Calvary – Mary suffers because God in Jesus is deadly insulted – He is being killed by us!

Because also if we console God by the renovation of our spiritual life, i.e., if we go to confession, receive Holy Communion, recite five decades of the Rosary, and bear company for Mary for fifteen minutes, while meditating in the 15 mysteries of the Rosary, in union with God and with Mary, joined with Her suffering Son, we comply with the thirst of the Immaculate Heart Mary. At that time, do we first and foremost this what the God himself wishes.

Unfortunately, one ought to notice with the pain of the heart that it is a fruit of many believers and priests’ disobedience to the decision of the bishop of Leiria on 13 September 1939 that the form of Fatima’s devotion of the First Five Saturdays has in the universal pastoral practice nowadays.

Nowadays, many believers and their different communities practice the devotion of the First Five Saturdays as separated from this holy relation to God and, especially, to Jesus who is suffering, which the bishop of Leiria set and bestowed as an official interpretation of this devotion!

Influenced by the never-recognized-by-Church private apparitions, which Sister Lucia had after 1917, the practice of the First Five Saturdays was narrowed to reparation for five kinds of insults committed against Mary. These unrecognized apparitions include, in particular, the one in Tuy, which took place in 1930, that is, immediately before the official declaration of the truthfulness of Mary’s apparitions in Fatima, when the Bishop of Leiria made it clear which apparitions he was allowed to recognize as true ones – those that took place in Fatima from 13 May to 13 October 1917! [1].

Neither the official act of the bishop of Leiria nor the official act of the Apostolic See was given to confirm that God was really the source of the private revelation in Tuy in 1930. Fatima’s message shows the need for reparation to the Merciful God and Immaculate Mary, joined with Him in suffering, for all the sins which are simply disobedience in the face of God (cf. Gen 3:1-6). So in agreement with Fatima’s message, it is necessary to undertake an effort to restore for that splendid “Fatima awakening of Church” this Christocentric direction that was officially imposed on it by the bishop of Leiria on 13 September 1939 and which, after all, was not canceled by any authority of Church in the way provided by the canonical law. Through our submission and obedience to the Saint Church of Christ, we must reparate to God for every sinful disobedience and every rebellion that is a blasphemy against our loving God and our loving Mother Mary, who loves us with Him.

2. Without an author, The Reparation to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. The practice of the First Five Saturdays, in:
Voz da Fátima, Ano XVIII, Fátima, 13 de Outubra de 1939 N.°205, p. 1.
(Voice of Fatima, 13 October 1939)

Offenses made to children embitter their good mothers more than those made to them. The same happens with the most loving Heart of Mary Immaculate.

Mother of Jesus – offenses against Her Divine Son deeply hurt Her Heart. That is why on Calvary, at the foot of the Cross, there was the Mother, Our Lady of Sorrows.

Our Mother – entrusted by Jesus in His testament during His agony; therefore, the hatred, the evil that people commit against each other are real offenses against the Heavenly Mother. That the Heart of the Blessed Virgin was immensely hurt is seen in the words She said to Sister Lucia of Jesus; they are as follows:

‘Look, My daughter, at My Heart surrounded by the thorns with which ungrateful men at every moment pierce Me through their blasphemies and ingratitude. You, at least, try to console Me and tell that I promise to assist, at the hour of death, with the graces necessary for their salvation, all those who, on the First Saturday of five consecutive months, go to the confession, receive Holy Communion, recite five decades of the Rosary and made Me company for fifteen minutes while meditating on the mysteries of the Rosary in order to make reparation to Me.’

Hence the devotion of the Five Saturdays of consecutive months.

What does it consist of?

It consists of the confession, the receiving Holy Communion, reciting the Rosary, and meditating for a quarter of an hour on the mysteries of the Rosary.

Comments

• 1o Confession can be made within eight days that precede or follow the first Saturday, as long as one receives Holy Communion in the state of grace.
• 2o Meditation can be done during the fifteen minutes when you recite the five decades of the Rosary, meditating on its mysteries.

The reason for this devotion

This devotion flows naturally from the apparitions in Fatima in 1917. It is the Heart of Mary, pained by the loss of so many souls, that brought Her from Heaven to Cova da Iria to talk with small shepherds.

She appeared and spoke to the children – unapproachably beautiful, but with the sad smile, as it is at the Mother full of bitterness. She gave them instructions for believers not only of Portugal but also of the whole world.

It is so little for what Our Lady asks us!…

Who will not want to listen to this?

Blessed and praised be the Immaculate Heart of Mary!

Visconde de Montelo, The Pilgrimage on 13 September, in:
Voz da Fátima, Ano XVIII, Fátima, 13 de Outubra de 1939 N.°205, p. 1.
(Voice of Fatima, 13 October 1939)

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After the first procession with the venerated statue of Our Lady of Fatima, the rev. Canon dr. Manuel celebrated the Mass of patients.

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