Pope Pius XII granted a pontifical decree of canonical coronation via the papal bull Celeberrima solemnia towards the venerated image on 25 April The children described her as "a Lady more brilliant than the Sun". The children reported a prophecy that prayer would lead to an end to the Great War , and that on 13 October that year the Lady would reveal her identity and perform a miracle "so that all may believe.
The children's accounts were deeply controversial, drawing intense criticism from both local secular and religious authorities. A provincial administrator briefly took the children into custody, believing the prophecies were politically motivated in opposition to the officially secular First Portuguese Republic established in On 13 May , the shepherd children reported seeing a woman "brighter than the sun, shedding rays of light clearer and stronger than a crystal goblet filled with the most sparkling water and pierced by the burning rays of the sun.
She asked them to devote themselves to the Holy Trinity and to pray "the Rosary every day, to bring peace to the world and an end to the war". Jacinta's disbelieving mother told neighbors about it as a joke, and within a day the whole village knew of the children's vision. The children said the woman told them to return to the Cova da Iria on 13 June The second appearance occurred on 13 June, the feast of Saint Anthony , patron of the local parish church.
During the June visit, the children said the lady told them to say the Holy Rosary daily in honor of Our Lady of the Rosary to obtain peace and the end of the Great War. Three weeks earlier, on 21 April, the first contingent of Portuguese soldiers had embarked for the front lines of the war.
The lady also purportedly revealed to the children a vision of hell, and entrusted a secret to them, described as "good for some and bad for others". I don't want more. He believed that these events were politically disruptive in the conservative country.
