Item#: 8207
Level2
Containment Class:
keter
Secondary Class:
none
Disruption Class:
dark
Risk Class:
notice
Special Containment Procedures: Due to the Foundation's ongoing agreements with the Vatican, Sister Lúcia is not to be held in containment. While it is likely SCP-8207 will manifest itself again, the consequences of said manifestations are considered minor enough that they can be addressed at the time of manifestation. Standard vigilance procedures have been enacted at the Carmelo de Santa Teresa.
Description: SCP-8207 is the collective designation for a series of anomalous events that initially occurred across 1917 to three children in Cova da Iria, Portugal. These events were recorded in public history as the Catholic religious miracle known as "The Three Secrets of Fátima". However, files discovered by PT:2387 on the premises of Academia Tethys revealed that the official statements for each secret may have been incomplete due to the actions of various political administrations, particularly the Estado Novo government, headed by António de Oliveira Salazar.
On 13 May 1917, in the Portuguese village of Vilar, three children claimed to have seen an apparition of the Virgin Mary. Of the three, only Lúcia Santos, then 10 years old, was able to hear and witness the apparition, making her the central figure of the event.
At the end of the initial apparition, Lúcia was told to once again gather them in the same place on 13 July of the same year. On that day, Lúcia claimed to have been told three secrets by the apparition, two of which she detailed in her memoirs, published in 1941, and the third which has yet to be publicly revealed.
For reference, the public statements made by Sister Lúcia have been included below.
- A Supposed Description of Christian Hell
- Close
Our Lady showed us a great sea of fire beneath the ground. Plunged in this fire were demons and souls, like clear burning embers, floating about, raised into the air by the flames together with great clouds of smoke, falling back on every side like sparks in a huge fire. Amid shrieks and groans of pain and despair, which horrified us and made us tremble with fear, the demons could be distinguished by their terrifying and repulsive likeness to frightful and unknown animals. This vision lasted but an instant. How can we ever be grateful enough to our kind heavenly Mother, who had already promised us in the first Apparition to take us to heaven. Otherwise, I think we would have died of fear and terror.
- The End of World War I and the Importance of Spreading the Devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary
- Close
The Lady said to us:
You have seen hell where the souls of poor sinners go. To save them, God wishes to establish in the world devotion to my Immaculate Heart. If you do as I say, many souls will be saved and there will be peace. The war is going to end: but if people do not cease offending God, a worse one will break out during the Pontificate of Pope Pius XI. When you see a night brightened by an unknown light, know that it is a great sign given to you by God, sign that he is about to punish the world for its crimes, by means of war and famine. The good will be martyred; the Holy Father will have much to suffer; various nations will be annihilated. In the end, my Immaculate Heart will triumph. The Holy Father will consecrate Russia to me, and she shall be converted, and a period of peace will be granted to the world.
- A Symbolic, Imagery Laden Description with Little Specifity in Literal Meaning
- Close
At the left of Our Lady and a little above, we saw an Angel with a flaming sword in his left hand; flashing, it gave out flames that looked as though they would set the world on fire. Pointing to the earth with his right hand, the Angel cried out in a loud voice: 'Penance, Penance, Penance!'. And we saw in an immense light that we knew to be from God, a Bishop dressed in White. We had the impression that it was the Holy Father himself. Other Religious men and women going up a steep mountain, at the top of which there was a big Cross of rough-hewn trunks as of a cork-tree with the bark. Before reaching there the Holy Father passed through a big city half in ruins and half afflicted with pain and sorrow, he prayed for the souls of the corpses he met on his way. Having reached the top of the mountain, on his knees at the foot of the big Cross he was killed by a group of soldiers who fired bullets and arrows at him. The Religious men and women died the same way, one after the other, and lay there. Beneath the two arms of the Cross there were two Angels each with a crystal aspersorium in his hand, in which they gathered up the blood of the Martyrs and with it sprinkled the souls that were making their way to God.
Addendum A: Interview with PoI-6578-B
- MAY 12, 1992 — ████████████ -
Interviewed: [Álvaro Pinto Guterres, 85 years old, former Assistant to António de Oliveira Salazar]
Interviewer: [Dr. Rosa Ivashchenko, 29 years old, Researcher for PT:2387]
Foreword: [The Interview was conducted at ████████████ on May 12th, 1992. Only the Interviewer and Interviewed were present in the room, but appropriate parties of both the Lusophone Foundation and PT:2387 maintained watched through security devices. Ernesto Cípiro remained in the room next door, maintaining a Thaumaturgical Spell that allowed the Interviewer to unconsciously perceive mood changes, lies, hidden information and other such emotional elements from the Interviewed.]
<Begin Log, 2:30PM>
IVASCHENKO: When did the case reach you?
GUTERRES: I started working with Salazar the same year he became President of the Council. I was 25, then. He hired me when he realized how much work getting the country into shape was going to be.
[Guterres pauses, to take a drag of his cigarette.]
GUTERRES: I ended up having to deal with the stuff nobody else wanted to. This included what we referred to as "The Mysteries". All the inexplicable nonsense that occasionally trickled out of the countryside and into the places of government.
IVASCHENKO: Did you have an official policy?
GUTERRES: Yes, it was called "Hope it goes away".
IVASCHENKO: When did the Fátima situation reach you?
GUTERRES: This would've been… Yes, it was about a year after Salazar had officially started the Estado Novo, so 1934. He wanted every advantage he could get, so playing up to the Catholics was a good idea. Make a big deal about the Miracles, bring them into the public consciousness as much as possible. I helped gather the involved people.
IVASCHENKO: At that point, who were they?
GUTERRES: Well, Francisco and Jacinta had both died, so only Lúcia was left, as well as her local priest, Father Fernandes, and the Bishop of Leiria, who'd ratified the whole thing, Dom José. I got all three in a room with Salazar, plus a Policeman. Salazar liked having them around, they tended to make people nervous.
IVASCHENKO: Were you present?
GUTERRES: Only for the first 30 minutes or so. Probably a little less.
IVASCHENKO: Why did you leave?
GUTERRES: Salazar ordered me out, once certain things started to be revealed.
IVASCHENKO: What "things"?
GUTERRES: I don't recall. It was too long ago.
IVASCHENKO: Don't lie to me, Mr. Guterres.
GUTERRES: I'm not lying.
IVASCHENKO: Yes, you are, Mr. Guterres, and I hate liars. The world is already complicated enough without having to sort the true and false. The truth, please, Mr. Guterres.
GUTERRES: I don't have to tell-
IVASCHENKO: Yes, you do, Mr Guterres. To put it bluntly, no one knows where you are right now and, frankly, I doubt too many people would cause a fuss if you did disappear. At 85, I'm sure all you want is a glass of good wine with your dinner and a nice chair to sit in while you listen to Benfica. We can easily provide that… or not. The truth. Please.
[A momentary silence and a sigh]
GUTERRES: I don't know who kept this, first of all. I don't know if it was anyone in Government at the time, I don't know if the Bishop made the decision himself, I don't know. What we learned in that room is that there weren't three secrets of Fátima. There were four.
IVASCHENKO: Who told you that?
GUTERRES: It was Father Fernandes who said it, but both Lúcia and Dom José agreed with him.
IVASCHENKO: And what was the secret?
GUTERRES: I never found out. He was going to tell it, but Salazar calmly told him to stop and ordered me out of the room. It was a few hours before anyone left the room after me.
IVASCHENKO: Did this include the policeman? Why wasn't he also ordered out?
GUTERRES: Salazar was always a deeply suspicious, cynical man. I imagine he thought they may have been playing him for a fool and the police teaches sharp lessons.
IVASCHENKO: What happened after the meeting?
GUTERRES: Like I said, it was a few hours and then everyone but Salazar left. I went back in. He occasionally liked to have grab documents after meetings or set something else up. Not this time. It was the one and only time I found Salazar sitting behind his desk looking pale as a sheet.
IVASCHENKO: Did he tell you anything?
GUTERRES: He barely even noticed I was there for a few seconds. He got startled and shouted at me, sent me away from the room. I've started to think of that moment as the start of his downfall.
IVASCHENKO: How so?
GUTERRES: I had known Salazar for two years at that point, Miss. I have never known a man as calm, collected and reserved as he was for that time. I imagine that's part of why he became President of the Council of Ministers. Whole government falling apart, Presidents coming and going, and here's this Minister keeping Finances steady and controlling spending. That meeting changed him.
IVASCHENKO: Historical records don't indicate significant changes in his personality around that time.
GUTERRES: Of course not. By all appearances, he didn't change much, but you saw it if you worked with him daily. He'd get startled sometimes when he was caught off guard, he was more paranoid, he'd sink into his thoughts for hours.
IVASCHENKO: And you think this was all because of the fourth secret?
GUTERRES: Had to be. Nothing else makes sense given what happened a few days later.
IVASCHENKO: What happened?
GUTERRES: Father Fernandes met with a rather gruesome car accident while walking around Lisbon. The kind of accident that makes it hard to identify exactly how someone died.
IVASCHENKO: I take it the policeman and the Bishop met with similar fates?
GUTERRES: Not the Bishop, no. Salazar still wanted to keep on the Church's good side. He never did visit us again after Father Fernandes' car crash, though. The policeman I still don't know what happened to him, just that I never saw him again.
IVASCHENKO: Did Salazar ever tell you, even accidentally, about the secret? Anything you remember will be useful.
GUTERRES: I can tell you, anything I ever got, I heard behind a closed door or when he hadn't noticed I was in the same room as him. He spoke to himself on occasion, but it was always quietly, like he was afraid the walls were listening. The only sentence I ever got fully, that I can remember, was the phrase "death of it all".
[Pause]
IVASCHENKO: I assume you have no idea what this meant.
GUTERRES: Not only that, I tried my best to forget about it. You didn't get far in the Estado Novo by thinking too much and asking questions. I spent years not thinking about it. Until that bastard, Humberto Delgado came into it.
IVASCHENKO: How does he figure into this?
GUTERRES: Salazar came the closest to cracking when Delgado entered the picture. He was just barely holding it together in public, you know? He'd go days barely sleeping, eating little, closing himself off.
IVASCHENKO: But the election was rigged, correct?
[Pause]
IVASCHENKO: You can answer any question about your activities under the Estado Novo without the fear of any reprecussions, I assure you.
GUTERRES: Yes, the election was rigged from the start. I kept telling him that Delgado was no threat to us, but he wouldn't hear it. He was terrified of the man.
IVASCHENKO: Was that why he had him assassinated?
GUTERRES: I think so and against my advice, I should add. The man was unlikely to lead a charge against the country from the outside and his death damn near made him a martyr.
IVASCHENKO: You think this exaggerated reaction to Delgado was due to the fourth secret?
GUTERRES: I'm fairly certain the man I knew for those first two years wouldn't have acted the way he did in 1958. I think he was afraid of something.
IVASCHENKO: This "death of it all"?
GUTERRES: The Delgado situation brought that back into my head. I put it together with his state and… I guessed the last secret talked about his death, somehow. That was my theory at the time, anyway.
IVASCHENKO: Is that not your theory now?
GUTERRES: We didn't think it would ever end, miss. We thought we would rule it all forever. We were naive. After Salazar's fall, after that spineless worm Caetano took over and after the revolution, I started to wonder. Was the death Salazar saw the death of all he achieved? The crumbling of that great power he'd amassed? Was that why he had Delgado killed? Because he had a chance of destroying it all?
IVASCHENKO: I can't say, Mr. Guterres, you were the one who knew the man.
GUTERRES: The end comes ignominously to us all, miss. He fell in the shower, you know? His cleaner found him, naked and wet, on tile. I heard he was in a state.
IVASCHENKO: Where were you when it happened?
GUTERRES: Just outside the house, actually, dealing with Sister Lúcia.
[Pause]
IVASCHENKO: …Excuse me?
GUTERRES: Don't you know about that? I assumed that was part of why you were interviewing me.
IVASCHENKO: How does Sister Lúcia figure into this story?
GUTERRES: She was outside, miss. A guard found her walking around, looking dazed. He wondered what a Nun was doing all the way out there in Estoril.
IVASCHENKO: And what did you do when you did figure out it was Sister Lúcia?
GUTERRES: Oh, the usual, I got a PIDE agent and a car to drive her back to Coimbra as quickly as possible.
[Pause, with the sound of pencil scratching on paper. That sound pauses too, for a moment, and then continues]
IVASCHENKO: Mr. Guterres… What do you mean by "the usual"?
GUTERRES: What we usually did when we found Sister Lúcia, miss.
IVASCHENKO: Mr. Guterres, are you being deliberately obtuse with me, right now?
GUTERRES: I am not, I promise! When you told me you wanted to ask about Sister Lúcia, I assumed you'd found out about this!
IVASCHENKO: We have no information about it, Mr. Guterres. Are you saying that Sister Lúcia just… appeared outside Salazar's house?
GUTERRES: No, she appeared in a few different places over the years.
IVASCHENKO: Ok, first of all, let's define what you mean by "appearing".
GUTERRES: She wasn't there one second, you turned your back, there she was. If you asked her, she never knew how she got there. Usually thought she was still back in Coimbra, back at her convent.
IVASCHENKO: She couldn't have been brought there by someone? Or somehow driven there?
GUTERRES: She couldn't drive, that's certain. Hell, outside of Lisbon barely anyone had cars in this country. Even if she did, it still doesn't account for how quickly she got out of Coimbra.
IVASCHENKO: How quickly was it?
GUTERRES: Nowadays, it takes about two hours from Coimbra to Lisbon by car. Salazar didn't invest much in roads, so back then it would easily take at least another hour on top of that at best. One time, we found her outside the Palácio da Assembleia Nacional at around 8pm. I called the Convent and they told me they had dinner at 7pm and one of the sisters saw Sister Lúcia heading to her room for nightly prayers.
IVASCHENKO: From what you knew about them, is there any chance they could be lying?
GUTERRES: I seriously doubt it, miss. They were a Catholic order of nuns in a poor and simple country during a dictatorship. What could they possibly get by dragging their most famous nun to Lisbon over and over?
IVASCHENKO: I see your point. What were dates and locations for these appearances?
GUTERRES: The locations were all around Lisbon, apart from Salazar's fall. She ended up in Estoril, right outside where he was for that one.
IVASCHENKO: Can't you recall any other specific locations?
GUTERRES: Outside the Assembleia… I remember they found her near some ministry, can't remember which one… I really have forgotten because… Well, I don't think the locations mattered very much. She never did anything, as far as I could tell. What's interesting, in my view, were the dates.
IVASCHENKO: Which were?
GUTERRES: September 1st, 1939; July 16 1945; March 5th, 1953; October 16, 1962; November 22nd, 1963; and August 3rd, 1968.
[Pause]
IVASCHENKO: Those are… the only dates?
GUTERRES: The only ones I'm aware of, miss.
IVASCHENKO: …You think there may have been more?
GUTERRES: I was only paying attention between 1934 and 1974, miss. Actually, I stopped really paying attention once Salazar was taken from the seat, so it was more around 68 or 69. Who knows what she did or where she was before or after?
[Pause]
IVASCHENKO: Thank you for your time, Mr. Guterres.
<End Log, [4PM]>
Speculation from interview with PoI-6578-B
— Compiled by Dr. Rosa Ivaschenko of PT:2387 —
- Credentials verified. You may proceed.
The revelation of a fourth secret is entirely inkeeping with hypotheses proposed by myself and Dr. Borges given the information found on the files. Another hypothesis proposed that there were only three secrets, but the released ones were purposefully incomplete or complete fabrications. This theory may be discarded depending on information acquired in the upcoming interview with Sister Lúcia.
There is still little known about the fourth secret, but it seems likely that it involves some kind of death. At this time, it is still uncertain whether it refers to a literal, physical death or a metaphorical "death", given that description through poetic license on Salazar's part.
Given Guterres' description of Salazar's mental state after learning of the secret, as well as an historical understanding of the dictator provided by an outside specialist, Dr. Borges and I formulated four logical hypotheses on what the fourth secret that Salazar was told:
- An account of his death;
- An account of Portugal's metaphorical death;
- An account of Portugal's literal destruction;
- An account of an event that would cause the destruction of Portugal and more.
Due to Salazar's narrow perspective of the world, I am personally inclined toward the first two hypotheses. It seems unlikely that he would be capable of fully comprehending the destruction of the world or even a country, so he would probably simply see the fourth secret as the ramblings of a mentally ill woman. Due to his strong reaction, however, it seems more likely that the fourth secret told him of something much smaller scale, but much more personal, fuelling his paranoia.
As regards the new information on Sister Lúcia's apparent teleportations, we have elected not to formulate any hypotheses before we interview her. If the teleportations are true, there is a high likelihood that Sister Lúcia may have information or a direct connection with the manifestation witnessed by Dr. Ágata Maria Queirós de Pesqueira and Ernesto Cípiro (PoI-8444) at Academia Tethys.
Addendum B: Sister Lúcia and the Entity
- MAY 15, 1992 — ████████████ -
WARNING: LEVEL 3 CLEARANCE REQUIRED
By order of the Ethics Committee, the remainder of this file requires Level 3 Clearance or higher, and access will only be granted on a need-to-know basis.
Personnel should be aware that the following contents include the non-consensual use of drugs in experimental interrogation. For security purposes, the names of some of the individuals involved have been redacted, and will not be provided, even on authorized request.
8207
INPUT CREDENTIALS.
…
…
…
LEVEL 3/NEED-TO-KNOW CLEARANCE CONFIRMED. YOU MAY PROCEED.
The C.O.R.A.I.L. Network
— In Association With —
The Lusophone Foundation
PT:2387
Collected documentation on "The Secrets of Fátima"
Site PT20, Brazil
— SCP-8207 (Primary documentation)
— Interview with PoI-7288-A ("Sister Lúcia")
— Unscheduled Observational Testing of PoI-7288-A
Compiled By PT:2387
— Dr. Natalício de Borges Wilson, Brazil
— Dr. Quim Eleutério, Brazil
— Prof. Félix Machado Machado, Portugal
— Ernesto Cípiro (PoI-8444), Portugal
— Ágata Maria Queirós de Pesqueira, Portugal
— Dr. Rosa Ivaschenko, Portugal/ Ukraine
— Dr. J. M. Baron, France
Interview with PoI-7288-A
Compiled by Dr. Rosa Ivaschenko of PT:2387
Interviewed: [Sister Lúcia de Jesus Rosa dos Santos, 85 years old, Discalced Carmelite Nun]
Interviewer: [Dr. Rosa Ivashchenko, 29 years old, Researcher for PT:2387]
Foreword: [The Interview was conducted at ████████████ on May 15th, 1992. Only the Interviewer and Interviewed were present in the room, but appropriate parties of both the Lusophone Foundation and PT:2387 maintained watch through security devices. Ernesto Cípiro remained in the room next door, maintaining a Thaumaturgical Spell that allowed the Interviewer to unconsciously perceive mood changes, lies, hidden information and other such emotional elements from the Interviewed.]
<Begin Log, 3:00PM>
IVASCHENKO: Good afternoon, Sister Lúcia.
LÚCIA: Good afternoon.
IVASCHENKO: We've brought you here today to answer a few questions, if you don't mind.
LÚCIA: I don't.
IVASCHENKO: What can you tell us of the apparition?
LÚCIA: I've told all that I saw about the Apparition of Our Lady. I've written about it, as I'm sure you know.
IVASCHENKO: We do, but we were wondering whether there may have been missing information.
LÚCIA: What do you mean by "missing information", miss?
IVASCHENKO: Things that you may have seen and were… encouraged not to tell.
LÚCIA: I'm not sure I understand what you mean…
IVASCHENKO: For example, you've described the apparition as "a woman, brighter than the sun shedding rays of light clearer and stronger than a crystal goblet filled with the most sparkling water". Would you say this is an accurate description?
LÚCIA: Yes, an accurate description.
IVASCHENKO: Of what you saw?
LÚCIA: Yes, miss.
IVASCHENKO: You are absolutely sure that is what you saw?
LÚCIA: I don't know what this is about, miss, but yes, that is what I saw.
[PAUSE]
IVASCHENKO: Excuse me a moment.
[A chair drags on the floor, a door opens and closes. There is silence for the next ten minutes of the recording, apart from a faint whispering from Lúcia, praying the Our Father. After the ten minutes, a door opens and closes again, and the chair drags again.]
IVASCHENKO: My apologies, Sister, I had to check on something.
LÚCIA: No apologies needed.
IVASCHENKO: May I be direct with you, Sister Lúcia?
LÚCIA: Of course.
IVASCHENKO: We interviewed a former government worker of the Estado Novo who dealt with your… case, let's say, and he brought up a few questions regarding the apparition that we'd like to clarify with you. This is alright with you, yes?
LÚCIA: Yes, of course.
IVASCHENKO: You will tell us the truth.
LÚCIA: As best as I can, yes.
[Pause]
IVASCHENKO: Well, but the problem I'm having here, Sister, is that I don't know what that means.
LÚCIA: Excuse me?
IVASCHENKO: It was something that happened over 80 years ago. In a fiercely Catholic country that would soon turn into a dictatorship.
LÚCIA: I'm not sure-
IVASCHENKO: Yes, neither am I and that's the issue here.
[Pause]
IVASCHENKO: Sister Lúcia, have you ever taken LSD?
LÚCIA: I beg your pardon?!
IVASCHENKO: Lysergic acid diethylamide. It's a psychedelic drug that is occasionally purported to lead to… religious revelations. I may have heard it referred to as "acid".
LÚCIA: I most certainly have not!
IVASCHENKO: …Would you be open to it?
LÚCIA: Why in the good name of Heaven would I be open to something like that?!
IVASCHENKO: Well, you've had a powerful religious experience and perhaps an equally powerful chemical may help in its recreation. Reawakening certain memories.
LÚCIA: I most certainly will not partake of any sort of- Why to even have the… No, absolutely not, miss. Ask your questions, please. I think I'd like to leave here as quickly as possible…
IVASCHENKO: Of course, and I apologize for any discomfort my question may have caused.
[The sound of knuckles, rapping on the table].
IVASCHENKO: When you and your cousins first spoke of the miracles, did you face skepticism?
LÚCIA: Yes, plenty even from Father Fernandes, our priest. But it did not take long for Our Lady's truth to reveal itself.
IVASCHENKO: Did you meet much resistance from the Catholic Church?
LÚCIA: I don't know, I didn't deal with such things.
IVASCHENKO: Who dealt with the Church then?
LÚCIA: Dom José, God rest his soul.
IVASCHENKO: You yourself never dealt with any direct criticism or objection?
LÚCIA: No, miss, Dom José assured me that my visions had been granted by divinity.
IVASCHENKO: Of course. You wrote down the three secrets, correct?
LÚCIA: Yes.
IVASCHENKO: In 1941, at the request of Dom José?
LÚCIA: God rest his soul, yes.
IVASCHENKO: You only wrote the first three secrets?
[Pause]
IVASCHENKO: Sister Lúcia?
LÚCIA: I only wrote the three secrets, yes.
IVASCHENKO: The first three?
LÚCIA: It is… very hot in here.
IVASCHENKO: Please clarify, you wrote only the first three secrets you were told?
LÚCIA: There were only three secrets.
IVASCHENKO: Were there?
LÚCIA: Of course!
IVASCHENKO: Weren't there more?
LÚCIA: No, there weren't!
IVASCHENKO: I see. Thank you for the clarification.
LÚCIA: May I have a glass of water, please?
IVASCHENKO: That can be arranged.
[A chair drags, the door opens and a muffled "Can we get Sister Lúcia a glass of water, please?" is heard. The door closes again and the chair drags once more.]
IVASCHENKO: The official with whom we spoke also referenced a few dates. I have written them down in this piece of paper, are they familiar to you?
LÚCIA: I'm… not sure?
IVASCHENKO: These were days where you were found wandering around Lisbon, far away from the Convent in Coimbra where you should've been. Do you recall these days?
LÚCIA: I… know that these things happened.
IVASCHENKO: What do you mean by that, Sister Lúcia?
LÚCIA: I don't remember these days specifically. It would more accurate to say that I was told about them after the fact.
IVASCHENKO: Can you exemplify with, for instance, November 22nd, 1963?
LÚCIA: I may be mixing it up with another day, but I think that day I went for my dinner and then went to bed, to pray.
IVASCHENKO: And then?
LÚCIA: I woke up in bed, late the next morning, much later than I should have, with Sister Helena watching over me. I believe she was praying the rosary.
IVASCHENKO: That's all you recall?
LÚCIA: After I woke up, Mother Susana told me that I'd been found walking in Lisbon and had been sent back by car, driven by a policeman.
IVASCHENKO: And you remember nothing of this?
LÚCIA: No, nothing.
[A knock at the door. A chair drags, the door opens and closes again.]
IVASCHENKO: Your water, Sister Lúcia.
LÚCIA: Thank you.
[Pause, accompanied by very faint glugging sounds]
IVASCHENKO: I was just told by the assistant who delivered the water that the heating system in this interview room has had a malfunction.
LÚCIA: It did suddenly get very warm in here.
IVASCHENKO: I apologize for not noticing. I have difficulty noticing heat. We apologize for the inconvenience, but we'll have to interrupt the interview and move you temporarily to another room, while we wait for the heating system to be fixed.
LÚCIA: Can't you interview me there?
IVASCHENKO: I'm afraid only this room is properly equipped for interviews. We can provide a book, if you like.
[Sound of a chair dragging on the floor]
LÚCIA: No, thank you, I'd rather sit with my thoughts. May I have more water?
[Sound of a chair dragging on the floor followed by the door opening]
IVASCHENKO: Of course, Sister.
<End Log, [3:25PM]>
OBSERVATIONAL LOG
DATE: 15 May 1992
NOTE: During the prior interview, when Dr. Ivaschenko stepped out of the room, she confirmed with Dr. ██████ ██████ that she was approved to utilize LSD in the questioning of Sister Lúcia. Due to the urgency in acquiring viable information from the aging Sister, Dr. ██████ ██████ approved the request. 6 mg of LSD was administered via a glass of water. To prevent confirmation bias, Sister Lúcia was not notified.
[BEGIN LOG]
3:30PM - Sister Lúcia is led into a small room, hencerforth referred to as Room #2, by Dr. Rosa Ivaschenko. She sits on one of the chairs, next to a table with 5, 50 centiliter bottles of water and closes her eyes, hands interlocked, presumably in silent prayer. Dr. Ivaschenko leaves the room, closing the door behind her and locking it without Sister Lúcia realizes.
3:31PM - Dr. Rosa Ivaschenko joins Ernesto Cípiro (PoI-8444), Dr. J. M. Baron, Dr. ██████ ██████ and █████ ████████ ██████ ██████ █████ in the room next door, henceforth referred to as Room #3, to observe Sister Lúcia.
3:53PM - Sister Lúcia begins noticeably sweating. The heat has not been turned up in this room. She stops her praying, which has veered between silent and whispering, and drinks about half of one of the water bottles. She continues praying.
4:09PM - Sister Lúcia's hands shake and seem to tighten around each other. The prayers become louder.
4:20PM - Sister Lúcia drinks two full bottles of water, her whole body shaking and convulsing. She mutters to herself. The only discernable words were "Jesus", "My God", "Please", "Our Lady", "Fátima" and other variations of the same.
4:40PM - Sister Lúcia begins screaming to the room. She screams variations of "HELP ME GOD HELP ME" and "LADY FÁTIMA SAVE MY SOUL".
4:45PM - Sister Lúcia's voice becomes hoarse from screaming. █████ ████████ ██████ █████ leaves Room #3, claiming discomfort with the experiment. The others remain, observing.
4:50PM - Sister Lúcia falls to her knees and bends back, her head hanging back, staring directly at the ceiling. Her arms fall to her sides, palms turned up.
5PM - Sister Lúcia begins whispering. The microphones in the room indicate some activity, but nothing is audible.
5:10PM - Dr. Rosa Ivaschenko reenters Room #2 and closes the door behind her.
IVASCHENKO: Sister Lúcia?
5:10PM - Sister Lúcia's head snaps suddenly forward, staring at Dr. Ivaschenko.
IVASCHENKO: Sister Lúcia, is everything alright?
LÚCIA: Why?
IVASCHENKO: I wondered—
LÚCIA: Wander, then. I have wandered.
5:12PM - A pause in the conversation.
IVASCHENKO: Where have you wandered?
LÚCIA: Places of meaning and places of thought. Powered and empty, all return to the rock.
IVASCHENKO: I'm not sure I follow—
LÚCIA: You should not follow, you will get lost. From there none return, all scream till they are hoarse.
IVASCHENKO: What are you?
LÚCIA: I am you and you are me and you are the beginning and I the end and I the beginning and you the end and I you and you me.
IVASCHENKO: Are you the entity Sister Lúcia met for the first time on May 13th 1917?
LÚCIA: Have you met the ground? Have you met the sky? Have you met the trees? Have you met the fire? Have you met me? Have you met yourself?
5:15PM - A pause in the conversation.
IVASCHENKO: What was the initial form of the entity currently inhabiting the matter that makes up the person referred to as Lúcia de Jesus Rosa dos Santos?
LÚCIA: The form is the thing, shaped to function and fit. Tall as life, slender as wind, golden as sun, hot as fire.
IVASCHENKO: I… see… and what did… that form tell the three children when it first met them?
LÚCIA: The secret, the secret, it's a secret, but can you keep it? Take this one to the grave.
IVASCHENKO: Which one? The secret?
LÚCIA: I know you won't tell what I said. Three can keep a secret if two of them are dead.
IVASCHENKO: Is that in reference to the Lúcia's cousins? Francisco and Jacinta?
LÚCIA: The Jar was cracked, the water flowed, heart broken. Payment needed for broken jar.
IVASCHENKO: The fourth secret. What was it? What did the entity say?
LÚCIA: Why when we do our darkest deeds do we tell? They burn in our brains.
IVASCHENKO: It was something you did?
LÚCIA: Something you did.
IVASCHENKO: Something that the entity did. Was that the fourth secret? Was it a confession?
LÚCIA: Confession, confess, the things still done and dead.
IVASCHENKO: Did the entity kill someone or something?
LÚCIA: Never did it, will do it, always doing it.
IVASCHENKO: Did the entity kill António de Oliveira Salazar?
LÚCIA: Salazar, Salazar, took a great fall. Salazar, Salazar, couldn't hold to the wall.
IVASCHENKO: Did the entity cause that great fall?
LÚCIA: Water the flowed on the bath below. Chair that broke, to the floor he did go.
IVASCHENKO: Is there no better way to communicate with the entity?
LÚCIA: Head full of things, head full of perceptions. Head cannot cope with eyes from all kinds of directions.
IVASCHENKO: Explain the fourth secret, then. The best way that you can.
LÚCIA: The foot hit the rock. The rock made the spark when it hit the mountain. The spark hit the wood. The wood burned. The man saw the burning wood. The man could see. The man blinded himself and all.
IVASCHENKO: Is that the fourth secret?
LÚCIA: The fire weighed heavy. The fire burned. The fire burns. The fire will burn?
IVASCHENKO: Is the last statement a question?
LÚCIA: Question of the Hour, Question of Time, Question of Minute, Question of Mind.
IVASCHENKO: What does the secret mean? What does it have to do with Sister Lúcia?
LÚCIA: To see with eyes wide, the fire that burns. That man that was blinded, the pain. The pain. See the sockets, the darkness, the damage was done. The damage is heavy, the damage that weighs.
IVASCHENKO: Where does the entity come from?
LÚCIA: From you and from her and from him and from them. The cradle was empty, the eye did blink, the cradle was full, heart beating plenty.
IVASCHENKO: Is that where the entity comes from? From… the empty cradle?
LÚCIA: The cradle was full, the cradle did break, the murder was done, the victim, who knows?
IVASCHENKO: I can't—
LÚCIA: Neither can I, nor will I try.
5:56PM: - Sister Lúcia collapses to the floor, slumped forward, apparently unconscious.
6PM: - After waiting four minutes for a reaction, Dr. Ivaschenko approaches the body. She checks for pulse and audibly confirms that it has a steady heartbeat.
[END LOG]
Addendum C: Conclusions
Sister Lúcia was moved to a nearby room and laid on a bed. She woke up at 7:13PM, seemingly without memory of the possession or the interview. She was informed that she had passed out and was taken to ████████ ██ ███, a hospital with an ongoing agreement with the Foundation, for observation.
She was discharged after a week without any incidents involving the manifestation or any indication of her memories of the incident returning. Her REM sleep did not show any unusual cerebral activity either, and she returned to the Carmelo de Santa Teresa in Coimbra.
Regarding the Entity, there is currently no clear path to take for further study. All the tests indicated Sister Lúcia was telling the truth as she understood it, so it is unlikely that she can summon the Entity at will or is even aware of her coexistence with it. Holding Sister Lúcia for an extended time for tests has been deemed far too risky, as it may threaten our current agreement with the Vatican.
Several hypotheses have been drawn up, but the Entity's unusual manner of speech has led to far too much interpretation and guesswork for any truly credible or practicable hypothesis. Simply put, The Foundation does not understand enough about the entity's modus operandi to be able to draw much from the initial incident. For obvious reasons, Dr. Ivaschenko's theories have prevailed among the investigators, but even she has admitted to have no certainties regarding the entity. Dr. Ivaschenko argues that the Entity's strange speech may not have been purposefully oblique, but rather that it might be its best attempt at speaking with a human language.
Interpretations of the various statements made by the Entity are, once again, almost entirely based on pure speculation and have led to some rather (for lack of a better word) "poetic" readings. Of note however, was Dr. Baron's interpretation of the answer "The form is the thing, shaped to function and fit. Tall as life, slender as wind, golden as sun, hot as fire". To quote directly from her formal hypothesis:
"The use of the terms 'form' and 'function' in this context may indicate that the Entity attempted to take a physical form which it considered most suitable for the situation. Given Sister Lúcia's and her Cousins' original physical description of the Entity from their encounter […], 'golden as sun' and 'hot as fire' do seem to fit. 'Slender as Wind' may indicate that the Entity was thin limbed, possibly invisible, and 'Tall as life' could indicate that it appeared as unusually tall. Of course, depending on its interpretation of the expression, it may have appeared as tall as an average example of the major lifeform of our planet, humans, or even the most dominant lifeform, taking the height of a microbe."
At this stage, the Foundation recommends keeping Sister Lúcia under light vigilance and waiting to see if the Entity resurfaces, at which time containment may be attempted.