Praying for peace: the Fátima prayers
From Fátima, Portugal, 1916–1917 · about 3 minutes · say the bold lines out loud if you can
Two short prayers three children said they were given, in the middle of a world war, to pray for peace. The prayers come first. The story is below them.
Begin with Jesus’ words
In plain wordsJesus says this at supper on the night before he dies, to friends who are about to be very afraid. The peace he gives is not a world without trouble. It is him, with them, in the middle of it.
27Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid.
John 14:27 · NRSV · Other translations
The prayer of the Angel of Peace
The children said an angel taught them this in 1916. It is spoken to God, for yourself and for everyone who does not yet know God.
My God, I believe, I adore, I hope and I love You! I ask pardon of You for those who do not believe, do not adore, do not hope and do not love You!
The Fátima prayer
From July 1917. Catholics say it after each set of ten prayers in the Rosary. It is spoken to Jesus.
O my Jesus, forgive us, save us from the fire of hell. Lead all souls to Heaven, especially those who are most in need.
For peace in the world
A short prayer for today’s wars. Add the names of places and people you are carrying.
Lord Jesus, you said, “Peace I leave with you.” Look on every place at war today, and on everyone afraid there. Shelter the children. Comfort the ones who grieve. Turn the hearts of leaders toward peace, and make me a peacemaker where I live. Amen.
9“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.
Matthew 5:9 · NRSV · Other translations
The Lord’s Prayer
The prayer Jesus taught. If you learned the traditional words, they’re one tap below.
Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.
Save us from the time of trial and deliver us from evil.
For the kingdom, the power, and the glory are yours,
now and forever. Amen.
Show the traditional form (“Our Father, who art in heaven”)
Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name,
thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread;
and forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those who trespass against us;
and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory,
forever and ever. Amen.
Matthew 6:9–13. Historic text of the Western church. English Language Liturgical Consultation.
Both forms are in current use. Pray whichever one you learned.
The two Fátima prayers are printed in the English translation published by the Shrine of Fátima. The shrine’s account of the apparitions. The prayer for peace in the world was written for this site.
The story of Fátima, 1917
The children. Fátima is a village in the hills of central Portugal. In 1917 three children there looked after their families’ sheep: Lúcia dos Santos, who was ten, and her cousins Francisco and Jacinta Marto, who were eight and seven.
A world at war. The First World War was in its third year. Portugal had joined it in 1916, and its soldiers were being sent to the trenches in France.
The Angel of Peace, 1916. The children later said an angel had appeared to them three times the year before. He called himself the Angel of Peace. He taught them the first prayer on this page.
13 May 1917. In a hollow called the Cova da Iria, the children said a lady of light appeared to them. They said she asked them to pray the Rosary every day “in order to obtain peace for the world, and the end of the war.”
Every month until October. They said she came back on the 13th of each month. On 13 July she gave them the second prayer on this page. In August a local official held the children so they could not go. They said they saw her again a few days later, at a nearby field.
13 October 1917. The children had said there would be a sign. A crowd of somewhere between 30,000 and 100,000 people stood in the rain to see. Many said the sun broke through, spun, changed color and seemed to fall toward the earth. Catholics call it the Miracle of the Sun. Not everyone there saw it, and others have offered natural explanations.
After. The war ended in November 1918. Francisco died in 1919 and Jacinta in 1920, both after the flu pandemic that followed the war. Lúcia became a nun and lived until 2005. The local bishop declared the visions “worthy of belief” in 1930. On 13 May 2017, a hundred years after the first visit, Pope Francis named Francisco and Jacinta saints.
Today. Millions of pilgrims visit Fátima each year. Many still pray these two prayers for peace, as the children did during a war.
How a Lutheran prays these
Fátima is a Catholic story, and this page tells it as one. Even the Catholic Church does not require anyone to believe it. It calls visions like this private revelation, not part of the faith itself.
Lutherans pray to God alone, so we don’t pray the Hail Mary prayers of the Rosary. We honor Mary as the mother of our Lord, and we sing her own song, the Magnificat, at Evening Prayer. The two prayers above are spoken to God and to Jesus. A Lutheran can pray them gladly, beside Catholic neighbors who have prayed them for peace for more than a hundred years.
More on what Lutherans and Catholics share, and where they differ: Lutheran vs. Catholic.