First Saturdays Devotion

The Devotion

On the first Saturday of five consecutive months:

Confess
Receive Holy Communion
Recite five decades of the Rosary
Meditate fifteen minutes on the fifteen mysteries of the Rosary

Apparition of the Five First Saturdays

On December 10, 1925, the Mother of God appeared to Sr. Lucia, the last living visionary of Fatima, also appearing with her, by Her side, elevated on a luminous cloud, was the Child Jesus. The Most Holy Virgin rested Her hand on Lucia’s shoulder, and as She did so, She showed her a Heart encircled by thorns, which She was holding in Her other hand. At the same time, the Child said:

Have compassion on the Heart of your Most Holy Mother, covered with thorns, with which ungrateful men pierce It at every moment, and there is no one to make an act of Reparation to remove them.

Then the Most Holy Virgin said:

Look my daughter, at My Heart, surrounded with thorns with which ungrateful men pierce Me at every moment by their blasphemies and ingratitude. You at least try to console Me and announce in My name that I promise to assist at the moment of death, with all the graces necessary for salvation, all those who, on the first Saturday of five consecutive months shall: confess, receive Holy Communion, recite five decades of the Rosary, and keep Me company for fifteen minutes while meditating on the fifteen mysteries of the Rosary, with the intention of making Reparation to Me.

At first Sr. Lucia herself, ignored Our Lady’s request and did not make the message of Five First Saturdays known.

Two months later, on February 15, 1926, Sr. Lucia went outside to dump the trash in the dumpster behind the convent, where some months earlier she met a child whom she asked if he knew the Hail Mary, and he said he did, but he made no attempt to say it. So she told him to learn it. On this day, she once again met the same child behind the convent. She asked him, “Did you do as I told you and learn the prayer?” Lucia relates what happened next:

The child turned to me and said "And have you spread through the world what our heavenly Mother requested of you?" With that, he was transformed into the resplendent Lord Jesus.

Sr. Lucia made her excuses to Jesus for not doing what Mary requested to which Jesus responded:

It is true, my daughter, that many souls begin the First Saturdays, but few finish them, and those who do complete them do so in order to receive the graces that are promised thereby. It would please me more if they did the Five with fervour and with the intention of making reparation to the Heart of your Heavenly Mother.

Consecration of Russia to the Heart of Mary

In 1930 Sr. Lucia of Fatima wrote a letter in which she explained that Jesus promised to grant religious freedom to all people under the domination of Russia when the Pope consecrated Russia to the Heart of Mary.

As a result of the Consecration made by Pope St. John Paul II in 1984, that happened! On December 8, 1991, the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, all the countries under the former Soviet Union were set free and granted religious freedom.

Next Jesus said to Lucia:

The Holy Father must then promise that upon the ending of this persecution of religion in Russia, he will approve and recommend the practice of the five first Saturdays.

The time immediately following the granting of religious freedom in Russia was supposed to be the time when First Saturdays of Reparation kicked in.

But we have not practiced the First Saturdays and fear, hatred, and war have covered the Earth.

Jesus told Lucia that once she completed the Five First Saturdays she should continue in the place of all those who would not.

Our Lady's Promise

Sr. Lucia took very seriously Our Lady’s warning that another world war, famines and persecutions of the Church would result if we did not make reparation for our sins.

Sr. Lucia believed the Blessed Mother’s promise that souls could be saved and wars and disasters averted if we would dedicate ourselves to the Immaculate Heart of Mary through the Five First Saturdays of reparation.

In a letter Lucia wrote:

Our Lady promised to postpone the scourge of war if this devotion is spread and practiced.

We see her putting off this chastisement in the measure that efforts are being made to spread it. But I am afraid that we are not doing all that we are able to, and that God, in no way satisfied, may raise the arm of his mercy and let the world be ravaged by this punishment, which will be as never been, horrible, horrible!

Peace or war depends on the Five First Saturdays along with the Consecration.

Why Five First Saturdays

There are five kinds of offenses and blasphemies spoken against the Immaculate Heart of Mary:

Blasphemies against the Immaculate Conception
Against her Virginity
Against the Divine Maternity, refusing, at the same time, to receive her as the Mother of mankind
Those who seek publicly to implant, in the hearts of children, indifference, disrespect, and even hate for this Immaculate Mother
Those who revile her directly in her sacred images