The “Five First Saturdays” Devotion to the

Immaculate Heart of Mary

One of the most important aspects of the 1917 Fatima message was Our Lady’s request for what would become the “Five First Saturdays” devotion. During the July 13, 1917 apparition at Fatima, Portugal, Our Blessed Mother said to the three shepherd children (Lucia, Jacinta, and Francisco), “You have seen Hell where the souls of poor sinners go. To save them, God wishes to establish in the world devotion to my Immaculate Heart… I shall come to ask for the Communion of Reparation on the First Saturdays.” Eight years later, Our Blessed Mother came expressly with the request for this devotion when she appeared to Sister Lucia on December 10, 1925, in Pontevedra, Spain, where Sister Lucia was in formation for consecrated religious life in the Dorothean Convent.

On December 10, 1925, while Sister Lucia was a postulant with the Dorothean Sisters, the Most Holy Virgin appeared to her, and by Her side, elevated on a luminous cloud, was the Divine Child Jesus. The Most Holy Virgin rested her hand on Sister Lucia’s shoulder, and as she did so, she showed her an Immaculate Heart encircled by thorns, which she was holding in her other hand. At the same time, the Divine Child Jesus 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.”

- - “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.”
  - Special Note: To those who practice this devotion of the Five First Saturdays in reparation to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, Our Blessed Mother promises her assistance at the hour of death “with the graces necessary for salvation” – she does not promise them eternal salvation itself, but rather the Heavenly graces necessary for salvation. These two things are not exactly the same, and so this distinction is worth making, for such a promise of salvation itself by Our Blessed Mother would not be consistent with authentic Christian teaching.

Our Blessed Mother outlined exactly what is involved in observing the Five First Saturdays devotion. There are four main elements of the devotion and two conditions.

1. 1. To go to Confession either on the First Saturday itself or at least one week before or one week after the First Saturday itself.
  2. To receive Holy Communion on the First Saturday itself (preferably at Holy Mass).
  3. To pray five decades of the Rosary on the First Saturday itself.
  4. And to keep Our Lady company for at least fifteen minutes while meditating on the mysteries of the Rosary, following the praying of the Rosary, on the First Saturday itself.

1. 1. That the practices be done on the First Saturday of five consecutive months.
  2. That the practices be done precisely with the intention of making reparation to Our Lady for the sins of blasphemy and ingratitude against her and her Immaculate Heart. Note: Blasphemies against the Blessed Virgin include: (1) those against her Immaculate Conception; (2) those against her perpetual virginity; (3) those against her divine maternity and which are carried out by persons refusing at the same time to accept her as the Mother of mankind; (4) those which are carried out by persons who try publicly to implant in the hearts of children an indifference, contempt, and even hate for this Immaculate Mother; and (5) those which are carried out by persons who insult her directly in her sacred images.