Prayers · Immaculate Heart of Mary

Devotion of the First Five Saturdays to the Immaculate Heart of Mary

The Devotion of the Five consecutive First Saturdays to the Immaculate Heart of Mary was asked by the Most Blessed Virgin of Sister Lucia dos Santos — the sole survivor of the three shepherds of Fatima — in a private apparition of 10 December 1925, at the convent of the Dorothean Sisters in Pontevedra (Galicia, Spain). It is the Marian counterpart of the devotion of the nine First Fridays to the Sacred Heart of Jesus (cf. 3i and 3s in Lumen). The Virgin appeared accompanied by the Child Jesus and asked for five consecutive First Saturdays with: (1) sacramental confession (up to eight days before or after the Saturday); (2) sacramental communion in a state of grace; (3) Rosary complete of five mysteries; (4) fifteen minutes of meditation on the Mysteries of the Rosary; all with the intention of reparation for the offences committed against the Immaculate Heart of Mary — the five classes of offences which Our Lord enumerated in the same revelation. Promise: the Virgin promised to assist at the hour of death with all the graces necessary for salvation to whoever fulfils this devotion. The Memoirs of Sister Lucia (Coimbra) textually attest the request and the promise. The Sanctuary of Fatima diffuses the devotion as universal devotional patrimony.

(On the First Saturday of the month, after sacramental Communion:)

Immaculate Heart of Mary, Mother of Jesus and our Mother, here I am on this consecutive First Saturday of the devotion you asked of Sister Lucia at Pontevedra. I have confessed sacramentally. I have just communicated of the Body of your Son. Soon I shall recite your entire Rosary. For fifteen minutes, I shall meditate on the mysteries of our salvation.

All this, O Immaculate One, I offer with the express intention of making reparation for the offences which your Mother’s Heart constantly receives from the world:

against your Immaculate Conception;
against your perpetual Virginity;
against your divine Motherhood;
against those who try to remove from the heart of children the love for you as Mother;
against those who directly outrage your sacred images.

In exchange, I ask you, according to the promise you made, the grace of assistance at the hour of my death with all the graces necessary for eternal salvation. May at that moment, O Mother, I see you come to meet me with the Child Jesus in your arms — as you appeared at Pontevedra — to lead me to Paradise.

Immaculate Heart of Mary, be the salvation of me and of the whole world. Amen.

Our Father. Hail Mary. Glory be.

Source: Devotion revealed by Our Lady to Sister Lucia dos Santos at Pontevedra, Galicia, 10 December 1925, textually documented in the <em>Memoirs of Sister Lucia</em> (Coimbra, written 1935-1942 by order of the Bishop of Leiria; first official publication 1973 by the Postulator of the Cause); reparatory offences enumerated by the Lord himself in the same revelation; diffused by the Sanctuary of Fatima as universal devotional patrimony; intentional parallel with the devotion of the nine First Fridays to the Sacred Heart (cf. 3i Eucharistic Adoration and 3s Sacred Heart)

Ecclesiastical approval: Fatima apparitions of 1917 recognised as worthy of belief by the Bishop of Leiria, D. José Alves Correia da Silva, in the pastoral letter <em>A Divina Providência</em> of 13.10.1930; Pontevedra apparitions (1925) and Tuy (1929) implicitly recognised by the same authority through the promotion of the Five First Saturdays by the Sanctuary of Fatima; liturgical feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary on the Saturday following the Sacred Heart (General Roman Calendar, obligatory memorial); consecration of the world to the IC by Pius XII on 31.10.1942 and 8.12.1942 and by Francis on 25.03.2022 (Russia/Ukraine)

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