Why Did the Virgin Mary Choose RUSSIA? Earth-Shaking Promises from Heaven about Russia

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Have you ever wondered why Our Lady of Fatima singled out Russia, and only Russia, as a country destined by God for a great future, perhaps as the most Christian nation in the world? ? 

Why would the Mother of God come to a lonely field in Portugal in 1917 and tell three shepherd children that Russia, which they had never even heard of, would soon become the first officially godless state in all of history??  And why did God crown her appearances and validate her words with the most spectacular miracle since biblical times, the great Miracle of the Sun?

Dr. Joseph Garrett, Professor of Natural Sciences at Coimbra University in Portugal, personally witnessed this prodigy:?  "[The sun] did not remain immobile . . . for it spun around on itself in a mad whirl. . . .?  The sun, whirling, seemed to loosen itself from the sky and advance threateningly on the earth as if to crush us with its huge, fiery weight.?  The sensations during these moments were terrible."

This miracle stupefied all 70,000 witnesses, believers and atheists alike.?  Science has never been able to explain what they saw. ? 

Momentous prophecies about Russia

The Virgin Mary also revealed momentous secrets to the world in 1917—secrets that centered around Russia.?  One of her disclosures was that after years of godless rule, Russia would be converted and return to her Christian roots.

On July 13, 1917, Our Blessed Mother told the seer Lucia dos Santos, "When you . . . see a night illuminated by an unknown light, know that this is the great sign that He [God] is going to punish the world for its crimes, by means of war. . . .?  To prevent this, I shall come to ask for the consecration of Russia to my Immaculate Heart. . . .?  If they listen to my requests, Russia will be converted and there will be peace; if not, she will spread her errors through the world, causing wars and persecutions of the Church.?  The good will be martyred, the Holy Father will have much to suffer, various nations will be annihilated."?  (Emphasis added)

"In the end, my Immaculate Heart will triumph," Mary continued.?  "The Holy Father will consecrate Russia to me, and she will be converted and a period of peace will be granted to the world." ? 

Part of the Fatima message—the so-called Third Secret—was not made public, but remained in a sealed letter in the Vatican.?  The Holy See finally disclosed it to mankind on June 26, 2000, as the Third Millennium approached.?  By then, Sr. Lucia was 92 years old. ? 

In the vision revealed in the Third Secret, she beheld the Angel of God's Justice about to strike the world with fire, while Our Lady held back that awful chastisement.?  Sr. Lucia also viewed a pope-like figure walking over corpses, through a devastated city, and up a hill surmounted by a large cross. ? 

The vision of the angel about to strike the world, she said, explained Our Lady's chilling words, "various nations will be annihilated."?  Sr. Lucia added this warning:?  "If we have not yet seen the complete fulfillment of the final part of this prophecy, we are going toward it with great strides."

In the 1917 prophecies, Russia was the one country on the face of the earth that the Queen of Heaven explicitly excluded from this annihilation.?  Russia was the only land that she said would come through the fire.

In 1917, Russia was a weak, hungry, defeated nation in political turmoil.?  But most of her people were still Christians and were particularly devoted to the Virgin Mary.?  Then came the bloodthirsty Soviets, who shot their way into power and imposed the first atheistic regime in the world, complete with public blasphemy, anti-religious indoctrination of children, legalized abortion, easy divorce, the "liberation" of women, and other "errors of Russia" that Mary foretold.

For seven decades, Red Russia was a growing empire that surpassed even Rome in conquests, and far outstripped her in repressing, imprisoning, enslaving, torturing and murdering Christians.

Russia healthier than the pagan West

Today Russia again appears weak, at least to Westerners.?  Her population is declining by 700,000 every year, and President Vladimir Putin has proposed a range of remedies, including a $10,000 subsidy to every mother who gives birth to a second child.?  Poverty, alcoholism, drugs, pornography, broken families, emigration and other ills are rampant in Russia.?  But for those with eyes to see, important counter-trends exist.

For example, in one of history's greatest migrations, millions of Russians are returning from the ex-Soviet Republics such as Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and the Baltic States.?  Furthermore, despite corruption and stifling bureaucracy, Russia's economy keeps growing, thanks in part to climbing oil prices.

And, in crucial ways, Russia's opinion makers have moved in a direction opposite to that of the West.?  For example, they are embracing the history of Christianity instead of trying to expunge the memory of it, as the European Union (EU) and the U. S. Supreme Court seem to be doing.?  What's more, Russia has slammed the door in the face of insane Western exports such as legal recognition of the "Church of Satan," which the Supreme Court foisted on the American people, as it did pornography. ? 

In addition, Russians still believe in objective truth, unlike the intellectual elites of the West, who have "deconstructed" reality to the point of nihilism. This should not surprise us, because unlike the West, Russia never succumbed to the so-called Enlightenment, despite the Czars' periodic imbibing of Western influence.

Even more important, her overwhelmingly Slavic population has been Christian for 1,000 years.?  It may prove easier to overthrow the suicidal anti-conception mentality in Russia than in the West. ? 

Keep in mind, too, that Russia is a potentially self-sufficient land blessed with immense and varied natural resources.?  And she is so vast that no would-be conqueror has ever subjugated her.

All of these facts bring us back to the question, "Why Russia?"?  And just how accurate have Our Lady's 1917 prophecies proven to be?

Little-known proofs of Fatima

One of our Heavenly Mother's most spectacular revelations was that "a worse one [World War II] will break out during the pontificate of Pope Pius XI," who departed this world on February 10, 1939.?  Critics of Fatima have said this disproves her message because, as everyone knows, the war began on September 1 of that year, when Nazi Germany invaded Poland (followed shortly by the USSR). ? 

But these critics are ignorant of history, and of the work of historians, who date the actual beginning of World War II to July 7, 1937, when the Imperial Japanese Army attacked Republic of China troops at the Marco Polo Bridge near Peking (Beijing).?  Says historian Dr. John Heineman of Boston College, "The war thus started, escalated throughout the world, [and] ended in Tokyo Bay on September 2, 1945."

Critics have also faulted Sr. Lucia by alleging that the "unknown light" of January 25, 1938—which she said was Mary's promised warning-sign that the world would soon be engulfed in war—was just another aurora borealis.?  But after much study, scientists concluded that the incredible celestial phenomenon, a red nighttime sky that millions witnessed throughout Europe, did not fit the pattern of an aurora.

In September, 1938, Dr. Carl Stoermer of the Institute of Theoretical Astrophysics in Oslo, published an article in the scientific journal Die Naturwissenschoften declaring that the January 25 incident was of unaccountable origin and mysterious in nature.?  All during the event, he reported, there was a noise "similar to the sounds of burning grass and brush," whereas an aurora is silent.?  He also said some of the rays reached a height more than twice that of most large auroras.

J. Rand McNally, Jr., a nuclear physicist who worked on the Manhattan Project during World War II, has discovered that some properties of the 1938 "great light" matched almost exactly those of the artificial aurora that the 1958 Johnson Island "Teak" atomic test triggered.

"New Revelations from Science and History" (Soul magazine, September-October, 2003), recounted William Shirer's description in The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich of the final move Hitler made that gained him complete power over the German military, whose leaders were plotting his overthrow to keep Germany out of the war. ? 

Shirer tells about the flimsy, trumped-up morals charges brought against General Von Fritsch, Commander in Chief of the German Army, and General Von Blomberg, Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces.?  The charges were brought on January 26, 1938—the day after the blood-red nocturnal light.

These accusations ended any effective efforts of the generals to arrest and try the Fuehrer, which they had been planning.?  In fact, Hitler took over as the real Commander in Chief of the entire military on February 4, 1938, opening the way for the Sino-Japanese war to spread throughout the world.

All of Mary's grim prophecies have come true, except for the annihilation of "various nations."?  But still, we are left with the question, "Why Russia?"

Why Russia will escape "annihilation"

Catholic historian and Fatima authority Dr. Warren Carroll reminds us that Russia is the coldest country in the world.?  The television documentary, "Inside Siberia," showed how the totalitarian Soviets made the Russian people build enormous cities in their cold northern regions.?  Russians have settled there by the millions, making them the only people in modern times who have actually moved north, into the realm of ice and tundra, instead of to the warmer southern regions.

To add another dimension to "Why Russia?" and to the Angel of Justice with the flaming sword, let us speculate a little.?  If a large asteroid or a comet hit the earth in the dead of winter (in the northern hemisphere), it could cause a scene right out of Bible prophecy, in which two-thirds of the earth's people are "cut off and perish," and God brings one-third through the fire (Zach. 13:8, 9). ? 

Astrophysicists and Hollywood movies have only recently shown us how devastating such an event would be.?  Scientists did not even know what an asteroid could do till about 30 years ago.?  A fireball would race across the earth's surface, incinerating everything (and everyone) in its path.?  An air blast and seismic shock would level cities.?  Immense volumes of dust would darken the skies, as in a "nuclear winter."

It is interesting, and perhaps ominous, that in recent years we have seen an unprecedented number of news stories and television documentaries about the danger our world faces from asteroids.?  Is God trying to get our attention before it is too late? ? 

Could it be that unless we fulfill Mary's Fatima requests for prayer and penance, He will someday let an asteroid strike our sinful world, and "various nations will be annihilated"??  Could it be that a re-Christianized Russia will then re-evangelize the world??  Pope John Paul II once said priests would come not from Africa but from Russia to re-evangelize the West.

Perhaps the future of the Church lies not in Europe, Africa or Latin America but among the long-suffering people of the cold Russian north, whom God's Soviet enemies unwittingly prepared to survive a long, cold, hard winter. ? 

Perhaps Moscow, sometimes called "the third Rome," is destined by God to replace the first Rome.