Our Lady of Fatima Shrine

Our Shrine in Bison, Oklahoma

The origin of the Shrine belongs to Father Andrew Thomas.  The idea continued and was made into reality by Father John O'Brian.

The erection of the Shrine was marked from start to finish by different feast days of the Blessed Virgin Mary, although it was not especially planned that way.  It seems from this that Our Lady was pleased with the complition of the Shrine.

September 8, 1951 --- The Nativity of Mary --- Members of the parish hauled limestone rocks from Burback to site of the the Shrine.

October 11, 1961 --- Maternity of Mary --- The construction of the Shrine began by members of the parish.  The labor and the materials were all donated.

December 8, 1951 --- Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary ---The Shrine was erected and dedicated by the Most Reverend Eugene Joseph McGuinness.

The Shrine was destroyed by an electrical fire resulting from a storm in 1992.  It was rebuilt and dedicated on October 30, 1994 by The Most Reverend Charles A. Salatka.

The Story of Fatima

On a cool spring day in 1916, Lucy dos Santos, age 9, and her cousins, Francisco and Jacinta Marto, ages 8 and 6 respectively, took their parents' sheep to pasture in a place not far from their homes in the mountain village of Fatima, Portugal, about 90 miles north of Lisbon.  It started to drizzle, and the children sought shelter in a nearby cave.  Suddenly across the field, a white globe of light appeared, moving over the open space toward the cave.  The three children stared in awe as they saw in the center of the light a beautiful young man in flowing white garments.

The stranger began to speak: "Fear not, I am the Angel of Peace.  Pray with me."  Kneeling on the ground, he bowed low and recited this prayer three times, with the children repeating it after him:  "O my God, I believe, I adore, I hope and I love thee.  I ask pardon for those who do not believe, do not adore, do not hope and do not love Thee."

In mid-summer, as the children were together, the angel came again, and said, "Pray! Pray a great deal.  The Hearts of Jesus and Mary have merciful designs on you.  Offer prayers and sacrifices continually to the Most High.   Make everything you do a sacrifice, and offer it as an act of reparation for the sins by which God is offended, and as a petition for the conversion of sinners.  Bring peace to our country in this way...I am the Guardian Angel of Portugal.  Accept and bear with submission all the sufferings the Lord will send you."

The angel came again in the fall of that same year, this time bearing a golden chalice in one hand and a Host above it in the other.  The amazed children noticed that drops of blood were falling from the Host into the chalice.  Presently the angel left both suspended in mid-air and prostrated himself on the gournd, saying this beautiful prayer: "Most Holy Trinity--Father, Son, and Holy Spirit--I adore Thee profoundly.  I offer Thee the most precious Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ, present in all the tabernacles of the world, in reparation for the outrages, sacrileges and indifferences whereby He is offended.  An through the infinite merits of His Most Sacred heart and thr Immaculate Heart of Mary, I beg of Thee the conversion of poor sinners."

Such was the prelude to one of the most remarkable messages ever to be given from Heaven to Earth--the "peace plan" of Our Lady of Fatima."

Source:  Our Lady of Fatima's Peace Plan from Heaven