Father John Eckert leads a rosary at the site where the Blessed Mother appeared to three shepherd children in 1917.CHARLOTTE — Mary Sample from St. Vincent de Paul Parish in Charlotte, her brothers, Frank and Joseph Spicer, and Father John Eckert, pastor of Sacred Heart Parish in Salisbury, are on a mission to bring the message of Our Lady of Fatima to Charlotte, one pilgrim at a time.
The three recently arrived home from Fatima, Portugal, where they traveled with a group of 47 pilgrims, primarily from their parishes and St. Michael the Archangel Parish in Gastonia.
Since 2015, Sample and Frank Spicer have organized 15 Fatima trips, which now take place twice a year. Their 13-day itinerary is filled by apparition sites, basilicas in Portugal and Spain and spiritual talks by 20 speakers.
Some pilgrims were visiting for the first time while this trip marked Frank Spicer’s 48th visit, yet all agreed it was life changing.
Sacred Heart parishioner Len Kobylus led the candlelight procession at the Chapel of Apparitions in Fatima, the site where Our Lady appeared to three shepherd children, venerable Sister Lucia, St. Jacinta, and St. Francisco. Kobylus carried a 40-pound cross through wind and rain at the outdoor chapel.
“When you are doing that, you feel like heaven has touched you,” Kobylus said. “My wife went in 2019 with Father [John] Putnam and the seminarians, and she came back fully transformed.
Now I know why. This pilgrimage taught me the real message of Fatima. Before, I was just going through the motions, but now I know the reason beyond.”
Each pilgrim had a role as a lector, altar server, or rosary leader at the churches they visited, including St. Anthony’s, the parish the shepherd children attended, the Basilica of Our Lady of the Rosary, where they prayed at the tombs of Sts. Jacinta and Francisco and Venerable Sister Lucia, and the Royal Basilica of the most Sacred Heart of Jesus in Lisbon, Portugal.
“I loved being at the church where the shepherd children were baptized, and we renewed our baptismal vows,” said Linda Harris of Sacred Heart Parish. “It is hard to imagine that you are there where they were.”
Sister of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul, Sister Agnes Maria, who visited for the first time, feels closer to the Blessed Virgin Mary.
“When I was walking through that soil at the apparitions [site], I got tearful,” said Sister Agnes. “Mother Mary walked through these places. It was the greatest feeling. Each time I am saying my rosary now, I feel like I am holding on to her arms and praying.”
Len Kobylus, a Sacred Heart parishioner, carries the cross during a candlelit procession at the Chapel of Apparitions in Fatima, Portugal.
Harris is also feeling more connected to the rosary. She admits making time for and concentrating on it were sometimes difficult. Her passion for the rosary was restored after receiving two rosaries – one that was placed on Venerable Lucia’s bed at the Carmel of St. Teresa in Coimbra, and the other that grazed the chair by St. Jacinta’s bedside at the Poor Clare Convent, where the Blessed Mother sat during a private visitation.
“Now, I want to learn to make rosaries, and I want to always have a bundle and give them out whether you are Catholic or not,” Harris said. “You have to get rosaries in people’s hands and let them touch their hearts, and the miracles will flow.”
Jaclynne Drummond, who came back to the Church six years ago, took the trip at the suggestion of her former pastor at St. John the Evangelist Church in Waynesville, Father Paul McNulty. Drummond was not expecting the peace she would find.
“The emotional healing has been so incredibly beautiful and is still with me right now,” she said.
Drummond, just like the others, came back ready to devote herself to the message of Fatima.
“In order to know the Fatima mission, you have to live it and spread it,” Sample said. “We could teach people through classes, but when they are actually physically going, that’s when we truly know we are going to be successful. That is when people start praying the rosary daily, and they start doing the first Saturdays. That is our mission.”
The First Saturday Devotion includes going to confession, receiving Holy Communion, praying five decades of the rosary and meditating for 15 minutes on the mysteries of the rosary, all with the intention of making reparation to the Immaculate Heart of Mary for five consecutive first Saturdays of the month.
Sample wants to lead more people to practice the devotion and spread the message of Fatima. “Our Lady touches everyone so differently,” she said. “We’ve got to get more people over to experience it, and then come back and live it.”
— Lisa M. Geraci
Trip highlights
- Mass at the Capelinha (apparition site) and prayer at the tombs of St. Francisco, St. Jacinta and Venerable Lucia.
- Walking the Hungarian Stations of the Cross in Valinhos, following the path the children took to the Calvary Chapel.
- The Monastery of St. Teresa, Sister Lucia’s home for 57 years, and the convent in Tuy, Spain, where the final 1929 apparition occurred.
- Pontevedra, Spain, site where Our Lady requested the First Saturday Devotion in 1925.