In 1926 Sister Lucy left the convent in Pontevedra to enter the Dorothean novitiate at Tuy, a Spanish city near Pontevedra. She took her habit on October 26, 1926, and pronounced her first vows on October 3, 1928. It was here in Tuy that Our Lady’s promise contained in the Secret of July 13, 1917 was fulfilled: “I shall come to ask for the consecration of Russia….”
Sister Lucy describes the communication:
June 13, 1929). I had requested and obtained permission from my superiors and my confessor to make a holy hour from 11:00 p.m. to midnight, from Thursday to Friday of each week.
Finding myself alone one night, I knelt down near the Communion rail, in the middle of the chapel, to recite the prayers of the Angel, lying prostrate… Feeling tired, I got up and continued to recite them with my arms in the form of a cross. The only light was that of the [sanctuary] lamp.
Suddenly, the whole chapel lit up with a supernatural light and on the altar appeared a cross of light which reached the ceiling. In a clearer light, on the upper part of the cross, could be seen the face of a man with His body to the waist, on His chest a dove, equally luminous; and nailed to the cross, the body of another man. A little below the waist [of Christ on the cross], suspended in the air, could be seen a Chalice and a large Host, onto which some drops of Blood were falling, which flowed from the face of the Crucified One and from the wound in His breast. Running down over the Host, these drops fell into the Chalice.
Under the right arm of the cross was Our Lady with Her Immaculate Heart in Her hand… (She appeared as Our Lady of Fatima, with Her Immaculate Heart in Her left hand, without sword or roses, but with a crown of thorns and flames) under the left arm [of the cross], in large letters, like crystalline water which flowed over the altar, forming these words: “Grace and Mercy”. I understood that the mystery of the Most Holy Trinity was shown to me, and I received lights about this mystery which I am not permitted to reveal.
Then Our Lady said to me: ‘The moment has come in which God asks the Holy Father to make, in union with all the bishops of the world, the consecration of Russia to My Immaculate Heart, promising to save it by this means. So numerous are the souls which the justice of God condemns for sins committed against Me, that I come to ask for reparation. Sacrifice yourself for this intention and pray.’
I rendered an account of this to my confessor, who ordered me to write down what Our Lord willed to be done.
The request at Tuy was especially distinguished by the role the Bishops of the Church, and specifically the Holy Father, were to have in God’s plan for peace. The faithful had been instructed in their role of prayer and sacrifice in the apparitions at Fatima. At Tuy, however, the Pope is given the primary responsibility for future peace: “God asks the Holy Father….” In 1917 the Holy Father had asked the Blessed Mother to obtain the peace of the world and, like a loving mother, She readily consented, but on the condition of the Holy Father’s and the Church’s faithful cooperation with Her plan.