angel visits mary colouring

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Coloring page: angel visits mary at the grave of jesus.

• By funfreecoloringpages in Easter , Holidays

A coloring page depicting the angel visiting Mary at the grave of Jesus can be a powerful educational tool, particularly for children. This image, steeped in deep religious symbolism and significance, can be utilized to explain one of the most pivotal moments in Christian theology. The coloring page of the Angel visiting Mary allows young learners to engage with the narrative in a hands-on, creative way, making learning more effective and fun.

The coloring page can be visually designed with great attention to detail, illustrating the serene scene where an angel from heaven visits Mary at the grave of Jesus. It can capture the moment of divine revelation, the astonishment and yet solace that Mary felt upon seeing the angel. This will not only spark children’s imagination but also stimulate their curiosity about the religious event, prompting them to ask questions and delve deeper into its meaning.

The coloring page of the Angel visiting Mary opens up discussions about faith, resurrection, and the concept of angels in Christianity. It provides a unique opportunity for educators and parents to narrate the story behind the picture. As they color, children can understand the significance of this encounter between Mary and the angel at Jesus’s grave, enhancing their spiritual knowledge in an interactive manner.

Moreover, it isn’t just an educational tool but also a fantastic way to foster creativity and artistic expression. Children can choose their colors, deciding how they wish to portray this sacred moment, which enhances their decision-making skills and boosts their confidence.

This coloring page serves as a multifaceted tool – it is a gateway into understanding profound religious events, a platform for encouraging dialogue, and a canvas for young minds to express their creativity.

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Angel And Mary Coloring Page

This Angel and Mary coloring page shows the Annunciation where the Archangel Gabriel announced to the Blessed Virgin Mary the coming of Jesus.

The feast of the Annunciation is March 25.

This is the same as the feast of the Incarnation, March 25. We also have another Annunciation/Incarnation coloring page .

Nine months later, Jesus was born on Christmas Day, December 25.

The Annunciation is also the topic of the First Joyful Mystery of the Rosary where we pray for an increase in the supernatural virtue of humility.

See the Angelus Prayer below the coloring page.

Ad-free PDF prints 8.5x11" single sided.

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The Angelus Prayer

How to pray the angelus, praying the angelus in a group.

The letter V indicates the person who is reading or leading this prayer when there is someone else to make the responses who is designated by the letter R.

The Angelus is often prayed with other people present and is led by one person.

• A priest praying with a congregation.
• Sisters praying with a classroom of students.
• Parents praying with their children.
• Teachers praying with their students.

In this case the priest, parent, or teacher is the leader (V) and the congregation, students, and children make the responses (R).

Individuals Praying The Angelus

If you're saying the Angelus alone, you pray all of the following lines. You can omit the line that says "Let us pray."

Words To The Angelus Prayer In English

V. The Angel of the Lord declared unto Mary.

R. And she conceived by the Holy Ghost.

Hail Mary, etc.

V. Behold the handmaid of the Lord.

R. Be it done unto me according to thy word.

V. And the Word was made Flesh.

R. And dwelt amongst us.

V. Pray for us, O Holy Mother of God.

R. That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.

V. Let us pray.

Pour forth, we beseech Thee, O Lord, Thy grace into our hearts; that we to whom the Incarnation of Christ, Thy Son, was made known by the message of an angel, may by His Passion and Cross, be brought to the glory of His Resurrection through the same Christ our Lord. Amen.

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• First Communion Prayers : Audio, Coloring Pages, Worksheets

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The Angel appears to Mary

by truewaykids | Dec 5, 2019 | Bible Lesson , Christmas Lessons , New Testament | 0 comments

This week, we will look at our second week of the Christmas lessons. ( If you missed week one click here ). We will focus on Mary and her reaction to the angel’s message. This passage can be found in Luke 1:26-38.

Some of the key points we will look at are–

• Nothing is impossible for God.
• God works in ways we don’t understand.
• We can ask wise people for advice and counsel.

The Angel appears to Mary – Lesson Guide

There are some helpful animated videos and song ideas included in a youtube playlist to go along with this lesson.

Share with your child, how God often gave important messages to angels to deliver for him. Try to remember some from the Old Testament. Abraham for example.

Ask the child if they know who Mary is. Explain that Mary was a simple Jewish girl who honored God. Talk about how God chose her to give birth to His Son. Point out that people would be mean to Mary for obeying God, but she obeyed Him anyway. Explain that people thought Mary had done a bad thing, but she hadn’t. Remind the child that they should obey God, no matter what other people say.

Pull out baby photos of your child, you, your parents, etc. Point out characteristics that you have in common with your child, or they have in common with your parents. You can play a matching game, such as these two people have this similar feature or personality trait. Remind the child that every baby ever born needs both a mommy and a daddy. Then point out that God told Mary she would have a baby without a daddy, because God would be the baby’s Father. Marvel that nothing is impossible with God.

Mary sang a song to praise God. Talk about how God likes it when we sing praises to Him. Sing a song of praise to God with your child. You may also choose to create a song such as singing “Jesus is the Light of the World, Light of the World, Light of the World. Jesus is the Light of the World. He came on Christmas Day.” Sing these words to the tune of Mary Had a Little Lamb. You may select another phrase or tune (very simple children’s tunes are best) to allow your child to have the joy of creating their own song to praise God.

Point out that God works in ways we don’t understand. Pull up an online clip of a cartoon or other children’s show in a foreign language. Watch the clip together (make sure the content has speaking in it). Ask the child if they understood the talking in the video. Point out that we cannot understand the clip since we do not speak the language. Select a verse in a foreign language (if you know someone who speaks a foreign language, choose that one) or a children’s Bible song. Learn the verse or song with your child (you may use an online video to ascertain correct pronunciation). Then learn the verse or song in English. Talk about how God reveals some things to us, but others, only He understands.

Explain that just like we watched a video or asked a friend about the correct way to say something in another language, people can help us understand God better. Point out that when Mary needed help, she went to Elizabeth.

Ask the child who they can go to for advice. Point out that the Bible is filled with instructions on how to live. Ask the child if they can think of a verse that tells us how to live.

Share how God had also allowed Elizabeth to have a baby, even though she was too old and had waited a long time. Speak how God has a plan for people of all ages. You are never too young or too old to God.

If the child has memorized the song or verse in a language known to a friend, have the child share the song/verse with the friend.

As it is the second week, add Mary and Joseph to the nativity scene you are building. Point out that the time for Jesus’ arrival is getting close.

Pray with your child and thank God that nothing is impossible for Him. Ask Him to help you always obey Him.

Free Printable Bible Story

Games and Activities

Visit a friend

Christmas is a great time to catch up with friends who maybe we don’t see to often. Reflect on how Mary planned a trip to visit Elizabeth, by planning a trip to visit a friend or family member. Thank God for the people He puts in our lives.

Make cards for a care Home

We all love receiving Christmas Cards. Remind your child how the angel delivered important messages from God. Make some Christmas card with your child and deliver them to your local care home. You could use the template provided or make your own. Ask the staff to give them to some of the residence who maybe otherwise wouldn’t have any. Remind your child the Christmas is for everyone, young and old. (Zechariah and Elizabeth thought they were to old).

Leap for Joy:  Remind your child how Elizabeth’s baby jumped with joy as Mary and Jesus approached. Give jumping directions for your child to follow. For example: jump high, jump low, jump forward, jump to the side and so on.

You could also turn it into a game by seeing who can jump the highest, furthest, funniest etc.

Nativity Character Coloring pages

Build out your Nativity Scene

Last week, we began to build our nativity scene. If you haven’t printed it yet, it’s free in last week’s lesson.

This week, we will add Mary’s and Elizabeth’s houses and use them as we tell the story to make it interactive.

Angel Decoration Craft – Includes free template

What you need

• The template page printed on white card or paper.
• Colouring pencils or crayons
• Cut out the cone and glue or tape together. If teaching a group, do before class to save time.
• Colour the Angel and wings.
• Glue the body and wings onto the cone.

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Interactive

Family devotional  , "a blessing with every lesson", week 25 - an angel visits mary -, bible time fun through the bible, kids bible lesson 25 - an angel visits mary.

Welcome to week 25!

This week your children learn the Bible story about a faithful girl named Mary.

God sent an angel, Gabriel, to deliver a special message to Mary. Gabriel told Mary that she would be the mother of the Son of God. What an honor! Mary did not believe that she, a virgin, would have a miraculous pregnancy of the world’s most important baby, Jesus. Mary was very excited to be the Lord’s servant. 

In this Bible lesson, the children will learn that God can do anything and he is worthy of our trust. We must be willing to serve God with all our hearts. Have fun learning this wonderful story!

If you haven’t read the introduction to Bible Time yet, I recommend you read the outline about the   Bible lessons for children  first.

Children's bible lesson about An Angel Visits Mary -  Key Concepts The key concepts that we focused on this week are:

God can do anything.

God is worthy of our trust.

We must be willing to serve God.

You can also come up with your own key concepts.

Bible Verse for kids The Bible verse for this lesson is ​ Luke 1:30 ICB

“Do not be afraid, Mary, because God is pleased with you” . This Bible verse should be simple enough for your toddler to memorize after a week of practice.

Bible Story Tips

We read “An Angel Visits Mary” beginning on page 49 of the children's Bible Storybook called  Bible-Time Stories and Rhymes .

During story, draw attention to the key concepts for this lesson.

Don't forget to ask questions related to the story, for example, “What message did the angel have for Mary?”

Throughout the Bible lesson we reiterated how important it is to trust God.

After the Bible story and discussion session, we stand up and do the interactive rhyme found in the Bible storybook . 

Prayer After the story and rhyme, we say a prayer that is related to the Bible story. You can either have your children repeat after you or allow them to come up with their own prayer.

Bible Song about An Angel Visits Mary

The Bible song for this week is "Rejoice in the Lord Always" .

We cast the song from YouTube to the television, so our children can see the   motions on the big screen.

bible Activities  about An Angel Visits Mary

We did different Bible activities each day - related to An Angel Visits Mary. We also have a selection of free Bible activities about An Angel Visits Mary here.

The Bible Time Family Fun Pack includes all of the An Angel Visits Mary activities (plus more), printed and arranged for your convenience. Some fun and kid-friendly Mary  Bible activities include: ​

An Angel Visits Mary bible coloring Page

While our daughters colored the An Angel Visits Mary Bible Coloring Page, we talked about how Gabriel told Mary that she would be the mother of the Son of God.

Children's Praise Music | 5 Ways to Add Fun to Your Kids Worship Time | Bible Time Fun

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Part 5: Be Careful Little Mind | FUN Ways to Teach Your Children to Guard Their Minds

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Part 4: Be Careful Little Feet | FUN Ways to Teach Your Children to Walk in God's Will

Who is it bible Activity

It was a miracle for Mary to have this special baby. She knew it was a miracle from God.

We used the "Who Is It Bible Activity"   to teach our daughters about the importance of each character in the 'An Angel Visits Mary' Bible story.

stand up angel Bible craft

The angel Gabriel, told Mary she would be the mother of the Son of God. Mary’s pregnancy was a miracle.

This 'Angel Visits Mary' Bible craft can be made by making a standing angel with a piece of white card stock paper. First, cut the upper body (including the head) with one half of the paper.

Next, using the second half of the paper, make a cone shape that can stand to be the bottom part of the angel.

Finally, draw a face on the angel, then attach a craft stick to the back of the upper and lower part of the angel. 

(We used the “Stand Up Angel Bible Craft" found in

the Bible Time Family Fun Pack ).

servant of the lord bible craft activity

Mary was happy to serve the Lord!

We too should be willing and happy to serve God.

We used the   " Servant Of The Lord Bible Craft Activity" ,   to help our girls learn Mary’s response to God.

trust bible walk 

It can be hard to put our trust in someone, especially if you don’t know what the outcome will be. Mary trusted God, even though she did not understand everything.

To help demonstrate trust to our girls, we guided them through a path blindfolded. We gave them verbal commands and they carefully followed.

We explained how this demonstration is like us putting our trust in God. We might not know where we are going, but if we listen to his guidance, he will lead us down the right path.

ready to serve Bible gift BASKET

Mary was willing to be the Lord’s servant. Her service to God was a blessing to many other people.

For this preschool Bible activity, we made gift baskets to deliver to our local YWCA. We talked about the joy of giving and how acts of service make both us and those being served happy. 

During  the 'Ready To Serve' Bible Gift activity, I reminded the girls how important it is to serve God.

I Believe It! bible game

God sent a message to Mary that she would have a special baby that would be God’s own Son. 

Even though this seemed impossible, Mary believed God because she knew that God can do anything.

We played a fun game called  "I Believe It! Bible Game" , that showed the girls how great God is.

I hope you enjoyed week 25 of Bible Time FUN Through the Bible. Please comment or share using #bibletimefun .

Don't forget, the Bible Time Family Fun Pack includes all these activities, printed for your convenience. Check them out below! Learn more about the Bible Time Family Fun Pack Subscription Box .

Bible Time Family Fun Pack - New Testament - Segment 7

Bible Time Stories and Rhymes Storybook

17. Samson the Strong

18. The Call of Samuel

19. Give us a King

20. David and Goliath

21. Elijah and The Widow

22. Jonah and the Great Fish

23. T he Fiery Furnace

24. Daniel and the Lion's Den

New Testament

25. An Angel Visits Mary

26. Jesus Is Born

27. Jesus Is Baptized

28. Jesus Is Tempted

29. Jesus Chooses His First Disciples

Children's Bible Lessons There are 52 children's Bible lessons, one for each week of the year.

Every lesson, craft and activity is simple, fun and interactive -  tailored for toddlers & preschoolers!! 

To begin, select a lesson:

Old Testament

1. God Created the World 2. Adam and Eve's Sin 3. Noah and the Ark 4. The Tower of Babel

5. God calls Abraham

6. Isaac is Born

7. Sodom and Gomorrah

8. Jacob's Ladder

9. The Story of Joseph

10. Baby Moses

11. The Escape from Egypt

12. The Ten Commandments

13. Balaam’s Donkey

14. Joshua and the Battle of Jericho

15. The Sun Stands Still

16. Gideon's Army

An Angel Visits Mary Bible Lesson, Activities, & Coloring Pages for Christmas

Also included in

Description

Teach little ones that the angel Gabriel visited Mary to tell her she would give birth to God's Son with this lesson that precedes the nativity story. These fun and interactive activities will help them learn about the events leading up to the birth of Jesus and are perfect for using in your homeschool, Bible lessons, Children's Church, or Sunday School.

This Bible lesson is perfect for the Christmas Advent season, but could be used anytime during the year too.

These Bible activities are best suited for Preschool , Pre-K , Kindergarten, and 1st Grade .

Be sure to check out the preview and read what is included below.

• An Angel Visits Mary Overview - An explanation of how to use each activity and an idea for a snack.
• Story Cards (Color & B&W) - Put the story cards in the order that they happened. If using the black and white version children can color them in and have their own to take with them. These are great to use later for review too!
• Coloring Pages (B&W) - Keep little hands busy during the lesson. There are 2 designs to choose from.
• Retell the Lesson - Cut and Paste Activity (B&W) - Cut out the pictures and glue them in the order they happened in the lesson.
• Spot the Differences (Color & B&W) - Compare the 2 pictures and circle the differences. An answer sheet is also included.
• Lesson Teaching Posters (Color) - Use the full color posters as a visual while you teach the lesson.
• An Angel Visits Mary Mini-Book (Color & B&W) - Color the pictures and make a book. This is another great resource for review in the future or use it for teaching the lesson. Use the full color version as a book to teach the lesson or to read to your children.

This Bible activities resource is a downloadable pdf file.

For more hands-on Bible lessons click here.

Click here to follow my store and find more engaging activities that make learning fun!

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Andrei Rublev

Russian Iconographer

Summary of Andrei Rublev

The Russian Orthodox Church has over the centuries become renowned for its religious painters but it is Rublev's exquisite icons and frescoes that rank him the most important of all the late medieval Russian masters. His name has become inextricably linked with one of the most important periods in Russian painting and he is attributed with bringing about the revival of Byzantine art following its demise under the Ottoman rule. His fine modelling, and feel for pictorial depth, offered a subtle step away from the flat hieratic traditions of Byzantine art. Indeed, Rublev challenged the severe rules and traditions of Byzantine Christian art bringing forward a wistful perception of celestial beauty and a deeply pensive and introspective dimension to his art. Rublev lived through a deeply troubled period in Russian history yet his paintings revealed, through his devotion to God, a deep compassion and calm.

Accomplishments

• Whereas Byzantine painting had tended towards the sinful and cataclysmic, the "Rublev rival" (as some have called it) brought a new optimism and light to religious painting. His icons and frescoes were formed of light and gentle color bringing a new harmony to the art of Russian Orthodox iconography.
• Rublev's icons possess a sense of realism that showed a level of sophistication that in some ways echoed the work of the Italian Naturalists. Hitherto, the convention of Byzantine iconography was for the subjects to engage the viewers' gaze directly whereas Rublev's subjects typically averted the direct gaze of the viewer. This strategy allowed for a more private mode of worship and it was to be duly adopted by the Moscow School of Iconography - the school allowed for a general relaxation of the severe intensity of traditional iconographic painting thereby effecting a more worldly relationship between state and church.
• Rublev would often test the conventions of icon painting by doing away with a narrative plot line, preferring to focus on a single moment. He strived to do more than tell religious stories and he used painting to evoke a higher feeling. Rather than position his worshipers outside the scene, his works invited them a route into the painting through deep contemplation and spiritual reflection.
• Rublev's peaceful and quiet figures are rendered in an economy of elegant lines and contours and a subtle, yet minimal, modelling of facial features. His work brought an element of authenticity and intense personal feeling that was only matched by those Italian masters; the likes of Giotto and Masaccio, who were associated with the period of the proto/early Renaissance .

Important Art by Andrei Rublev

The Man of Matthew

The Khitrovo Gospel is a Russian gospel book of eight full-page miniatures from the late 14th or early 15th century. The miniatures feature four Evangelistic portraits and four pictures of their symbols: the angel, the bull, the lion and the eagle. Though some historians are willing to attribute all the miniatures to him, the angel, the symbol for the evangelist Matthew, is the only one about which there is general consensus that it is a Rublev. A young winged boy is placed within a circle. The figure's elegant line and contours, its soft coloring of azure blue and fresh green, and the boy's expressive facial features, lend the image a lightness and gayety that was typical of Rublev's style. The Khitrovo Gospel is based on East Slavic manuscripts of the 1390s. It takes its name from Bogdan Khitrovo, a boyar who obtained the original Slavic manuscripts from Tsar Fyodor III. Khitrovo subsequently bequeathed the manuscripts to the Trinity Monastery where Rublev was a monk. Following the nationalisation of monastic libraries in the early 20 th century, the Khitrovo Gospel was incorporated in the holdings of the Russian State Library in Moscow.

Russian State Library, Moscow

The Virgin of Vladimir

This piece, attributed to Rublev, is a copy or the "original" or "first" Virgin of Vladimir which now lives in the Tretyakov Gallery. The original was gifted to the Great Prince of Kyiv in 1130 from the Patriarch of Constantinople and has survived to become one of the most venerated icons of the Russian Orthodox Church. It is a typical example of Byzantine Iconography and has been copied countless times. Within the Orthodox Church it is believed that the copies of a sacred icon possess the same divinity as the original. Rublev's version, though compositionally almost an exact replica, reveals some significant differences. For instance, the Virgin's head has what would be later recognized as a typical Rublev tilt, a deeply tender inclination. Even this slightest deepening of angle from the original lends a greater and more powerfully recognisable emotional connection between mother and son. In addition to this nuance, the rendering of the skin and faces of the pair in Rublev's icon have a realism of great sophistication for the time. The Virgin Mary's gaze is directed out to the left over her child's head, rather than directly towards the viewer (which was at that time a convention within Byzantine Iconography). This was an alteration in style that was to become a trait of the newly emerging Moscow School of Iconography. It gives the viewer the sense of being party to a private devotional moment and adds an intimacy to their worship before the icon.

Tempera on Wood - Museum of Valdimir Suzdal

The Nativity, The Annunciation and The Transfiguration

These three icons are from the work Rublev was commissioned to do in The Annunciation Cathedral in Moscow in 1405 with Theophanes the Greek and Prokhar of Gorodets with the three being attributed to Rublev. True to the thematic conventions of The Nativity story, Rublev's painting represents Mary reclining in centre frame with the baby Jesus, attended by the Ass and the Ox. The three Magi ride to meet the baby from the top left corner while Joseph is isolated in the bottom left, being enticed by the devil who is trying to exploit his lesser role in the birth narrative. In the bottom right hand corner, are the midwives, symbolising the corporeal nature of the birth of the son of God. The Annunciation shows the moment the angel visit Mary and tell her of her pregnancy while The Transfiguration shows the moment Jesus returns to heaven from earth following his resurrection. In the latter, rays of light emanate from the central figure of Jesus with Elijah on his left and Moses on his right. Below the three figures of the Apostles respond with awe to the transfiguration. All three icons are examples of the soft colors associated with Rublev's painting. Breaking with the use of brighter colors favored by the Novgorod School, they illustrate key developments in Rublev's style. The Nativity still has the non-linear representation of a whole plot line common to icons at the time yet the painted space is busy and does not contain a cohesive perspective or dimensions. It does however show the beginnings of a geometrically shaped zigzag composition making its way down the picture. It is in this respect that the painting suggests the influence of Theophanes's mathematical and philosophical education which is evident in the architectural backdrop of The Annunciation too. This icon is less populated than The Nativity and there is a stillness to the figure of Mary which resembles something close to that of the angels of The Trinity . It is, however, The Transfiguration that is the closest to what has become recognisable as Rublev's style. In this icon any additional references to the larger plot line that were traditionally shown are left out and only the six figures central to the moment are included. The strong triangular composition is somehow abstract in its simplicity with only a suggestion of a full landscape. Rublev is relying on the positions of the characters to tell the story. The lines of the apostles generate an agitated dancing line across the base of the image with the soft curving lines of Elijah and Moses hanging gracefully poised above. The composition is held in place by the radial lines emitting from Christ's elevated central position.

Tempera on Wood - Annunciation Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin

The Virgin Mary and St Andrew the First Called

These two paired-back depictions of The Virgin Mary and St Andrew from the Dormition Cathedral cannot be fully verified as Rublev's work; some believe Theophanes The Greek painted them and others think they were possibly the work of Daniil Cherny. Taken as Rublev's, however, they reveal a muted use of color that allows for a depth of sincerity and religious intensity that is wholly characteristic of his style. Indeed, it is possible to see the same noble piety in the downward cast eyes of both figures as is present in Rublev's other works (such as The Virgin of Vladimir ). The frescos and panels from the Dormition Cathedral in Vladimir have been restored numerous times, making it difficult to comment confidently or effectively on the nature of brushwork or the exact color choices. The movement of line and silhouette however can be largely relied upon as being faithful to the artist original decisions. The insistently minimal composition, and boldly sweeping downward lines, are significant in their departure from the more complex and intense icons of the Byzantine style of the time. They are thus examples of the simpler, more monumental work which was to be newly promoted through the Moscow School of Iconography.

Originally Dormition Cathedral, Vladimir

The Saviour

Rublev is believed to have painted icons for the "Zvenigorod Row," part of the iconostasis for one of the Zvenigorod churches. Three icons, The Saviour , Archangel Michael and Apostle Paul , all of whom are peaceful and serene figures, bear the painter's signature style: The Saviour is full of kindness and attention, Paul is presented as a deep thinking philosopher while Michael represents the beauty of all humankind. Only the face and shoulders remain of The Saviour . Even in such a small section of work, however, the direct and gentle nature of the gaze has received the appreciation of both spiritual and secular audiences and is often seen as the beginning of Rublev's so-called "Golden Age." The elegant lines developed by the Novgorod School are evident in the contours of the face but they are also teamed with a subtle modelling of the skin that is incredibly progressive for the time. The face is simplified but still possess a piercing tenderness. This combination of minimalism and intense feeling is really, at this time, only seen elsewhere in the work of the early Italian renaissance masters such as Da Vinci.

Tempera on Wood - The Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow

The Old Testament Trinity Icon

Rublev's masterpiece shows three angels sitting around a table in sacred conversation, blessing the head of a lamb in a goblet in the centre of the table. The icon depicts the story of the Hospitality of Abraham when three angels appeared in front of Abraham's tent beneath the Oak of Mamre. Abraham offered them refreshment as they tell him and his wife Sarah of Sarah's pregnancy. There are many representations of this story in Byzantine and Russian Orthodox Art. The reason Rublev's painting is of such special significance lies in how he breaks with the conventions of the previous icons. He does away with the plot line choosing instead to focus on one moment. Neither Abraham nor Sarah are present, though their house, the oak of Mamre and Mount Moriah are shown in the background serving to place the viewer. Rather than simply tell a story through his painting, he describes a feeling, a moment of intense spiritual reflection and it is that spirituality he is offering up for the worshipper's reverie. The symbolism of the piece focuses on one aspect of the story. In the New Testament, Abraham addresses the angels as a singular entity though they are always described as three. This is to illustrate their role as the embodiment of the combined trinity of the father, the son and the holy spirit. In his painting Rublev seats the angels in circle, looped in unity by their positioning and yet also open to the presence of the viewer, welcoming them into the holy contemplation. The Spirit on the right has a sky-blue robe, draped in pale green, colors of the air, the Son in the centre is connected to the earth with his deep reddish-brown robe while the Father's robe seems to be of an undefinable color, transparent and shimmering. It is the pensive calm of this picture that was to to influence the Moscow School of painting and give Russian Iconography the recognisable Slavic softness associated with it today.

The Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow - Tempera on Wood

Biography of Andrei Rublev

The exact date and place of Rublev's birth are unknown but it is likely he was born in the mid-to-late fourteenth century and was raised in the small town of Sergiev Posad near Moscow. It is a matter of historical record however that the Russia of the 1360s was a difficult and bloody country in which to live. Russia had been occupied by Tartar invaders who pillaged towns, monasteries and churches and took peasants into slavery, state control had been pushed back to the towns of Nizhniy Novgorod and Moscow, while the passage of fleeing people led to plagues in both cities during 1364 and 1366. In 1365, meanwhile, a fire had swept through Moscow destroying large parts of the city, taking many lives. These disasters were followed in 1371 by widespread famine, and soon thereafter, in 1378, Moscow was invaded by Lithuania's Prince Algirdas. There is no evidence to suggest that Rublev was directly affected by any of these events, but they do serve as a backdrop to the times in which he had grown up and possibly hint at his motivation to create the images of heavenly balance on which his legend is built.

It is fair to say that these were dark days for ordinary Russians, but the fact that Rublev has a surname, an endowment only possessed by nobility or dignitaries, suggests that his family enjoyed a level of wealth and status. Moreover, the name "Rublev" may have been an indicator of his family's trade: the name "Rublev" probably derives from the verb "rubit" (to cut wood) or from the noun "rubel" which is either a long wooden pole or a tool used by tanners. It is thought likely, too, that his Christian name was changed, with the name Andrei being bestowed on him only when he took his vows as a monk.

In a chronicle in 1408 Rublev is described as both an artist and a "faster". Ascetism was a common practice among Russian Orthodox priests at the time and part of a monk's calling was to fast regularly. It is not known for certain where and when he took holy orders but it was likely to be The Holy Trinity Cathedral of St Sergius where he spent many years. It is possible too that at the time of his arrival at Trinity, the Father Superior Sergius of Radonezh himself may have been the hegemon, though is seems more likely that he was a monk under Nikon of Radonezh, Sergius's immediate successor. Whether or not Rublev arrived before or after Sergius' death (in 1392) however, the elder monk will have had a significant impact on Rublev's education. Indeed, Sergius was one of the most significant monastic reformers in Russian history and became a patron saint when the Russian Orthodox church canonised him in 1452. At the time of Rublev's monastic career his influence would have been all-pervasive.

Sergius of Radonezh built the original wooden church of the trinity, with one small cell in which to live, during the early 14 th Century with the help of an elder brother. Alone in the woods the siblings proceeded to live a life of ascetic piety and peacefulness, subsisting solely on what they could grow themselves. Though his brother would move on, news of Sergius's lifestyle quickly spread among monks in the surrounding area and very soon many had joined him, building basic living cells of their own. The site expanded quickly and his disciples left to spread word of his way of life to other monasteries thereby swiftly changing the running of monasteries in the wider surroundings. This quiet, pensive attitude to worship that the ascetic monks adopted permeated deeply during Rublev's religious education and indeed shines through in his art later in life.

Early Career

It is generally agreed that Rublev honed his artistic skill under the tutelage of Theophanes the Greek, a great muralist and iconographer in the Byzantine tradition. This supposition is based on the documentary evidence that (in reverse order) Rublev, Prokhor the Elder from Gorodets and Theophanes form the list of artists who provided frescoes and icons for the Cathedral of The Annunciation in The Kremlin in 1405. Though he was the junior (in rank and age) member of the team, the very fact that Rublev's name is recorded on such a prestigious commission indicates that he had already achieved a sound level of status.

The wooden Cathedral burnt down and was replaced in stone some years later, but the icons still remain, and though none of the work is signed, attributions have been made and largely agreed upon by art historians as to which man painted which icon. By comparing Theophanes's and Rublev's images, one finds that their religious outlooks differed quite considerably; in contrast to Rublev's heavenly optimism, Theophanes's overwrought and tragic images sat much more comfortably within the general trajectory of Byzantine Christian painting. It is not known therefore if the two artists were close theological companions but there are, however, clear links between the styles of the two artists.

It is known that Theophanes the Greek moved to Novgorod in 1370 from Crimea. He was born and trained in art and philosophy in Constantinople and is described in contemporary accounts to be a very learned and thoughtful man. These qualities are evident in his work and can be seen thus as an influence on Rublev's own meditative approach to composition. Theophanes was a leader in both the Novgorod school of painting and, later, The Moscow School, and passed their developments and changes to the Byzantine tradition on to Rublev, who was to evolve them into a more distinctive and more self-confident Russian-national style.

Mature Career and Death

In 1408 Rublev was commissioned to decorate the Assumption Cathedral in Vladimir with Daniil Cherny (amongst others). Cherny and Rublev became friends and colleagues and are thought to have worked closely together over the proceeding two decades. Indeed, when Trinity St Sergius burnt down during a Tartar raid in 1408, the two men were invited to decorate its stone replacement. The surviving Cathedral frescos represent a fragment of the Doomsday composition but analyses of the frescos - the rhythm and gracefulness of the lines - could only belong to the hand of Rublev. Indeed, his interpretation of the scene was quite atypical with the Byzantine preference for the theme of fear of damnation being overtaken by the theme of forgiveness and enlightenment. It is thought by many that Rublev also painted his great masterpiece, and only proven work, The Trinity , or The Hospitality of Abraham to display in the new cathedral. The dating of The Trinity is, however, unknown though is thought to have been painted either in 1411 or on completion of the holy building somewhere between 1425-27. In either case, the Trinity icon has come to symbolize a new (and lasting) apex in Russian culture.

Following Cherny's death (he is buried at the St. Trinity monastery) Rublev moved to the Andronikov Monastery in Moscow where he painted the frescos, his last known works, for The Church of The Saviour. According to the letter of the saint Epiphanies the Wise, Rublev had worked as a labourer on the construction of the monastery while his frescos were painted between 1428 and his death in 1430. Today there is a museum in the monastery dedicated to Rublev.

The Legacy of Andrei Rublev

Though Rublev is now considered the greatest of all Russian medieval iconographers, and was probably well respected during his lifetime, he was not (re)discovered until the 20 th Century when The Trinity was cleaned in 1904. His reputation grew to such an extent that by 1959 the Andronikov Monastery opened The Andrei Rublev Museum. His legend was further confirmed when the Russian Orthodox Church made Rublev a saint in 1988, the first Russian painter to be canonized. The church commemorates Rublev's life on 4 July.

Artistically, both the Moscow and Novgorod Schools of iconography have had huge impacts on modern art and Rublev as the leading light of the style especially. His minimal rhythmic approach to composition gave the abstract artists of the 20 th century such as Constantin Brancusi , who, like Rublev, was driven by the search for the idealization of aesthetic form and the poetic evocation of spiritual thought, the starting points to explore the possibilities of pure non-figurative movement in their work. His mastery of color alongside spiritual symbolism inspired the work of Wassily Kandinsky , whose interest in Russian iconography is present throughout much of his work. Kandinsky claimed in Concerning the Spiritual in Art that "color is a power which directly influences the soul", an idea that, though claimed by Kandinsky over five hundred years later, is palpable in Rublev's work and that of subsequent iconographers.

In 1966 Andrei Tarkovsky made a film based on Rublev's life and it is widely considered one of the greatest European art house films that succeeds in illustrating the pivotal role that Christianity and the art of Orthodox Iconography plays in Russia's self-image. Though he had little to work with by way of a recorded biography, Tarkovsky's three-hour-plus opus is generally considered an authentic representation of Rublev's life and of 15 th century Russia. Indeed, Tarkovsky tells the story of Rublev's life through a series of "moments," a technique that pays homage to the iconographer's own method of working.

Influences and Connections

Useful Resources on Andrei Rublev

• Hesychasm and Art: The Appearance of New Iconographic Trends in Byzantine and Slavic Lands in the 14th and 15th Centuries By Anita Strezova
• Concerning the Spiritual in Art By Wassily Kandinsky
• Russian Icons By David Talbot Rice
• Byzantine and Russian Influences on Andrei Rublev's Art By Iulia O. Basu - Zharku / Inquires Journal / 2011
• Andrei Rublev: A saint and revered icon painter By Irina Yazykova and Neskuchnyy Sad / Russia Beyond / January 7th, 2014
• Holy Icons in Today's World (Pt.2): Icons and Modern Art By Aidan Hart / The Orthodox Arts Journal / March 21, 2014
• Andrei Rublev Our Pick Andrei Tarkovsky (1973)

Related Artists

Related Movements & Topics

Content compiled and written by Nancy Nicholson

Edited and revised, with Summary and Accomplishments added by Antony Todd

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The Complete Fatima Timeline

Click on the Year or + to reveal the dates.

The three shepherd children of Fatima — Lucia dos Santos and her two cousins, Francisco and Jacinta Marto — were visited three times by the Angel of Peace.

May 13: Our Lady appears to the three children at the Cova da Iria and asks that they return for five more months in succession, on the 13th day, at the same hour.

June 13: Our Lady tells the children that God wants to establish in the world devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. About 50 people come to the Cova da Iria to witness the apparition.

July 13: Our Lady shows the children a vision of hell and tells them that She will come back at a later date to ask for the consecration of Russia to Her Immaculate Heart and the Communion of Reparation on the First Saturdays. She tells the children the Secret (in three parts) and promises to prove Her appearances with a miracle on October13, 1917. About 5,000 people come to the Cova on July 13.

August 13: The children are kidnapped by the Mayor of Ourém and miss their appointed meeting with Our Lady. About 15,000 people come to the Cova and many witness supernatural phenomena indicating that Our Lady came nonetheless. – August 19: Our Lady visits the children in nearby Valinhos and again prophesizes the working of a miracle in October while telling the children to pray and make sacrifices for sinners.

September 13 : Our Lady tells the children that in October, Our Lord will come, as well as Our Lady of Sorrows and Our Lady of Carmel. Also, Saint Joseph will appear with the Child Jesus in order to bless the world. About 30,000 people come to the Cova and again, many witness supernatural phenomena indicating Our Lady’s presence.

October 13: Our Lady announces: “ People must amend their lives and ask pardon for their sins. They must not offend Our Lord any more for He is already too much offended .” She tells us to continue to pray the Rosary every day. Then the 70,000 people present witness the Miracle of the Sun at the Cova da Iria.

December 10: Our Lady appears to Sister Lucy at Pontevedra in Spain to relate the specific requirements for the Communion of Reparation on the First Saturdays.

June 13: In fulfillment of Her promise at Fatima on July 13, 1917, Our Lady of Fatima appears to Sister Lucy at Tuy, Spain in the visible presence of the Most Holy Trinity and asks for the consecration of Russia to Her Immaculate Heart.

August: Jesus says to Sister Lucy: “Make it known to My ministers, given that they follow the example of the King of France in delaying the execution of My command, they will follow him into misfortune.” Our Lord gives to Sister Lucy in Rianjo, Spain this warning addressed to the Pope and bishops.

March 19: Pope Pius XI promulgates his encyclical against atheistic Communism. He first explains that he has already condemned Communism in 1924, 1928, 1931, 1932 (twice) and 1933. But it is his solemn duty once more to raise his voice and remind the faithful yet again against the dangers of Communism. Among many other things, the Pope solemnly says: “Communism is intrinsically evil, and no one who would save Christian civilization may collaborate with it in any undertaking whatsoever.”

Sister Lucy reveals the first two parts of the Secret in her Memoirs, first on August 31st in her Third Memoir and then again on December 8 in her Fourth Memoir.

October 31 and December 8: Pope Pius XII, acting alone, consecrates the world, but not Russia, to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Our Lord tells Sister Lucy that as a result World War II will be shortened but that world peace will not result from this consecration

October: After one month of prayer and reflection, the Bishop of Fatima, His Excellency José da Silva, gives Sister Lucy a formal, written order to write down the Third Secret. Sister Lucy tries to obey immediately, but for over two months is mysteriously unable to commit the Third Secret to paper.

January 2: Our Lady appears to Sister Lucy and bids her to write down the Third Secret. Our Lady asks it to be revealed to the world not later than 1960. When later asked why the people had to wait for the Third Secret to be revealed in 1960, Sister Lucy states: “Because the Blessed Virgin wishes it so,” and “It [the Third Secret] will be clearer then.”

January 9: Sister Lucy commits both texts of the Third Secret to paper by this date.

June 17: The Third Secret is given by Sister Lucy herself to her confessor, Bishop da Silva, since she would not let anyone but a bishop bring it to the Bishop of Fatima. Sister Lucy

January 3: A photograph of Bishop da Silva posing in front of the 25-line text of the Third Secret, which is enclosed in the bishop’s own outer envelope, appears in Life magazine.

May: Our Lady appears to Sister Lucy saying: “Make it known to the Holy Father that I am always awaiting the Consecration of Russia to My Immaculate Heart. Without that Consecration, Russia will not be able to convert. Without that Consecration, the world cannot have peace.”

July 7: Pope Pius XII consecrates Russia specifically, but he does not ask for the bishops to join him and thus he is not joined by the Catholic bishops of the world.

September 2: Austrian Jesuit Father Joseph Schweigl is sent by Pope Pius XII to Coimbra, Portugal to interrogate Sister Lucy about the Third Secret. Father Schweigl later confides to one of his colleagues: “I cannot reveal anything of what I learned at Fatima concerning the Third Secret, but I can say that it has two parts: one concerns the Pope. The other, logically — although I must say nothing — would have to be the continuation of the words: In Portugal the dogma of the Faith will always be preserved”.

March: Bishop John Venancio holds up to a strong light the outer envelope of Bishop da Silva (photographed for Life magazine in 1949) containing an inner envelope of Sister Lucy, inside of which he sees the paper upon which is written the Third Secret. He carefully notes that the Secret is about 25 lines long and is written on a single sheet of paper with 3/4 centimeter margins on both sides.

April 16: The 25-line text of the Third Secret, sealed with wax in the original envelope and the Bishop of Fatima’s outer envelope, is received in the Vatican. The text is placed in a safe in the papal apartments (not in the Holy Office).

December 26: Father Fuentes, Postulator of the Cause for Beatification of Jacinta and Francisco Marto, interviews Sister Lucy. In an allusion to the contents of the Third Secret, she tells him of many nations disappearing from the face of the earth, she speaks about the crisis in the priesthood, and of many souls going to hell as a result of ignoring Our Lady’s Fatima Message.

Father Fuentes publishes the interview with Sister Lucy with the Imprimatur of the Bishop of Fatima. It is read widely and no one questions its authenticity.

October: The well-known magazine Paris-Match publishes a photo of the wooden safe in Pope Pius XII’s apartment in which was kept the Third Secret of Fatima.

July 2: Father Fuentes’ interview with Sister Lucy is suddenly denounced as fraudulent in an anonymous report from the bishop’s chancery office in Coimbra, Portugal. To this day, more than fifty years later, no official will take responsibility for this report.

August 17: Pope John XXIII reads the 25-line text of the Third Secret which was taken from the papal apartment and then has his personal secretary, Msgr. Loris Capovilla, write on the envelope: “I leave it to others to comment or decide.”

February 8: As the world anxiously awaits the full revelation of the Third Secret, an unnamed person, who is close to the Pope, authorizes the Press to quote him anonymously that the Third Secret will not be revealed in 1960 and “would probably remain, forever, under absolute seal.”

Sister Lucy is officially forbidden to speak about the Third Secret and not allowed to receive any visitors except close relatives and people she has known for a long time. Her own confessor of many years returns from Brazil and is not allowed to see her.

Pope John XXIII reads the 62-line text of the Third Secret, contained in another sealed envelope. Unlike the first text, which he opened in 1959 but could not read without the aid of a translator because of its difficult Portuguese dialect, this text posed no difficulty for the Pope and he was able to comprehend it completely on his own reading.

October: Just prior to Vatican Council II, the Vatican Secretariat of State agrees with Moscow that the Council will not condemn Soviet Russia or communism, in exchange for which two Russian Orthodox observers would attend the Council. This agreement launches the policy of Ostpolitik. This Vatican-Moscow Agreement, which is not allowed by traditional Catholic moral theology (see entry for 1937), nevertheless is followed and thus the Vatican Secretariat of State silences those bishops and priests in the Church who are anti-Communist at the Second Vatican Council and afterward.

June 27: Less than a week after becoming pope, Paul VI reads the text of the Third Secret kept in the papal apartment after the Substitute Secretary of State telephones Msgr. Capovilla, personal secretary to Pope John XXIII, to inquire as to where to find it. Capovilla testifies to this fact in his certified note of May 17, 1967. It is this text — the one which contains Our Lady’s words — that is later identified by Cardinal Ottaviani as being 25-lines long.

November 21: At the last day of the third session of the Second Vatican Council, Pope Paul VI consecrates the world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary with no mention of Russia, and the bishops look on but do not join in.

March 27: Pope Paul VI reads the other text of the Third Secret — the one that is 62- lines long. Cardinal Bertone claims that Paul VI read the Third Secret for the first time on this date. However, Archbishop Capovilla testified in his certified note of May 1967 that Paul VI read the Third Secret for the first time on June 27, 1963.

The Bishop of Fatima commissions a learned Claretian priest, Father Joaquin Alonso, to establish a complete critical history of the revelations of Fatima. Ten years later, Father Alonso will complete his work, entitled Fatima Texts and Critical Studies.

Sister Lucy’s memoirs are published, in which she reveals Our Lady’s 1929 request for the Consecration of Russia.

May 13: Sister Lucy meets Pope Paul VI in Fatima and asks him to release the Third Secret, but he refuses.

After 10 years of studying the Fatima archives, Father Alonso declares, in public, that Father Fuentes’ published 1957 interview of Sister Lucy was a true and accurate report of her statements concerning the content of the Message of Fatima.

Father Alonso’s 24 volumes of 800 pages each are ready for publication. This monumental work on the Message of Fatima includes at least 5,396 documents. The presses are literally stopped by the new Bishop of Fatima, Monsignor do Amaral, preventing Father Alonso’s ten years of research from reaching the public. At least 20 of these 24 volumes are still under lock and key to this day.

October 16: Pope John Paul II is elected Pope and reads a text of the Third Secret — the 25-line text that is kept in the papal apartment — within days of his election, according to a statement to Associated Press in May 2000 by his spokesman, Joaquin Navarro-Valls. The statement by Navarro-Valls is contradicted by Msgr. Bertone when he claimed in June 2000 that the Pope first read the Third Secret on July 18, 1981.

May 13: Pope John Paul II is shot and seriously wounded by an assassin.

June 7: The Pope consecrates the world, but not Russia, to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

July 18: According to Cardinal Bertone, Pope John Paul II reads the Third Secret for the first time. The text he reads is the 62-line text that is kept in the Holy Office archives.

March 21: Sister Lucy informs the Papal Nuncio of the requirements for a valid Consecration of Russia according to the request of Our Lady of Fatima. Sister Lucy’s full message is not transmitted to the Pope by the Nuncio. Following the suggestion of Bishop Amaral of Fatima, the Nuncio fails to mention the requirement that the world’s bishops participate in the Consecration.

May 12: L’Osservatore Romano publishes an article by Father Umberto Maria Pasquale, S.D.B. (a well-known Salesian priest who has known Sister Lucy since 1939 and had received over 150 letters from her) reveals that Sister Lucy clearly and emphatically told him that Our Lady of Fatima never asked for the consecration of the world but only the consecration of Russia. Father Pasquale also publishes a photographically-reproduced copy of a handwritten note by Sister Lucy attesting to their conversation on this point.

May 13: Pope John Paul II consecrates the world, but not Russia, at Fatima. The bishops of the world do not participate.

March 19: Sister Lucy meets with the Papal Nuncio and confirms that the Consecration of Russia was not done because Russia was not clearly the object of the consecration and the Catholic bishops of the world did not join in.

March 25: Pope John Paul II, before 250,000 people in Rome, consecrates the world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Immediately after he pronounced the words of consecration, he departs from his prepared text and prays “Enlighten especially the peoples of which You Yourself are awaiting our consecration and confiding.” The Pope thus publicly acknowledges that Our Lady of Fatima is still awaiting the Consecration of Russia.

March 26: The Pope’s own newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano, reports the exact words spoken by the Holy Father on the 25th.

March 27: The Italian Catholic bishops’ newspaper Avvenire reports that the Holy Father, on March 25 at 4:00 in the afternoon, three hours after he consecrated the world, prays at St. Peter’s, asking Our Lady to bless “those peoples for whom You Yourself are awaiting our act of consecration and entrusting,” and thus again the Pope acknowledges that he did not fulfill Our Lady’s request for the Consecration of Russia. The same remarks were reported in L’Osservatore Romano on March 26-27, on page 6 (Italian edition).

September 10: Bishop Alberto Cosme do Amaral, the Bishop of Fatima, declares during a question and answer session in the aula magna of the Technical University of Vienna, Austria: “Its [the Third Secret’s] content concerns only our faith. To identify the Secret with catastrophic announcements or with a nuclear holocaust is to deform the meaning of the message. The loss of faith of a continent is worse than the annihilation of a nation; and it is true that faith is continually diminishing in Europe”.

November 11: Jesus magazine publishes an interview with Cardinal Ratzinger. The interview is entitled “Here is Why the Faith is in Crisis,” and is published with the Cardinal’s explicit permission. Cardinal Ratzinger reveals that he has read the Third Secret and that the Secret refers to “dangers threatening the faith and the life of the Christian and therefore (the life) of the world.” Cardinal Ratzinger says in the same interview that the Secret also refers to “the importance of the Novissimi [the Last Times]”, “the absolute importance of history”, and that “the things contained in this ‘Third Secret’ correspond to what has been announced in Scripture and has been said again and again in many other Marian apparitions, first of all that of Fatima …”

September : In an interview in Sol de Fatima magazine, Sister Lucy affirms that the Consecration of Russia still has not been done because Russia was not the clear object of the 1984 consecration and the world’s episcopate did not participate.

July 20: Interviewed quickly outside her convent while voting, Sister Lucy confirms to journalist Enrico Romero that the Consecration of Russia has not been done.

July: Father Messias Coelho reveals that Sister Lucy and others have received an anonymous “instruction” from unidentified persons in the Vatican stating that she (and they) must now say that the Consecration of Russia was accomplished on March 25, 1984.

August through November: Five computer-generated and typewritten notes and letters supposedly signed by Sister Lucy suddenly appear, contradicting her previous statements that the Consecration of Russia has not been done. These texts are quickly proven to be fakes and this fact is published worldwide.

October 11: Sister Lucy’s blood-sister, Carolina, reveals that Sister Lucy does not know how to type.

May 13: Pope John Paul II visits Fatima and meets with Sister Lucy for thirty minutes. After the meeting, neither the Pope nor Sister Lucy make any announcement concerning the Consecration of Russia.

October: The Fatima Center holds its Bishops Conference in Fatima and 65 bishops attend. The Rector of the Fatima Shrine, Msgr. Guerra, holds his own conference and there Frère Francois denounces the five fake letters produced in 1989 and accuses in public, before many witnesses, to their faces — namely Father Fox, Father Kondor, and Msgr. Guerra — that they are the authors of these fake, forged letters attributed to Sister Lucy. Not one of them denies his accusation.

In a personal communication to Professor Baumgartner in Salzburg, Austria, Cardinal Mario Luigi Ciappi — the personal theologian of John Paul II (and of the four popes before him) — reveals that: “In the Third Secret it is foretold, among other things, that the great apostasy in the Church will begin at the top.”

Howard Dee, former Philippine ambassador to the Vatican, said in an interview with Inside the Vatican magazine that “Bishop Ito [the local bishop of Akita, now deceased] was certain Akita was an extension of Fatima, and Cardinal Ratzinger personally confirmed to me that these two messages, of Fatima and Akita, are essentially the same. ”

At Akita on October 13, 1973, Our Lady said there would be a worldwide chastisement for sins in which a great part of humanity would be killed and that those who survive would envy the dead.

May 13: At the beatification ceremony of Jacinta and Francisco Marto at Fatima, the Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Sodano, announces that the Third Secret of Fatima will be revealed.

June 26: At a press conference, Archbishop Bertone publishes the 62-line text which he claims is the entire Third Secret and claims it refers to the 1981 assassination attempt of John Paul II. The 62-line text describes a vision in which the Pope (a “Bishop dressed in White”) is killed by a band of soldiers. This text, containing none of the elements described by Cardinal Ratzinger in his 1984 interview in Jesus magazine, is obviously incomplete. Also, Cardinal Bertone claims the Consecration of Russia is done and, as proof, offers a quote from one of the five fake letters of 1989.

October 8: Pope John Paul II consecrates the world, but not Russia, in an “entrustment” ceremony.

November 30: A Cardinal described as “one of the Pope’s closest advisors” (Cardinal Tomko) admits to a Vatican magazine editor that he advised Pope John Paul II to not make mention of Russia in any consecration ceremony because it would offend the Russian Orthodox.

May 16: Reflecting the growing skepticism of millions of Catholics, Mother Angelica states on her live television show on this date that she does not believe the Vatican has revealed the entirety of the Third Secret. “Mother Angelica Live” as a live program is taken off the air forever by December.

October 25: Cardinal Ratzinger admits to a “destabilizing [of] the internal equilibrium of the Roman Curia” due to reports (following the September 11th terrorist attack on New York and the invasion of Afghanistan) of a recent letter from Sister Lucy to the Pope concerning the Third Secret and dangers to the world and the person of the Pope.

November 17: Archbishop Bertone (later to become Cardinal Bertone, Vatican Secretary of State) travels from Rome to Coimbra to interview Sister Lucy about the Third Secret and claims the interview went on for two hours, but the communiqué later published by Bertone contains only 44 words alleged to be from the mouth of Sister Lucy concerning the matters of the Third Secret and the Consecration of Russia controversies.

December 20: L’Osservatore Romano publishes the secret “interview” of Sister Lucy, conducted by Archbishop Bertone on November 17, 2001 at the convent in Coimbra. According to Bertone, Sister Lucy said that the consecration of the world in 1984 has been “accepted by heaven”, but yet never even asks Sister Lucy if she wrote and signed the contested fake letters that Bertone relies upon to tell us that Sister Lucy said it was done. No transcript or other independent record of the “interview” is provided.

February 13: Sister Lucy of Fatima dies less than two months short of her 98th birthday.

November 22: Renowned Italian Catholic commentator and journalist Antonio Socci publishes his book, The Fourth Secret of Fatima, which accuses Cardinal Bertone of covering up the complete Third Secret. The book cites the testimony of Archbishop Loris F. Capovilla in July 2006, to Catholic researcher Solideo Paolini, that there are two different texts and two different envelopes pertaining to the Third Secret, that one of the envelopes and its contents — the “Capovilla envelope” — was kept in the papal apartment, not in the archives of the former Holy Office where the text of the vision was lodged, and that Paul VI read its contents on June 27, 1963, two years before the Bertone “official account”, which claims that Pope Paul VI first read the text of the Third Secret on March 27, 1965. The “Capovilla envelope” and text have never been produced.

May 10: Attempting to discredit Socci, Cardinal Bertone publishes his own book, The Last Visionary of Fatima, written in the form of an interview by a Vatican affairs reporter, Giuseppe De Carli, who poses no challenging questions but rather de facto avoids all of the issues, including Msgr. Capovilla’s explosive testimony. In response, on May 12 Socci proclaims and explains publicly (in his weekly column in the Italian journal Libero) that his own book has been vindicated by the Cardinal’s complete failure to answer it, which Socci calls a disturbing development as it means that there is indeed an ongoing cover-up on the part of the Vatican regarding the Third Secret.

May 31: Cardinal Bertone appears by remote live feed on the very popular Italian TV talk show Porta a Porta to again respond to Socci’s book. During this telecast Bertone displays not only the text of the vision but also two separate sealed envelopes prepared by Sister Lucy, each bearing the explicit statement in Sister Lucy’s own handwriting that “By express order of Our Lady, this envelope can be opened in 1960 only by the Cardinal Patriarch of Lisbon or the Bishop of Leiria.”

The two sealed envelopes, and other revelations by Cardinal Bertone during the telecast, further confirm the existence of two texts comprising the Third Secret in its entirety. Further, the “express order of Our Lady” noted on the envelopes flatly contradicts Cardinal Bertone’s earlier repeated representations (only said after Sr. Lucy’s death in 2005) that Sister Lucy “confessed” to him in private, unrecorded conversations that the Virgin has never given any such order.

June 2: Following the telecast, from which Socci has been excluded, Socci publishes his response in Libero. He declares that Bertone has not only failed to “give even one answer” to Socci’s book, but “On the contrary, he did more: He offered the proof that I am right” and “that as a matter of fact the explosive part of the ‘Third Secret of Fatima’ exists yet is well hidden….”

September 21: Bertone stages a second television appearance for himself, this time on the Telepace network, to officially launch his own book which had been published in May and also to try yet again to discredit Socci’s book for a third time. The press are invited to attend. Socci, as a journalist, appears at the telecast location to question Cardinal Bertone. He acts in a proper way but is forcibly removed from the premises by security guards. During the telecast Bertone once again avoids any discussion of the issues. Instead, he presents a heavily-edited videotape of an interview of Archbishop Capovilla conducted by Giuseppe De Carli, a partisan of Cardinal Bertone, in which the Archbishop not only fails to deny the testimony he gave to Paolini (whose name is never mentioned) about the “Capovilla envelope,” but rather fully confirms its existence and location in the papal apartment, and the reading of its contents by Paul VI in 1963, not 1965 as the Bertone “official account” had claimed.

September 22: The Italian newspaper Il Giornale reports that before the guards removed Socci from the location of the telecast of September 21, he was able to play for the assembled journalists an audiotape of Capovilla’s statements to Paolini during a meeting on June 21, 2007. On the tape Capovilla is heard to state: “Besides the four pages [of the vision of the bishop dressed in white] there was also something else, an attachment, yes.” As the reporter from Il Giornale concludes, Capovilla’s statement “would confirm the thesis of the existence of a second sheet with the interpretation of the Secret” — namely, the words of the Virgin following the “etc.”

September 23: Socci again responds to Cardinal Bertone in his column in Libero. Socci again calmly demonstrates that Cardinal Bertone is hiding a major part of the Third Secret.

January 25: Christopher A. Ferrara’s book, The Secret Still Hidden, goes to press; 100,000 copies are printed. In this book, the author gives the history of the Third Secret up to that time. He proves beyond any reasonable doubt that there is a second text, still hidden by the Vatican bureaucrats, which contains the words of Our Lady which follow “In Portugal the dogma of the Faith will always be preserved etc.” He demonstrates his proof using the facts and details provided by both Socci and Bertone. The Italian version of his book is sent to 12,000 Italian priests in June 2008. Cardinal Bertone is sent a copy of Ferrara’s book by August 2008 and Bertone acknowledges receipt of the book but refuses to answer the substance of any of Ferrara’s arguments.

May 4: Vatican journalist Giuseppe De Carli, co-author with Cardinal Bertone of The Last Visionary of Fatima (re-issued in 2010 under the new title, The Last Secret of Fatima), and an apologist for Cardinal Bertone’s now discredited explanations of the Third Secret, admits to the Fatima Challenge Conference before the TV cameras that “…they could have tricked me.”

May 11: Pope Benedict XVI, on his pilgrimage to Portugal in May, stunned the press and the Catholic world by saying that the Third Secret of Fatima tells us that “not only from the outside come the attacks against the Pope and the Church, but the sufferings of the Church come from right inside the Church, from the sin that resides inside the Church… we see this today really in a terrifying way: the greatest persecution against the Church doesn’t come from its enemies outside, but starts from the sins within the Church.”

May 13: Before 500,000 pilgrims, the Pope proclaimed (in reference to the Third Secret): “Whoever thinks that the prophetic mission of Fatima is concluded deceives himself.”

July 13: Giuseppe De Carli dies on the 93rd anniversary of the imparting of the Third Secret by Our Lady of Fatima to the three shepherd children.

An American lawyer’s book-length investigation of the Third Secret cover-up is republished in Italian, receiving the endorsement of a Papal Nuncio.

May 11: A second edition of Christopher Ferrara’s The Secret Still Hidden is published in Italian (bringing the number of copies in print in Italian to well over 20,000), citing Giuseppe De Carli’s statements from the year before and addressing the second edition of De Carli’s/Bertone’s book. The evidence presented in this exhaustive study demonstrates conclusively that Bertone is concealing the companion text of vision published eleven years earlier.

August – September: Inside the Vatican magazine reveals recently deceased Archbishop Pietro Sambi, who was Papal Nuncio to the United States and thus a key attaché of the Vatican Secretariat of State under Cardinal Bertone, had read and praised Ferrara’s book. The endorsement came during a conversation reported by the editor, Robert Moynihan, a personal friend of Sambi’s:

We [Sambi and Moynihan] were discussing the Third Secret of Fatima, the allegations that the Vatican has not published the entire text of the Third Secret as revealed to Sister Lucia, and the response of Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Vatican Secretary of State, in a book where Bertone states that there is nothing more to be revealed. Archbishop Sambi said, “Excuse me.” He got up, went out of the room, and came back with a book. “Here,” he said. “Do you know this book? You should read it.” It was Christopher Ferrara’s The Secret Still Hidden. “Wait,” I said. “You are the Pope’s representative in the US, and you are urging me to read a book that questions what the Secretary of State wrote?” Sambi replied: “All I am saying is that there are interesting things worth reading in this book. And in the end, we are all after the truth, aren’t we? The truth is the important thing …”

European politicians respond to the urgency of the Fatima Message.

October 23 : Father Nicholas Gruner and Christopher Ferrara address the international press corps of the European Union Parliament in Strasbourg, France, in support of a motion sponsored by two Members of Parliament, the Honorable Mario Borghezio and the Honorable Lorenzo Fontana, for a declaration by the EU Parliament formally requesting that “His Holiness,Pope Benedict XVI… fulfill the will of the Queen of Heaven”by performing the Consecration of Russia in order to address the threat of “great danger at the present time to world peace and the serenity of all European peoples.”

The Parliament is informed that “the Blessed Virgin Mary has promised a long period of prosperity and peace, if and only if, the Holy Father will consecrate Russia in a solemn and public manner, as precisely specified by Her in the Message of Fatima.” Father Gruner’s remarks conclude: “I urge the Members of Parliament and I urge the members of the Press to bring this motion of the Parliament to the Pope, because he wants to do this but he has many pressures against him not to do the Consecration. He needs public support for doing the Consecration of Russia in time, before it’s too late for all of us.”

The petition for this parliamentary motion is subsequently approved by the Petitions Committee for presentation before the full legislative body.

Pope Benedict “resigns” the Papacy, but with a curious qualification.

February 11 : In the wake of a rumored death threat (made public in November by an Italian Cardinal) against Pope Benedict XVI and amid concerns that, contrary to true justice, he will be forced by secular powers to be brought to trial before the International Criminal Court, Pope Benedict makes the stunning announcement that he will abdicate from the Throne of Peter: “I declare that I renounce the ministry of Bishop of Rome, Successor of Saint Peter, entrusted to me by the Cardinals on 19 April 2005, in such a way, that as from 28 February 2013, at 20:00 hours, the See of Rome, the See of Saint Peter, will be vacant and a Conclave to elect the new Supreme Pontiff will have to be convoked by those whose competence it is.”

The Pope’s stated rationale for his abdication is that “in order to govern the barque of Saint Peter and proclaim the Gospel, both strength of mind and body are necessary, strength which in the last few months, has deteriorated in me to the extent that I have had to recognize my incapacity to adequately fulfill the ministry entrusted to me.” In subsequent months, however, the Pope will reveal that he is in full possession of his mental faculties, including the ability to deliver complex extemporaneous addresses and that he is under no serious physical disability.

Various canonists, scholars, and Vatican officials express the expectation that—in keeping with the rare historical precedents for papal resignation—Benedict will once again take the name Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, as well as the black cassock and the coat of arms that he used as a Cardinal, and that he will leave the Vatican to reside in Bavaria or in a cloistered monastery, because (as one spokesman puts it) “Otherwise, it will get very

February 14 : The Pope tells the parish priests of Rome that upon his resignation becoming effective he will remain “hidden from the world.” In fact, he will not remain hidden from the world but will continue to reside in the Vatican and will begin appearing at public events alongside Pope Francis.

February 26 : To the amazement of canonists, the press, and Catholics in general, two days before his resignation takes effect, Pope Benedict announces that despite his “resignation” he will retain the name “Pope Benedict XVI” (Emeritus), the title “His Holiness,” the white papal cassock, the papal coat of arms bearing the Keys of Peter, and that he will continue to live within the Vatican. Canonists and commentators express the concern that Benedict risks creating the impression that he will remain Pope in some sense after the coming conclave, for which there is no precedent in Church history.

February 27 : In his last public papal audience, Pope Benedict announces: “I will no longer vest the power of the office for the government of the Church, but … I am not returning to private life … [T]here is no return to the private sphere. My decision to forgo the exercise of active ministry does not revoke this fact.” In other words, Benedict suggests that under a certain (passive) aspect he will remain Pope and that he has not renounced this aspect of the papacy. This less-than-total renunciation of the papacy likewise has no precedent in the entire history of the Church.

March – April : In the following months, Pope Benedict does indeed continue to wear the white papal cassock (though without the symbols of active government such as the pallium and the papal ring), and he often leaves his residence next to St. Peter’s in order to meet with Pope Francis, to receive guests, and to participate in ceremonies. Speculation gathers apace as to what Pope Benedict truly meant in his resignation speech: “I have come to the certainty that my strengths, due to an advanced age, are no longer suited to an adequate exercise of the Petrine ministry. … For this reason, and well aware of the seriousness of this act, with full freedom I declare that I renounce the ministry of Bishop of Rome.”

While initially offering the incredible explanation that he retained the white papal cassock because there was nothing else for him to wear, Benedict soon lets it be known through both his Secretary, Georg Gänswein, and Pope Francis himself, that he considers himself to be a “Pope Emeritus.” This is something the Church has never seen before, but Francis will declare it to be a new “institution” in the Church.

Contrary to the prior explanation the he had resigned due to mental and physical infirmity, Benedict will make various appearances at public events conducted by Francis and will continue to give addresses and receive people in audience.

May 13 : Exactly two months after Pope Francis’ election, at the Pope’s repeated and insistent request, his pontificate is consecrated to Our Lady of Fatima by Cardinal José Policarpo, the Patriarch of Lisbon, at the Fatima Shrine in a collegial act in union with all the bishops of Portugal.

July 28 : During an impromptu press conference on the flight returning to Rome from his visit to Brazil, Francis reveals that in discussing with Benedict the “Vatileaks” scandal, arising from leaks to the press concerning rampant corruption in the Vatican bureaucracy, Benedict presented him with a large box and envelope containing the investigative material and report on the scandal. Francis notes that Benedict “had it all in his head! What intelligence! Everything memorized, everything! But no, it didn’t frighten me, no. No, no. Though it is a big problem.” Aside from revealing the extent of the scandal, Francis here also reveals Benedict’s full possession of his remarkable mental faculties, thus calling into question the “official” explanation for his unprecedented “renunciation” of the “active ministry” of the papacy on grounds of weakness of mind as well as body.

August 13 : Pope Francis announces that he has invited the Catholic bishops to accompany him in consecrating the world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary in a solemn ceremony in Rome on the coming October 13, 2013.

October 11 : Father Gruner is in Rome preparing for the ceremonies, particularly by organizing the distribution of 200,000 copies of a 12-page newspaper explaining the true Message of Fatima and Our Lady’s request for the Consecration of Russia to Her Immaculate Heart by the Pope in union with all of the Catholic bishops of the world. A similar four-page supplement is also published in Il Tempo, the third largest daily newspaper in Rome, with a readership of 225,000.

October 12 : While in the Vatican, the day before the ceremony announced by Francis, Father Gruner is repeatedly detained and harassed by Vatican Security officers, including Dr. Dominic Giani, the head of Vatican Security. Though Giani admits to Father Gruner that he does not believe Father poses any threat to the Pope’s security, he is singled out and forbidden to approach the Pope.

October 13 : Pope Francis officiates at the announced ceremony with an uncharacteristic dour expression, as if he were annoyed at the way the proceedings had been arranged. The promised consecration to the Immaculate Heart turns out to be nothing more than yet another vague act of “entrustment” in which nothing is consecrated, not even the world is mentioned, there is no reference at all to the Immaculate Heart. This represents the weakest effort yet to carry out Our Lady’s specific request for Russia’s consecration.

“Two Popes?”; the alarming “Francis effect”; the world on the brink; yet another revelation concerning the Third Secret.

February 20 : At an “Extraordinary Consistory on the Family” convened by Pope Francis, Cardinal Walter Kasper, with the Pope’s prior approval, proposes to permit divorced and “remarried” Catholics to receive Holy Communion without any commitment to cease their adulterous relations. The implications for Catholic moral teaching are staggering, and numerous Cardinals express their opposition.

Kasper’s “revolutionary” proposal comes at the end of Francis’s first year as Pope, during which the promising signs of Marian piety and respect for the Message of Fatima have given way to a “Francis effect” consisting of an astonishing series of radically progressive and theologically dubious pronouncements made at press conferences and during interviews with various newspapers and magazines, beginning with his infamous “Who am I to judge?” regarding homosexuals in the priesthood.

By the beginning of 2014, Pope Francis has already been hailed as a “revolutionary Pope” by all the world’s major media outlets. In an unprecedented display of praise for a Roman Pontiff by the hostile organs of world opinion, Francis is named “Person of the Year” by Time magazine, which features him on its cover, is also featured on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine (the leading journal of degenerate “rock culture”), which hails the Pope’s “gentle revolution,” and is even lauded as “Person of the Year” by the Advocate, a magazine dedicated to militant homosexualism and the “gay lifestyle,” whose cover is likewise devoted to Francis.

March : Russia accepts the will of 96% of the Crimean people to rejoin Russia, and the threat of war with Ukraine looms large as Russian-speaking eastern Ukrainians were fearing the nonelected leader and policies of the Ukraine who takes over after the coup d’état of February 21, 2014.

May 28 : The renowned “Vaticanist” Vittorio Messori joins other prominent journalists, including Antonio Socci (author of The Fourth Secret of Fatima) and Robert Moynihan (Editor of Inside the Vatican), in recognizing a totally new situation in the history arising from the curiously nuanced “resignation” by Pope Benedict and his retention of the papal title as Pope Emeritus, the papal garb, and the signs of the papal office.

Messori contends that there are presently, in effect, two Popes acting in communion with and in recognition of each other, having even co-authored an encyclical together, Lumen Fidei, published the previous July.

Other Catholics, however, recognize that this is a false distinction. Regardless of what Pope Benedict may have meant by his words, not even a Pope has the power or authority to change the constitution of the Church established by Christ. There can only be one Pope; the office, and the task of exercising the duties of that office, can reside only in one and the same person.

This utterly unprecedented situation calls to mind the vision of the Third Secret, regarding which Lucia writes of the “Bishop dressed in white” that “we had the impression it was the Holy Father.”

July 8 : Israel launches “Operation Protective Edge,” unleashing devastating force against the Gaza strip and killing thousands of Palestinians. Only days earlier Pope Francis had conducted a patently useless and scandalous interreligious ceremony in the Vatican gardens to “pray for peace” with Jewish and Muslim representatives, including the planting of an olive tree. A Muslim Imam intones a prayer calling for the defeat of the “infidels” (i.e., all non-Muslims, which would include Francis himself) which Vatican Radio censors from the transcript. This useless publicity stunt is followed almost immediately by the worst outbreak of violence in the Holy Land in many years.

July-August : Muslim fanatics of the Islamic State organization (ISIS) begin violent persecution of Christians in Iraq, including beheadings, rapes, enslavement and the destruction of Christian churches and shrines. Tens of thousands of Christians flee for their lives.

August 17 : In an explosive column in Il Libero, Antonio Socci reports that a new biography of Sister Lucia, prepared by the nuns at the Carmelite Convent in Coimbra, reveals that during the famous apparition of Our Lady in the convent chapel to Sister Lucia on January 3, 1944, during which Our Lady directed her how to write down the Secret, the Virgin said: “Be at peace, and write what I have commanded you, but not, however, that which has been given to you to understand its meaning,” that is, the meaning of the vision published in 2000.

That is, even after the first writing on January 3, a portion of the Secret had yet to be committed to paper; but it obviously would be at some point, as it would be nonsensical for Our Lady to direct the seer to write down part of the Secret but then hide forever the other part in which She explains its meaning.

Accordingly, while the text of the vision was written and dated January 3, 1944, it was not until January 9, 1944 that Lucia wrote to her bishop to inform him that she had finally committed the Third Secret to paper as he had commanded her. Lucia evidently wrote a separate text giving the Virgin’s explanation of the vision’s meaning (which, following the Virgin’s instructions, Lucia had not written down on January 3).

This new revelation, Socci notes, is yet another “confirmation of the historical reconstruction according to which the Third Secret is composed of two parts: one, the vision, was written and sent first [to the Vatican], while the other—that which, in the words of the Virgin, is “the meaning” of the vision—was written and sent later.”

Socci concludes that this later text is evidently “the famous and mysterious ‘attachment’ of which Capovilla hinted” in the audio tape Socci played for his fellow reporters during Bertone’s television event from which he was expelled in 2007. It is in this text, “as yet unpublished,” writes Socci, “where presumably resides the part that most frightened Sister Lucia. The same part that frightened John XXIII (but also, before him, Pius XII) and which Roncalli decided not to make public because—according to him—it could be only a thought of Sister Lucia’s that did not have a supernatural origin. And a part so explosive that its existence continues officially to be denied. And the opening by Benedict XVI in 2010 [see above], which led as well to the publication of this volume, is today reopened.”

September 13 : Pope Francis declares that the Third World War has already begun “piecemeal,” although he gives no sign that he will take the measure Our Lady of Fatima prescribed as the only means to avoid it: the Consecration of Russia to Her Immaculate Heart.

September 20 : With tensions between the United States and Russia over the situation in Ukraine at crisis levels, Russian military planes enter United States airspace, and Air Force jets “scramble” to intercept them. This is the latest incident in a series of such incursions over the past five years, with Air Force jets intercepting at least 50 Russian bombers in U.S. airspace.

April 10, 2015 : Faithful Catholics are increasingly aware of how dire the situation in the Church and the world has become. While the Church is disturbed and even scandalized by the words and deeds of a “revolutionary Pope” like no other before him, international crises threaten to spark a global conflagration at any time.

  PDF of The Complete Fatima Timeline – Click to See

 Personal Consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary NOVENA   |  AUG. 13th - 21st

• Angels Over Moscow
• Moscow Traffic

Books By Juliette M. Engel, MD

About the Author

Dr. Juliette Engel moved to Moscow in 1999 and founded the Angel Coalition to combat human trafficking. Over the next ten years, the Angel Coalition grew into an underground railroad that assisted thousands of victims. She also co-founded Moscow’s municipal orphanage staff training center, Women and Children First, and a nationwide program of community center support for single mothers, the Babushka Brigade. Her life was a constant collage of travel and adventure with a cluster of Russian colleagues and friends. She sweated in banyas and jumped into frigid Siberian lakes, traveled by train and bus to small villages on the steppes, and ate blinis with honey in Novgorod and smoked fish on the shores of Lake Onega. She sailed the great Volga River, delivering aid to orphanages and getting to know the kids, watching them grow over the years and trying, often in vain, to keep them safe. She came back to America in 2010 when her protégé was murdered by traffickers and Russian Military Intelligence warned her that she would be next. She is currently living in the Washington DC area and writing her memoirs.