The first systematic questioning of the children, with a view towards discovering the truth, took place on September 27 by seminary professor Father Manuel Formigao of Santander. This prudent priest had observed the apparition of 13 September from a distance, but did not see the phenomenon that those near the children did. He had witnessed a certain dimming of the sunlight, which he attributed to natural causes. From this time Fr. Formigao would prove himself a good and protective friend of the children, and become later one of the foremost scholars of the events.

Francisco        Jacinta        Lucia        Manuel Goncalves

Examination of Francisco

"What have you seen in the Cova da Iria during these months?"

"How old are you?"

"Nine years old."

"Do you only see our Lady, or do you also hear what she says?"

"I only see her. I can't hear anything she says."

"Has she light round her head?"

"Yes."

"Can you look well at her face?"

"I can look, but only a little because of the light."

"Has her dress some decoration?"

"It has some cords of gold."

"What colour is the crucifix?"

"White."

"And the chain of the rosary?"

"White, too."

"Would the people be sad if they knew the secret?"

"Yes."

Francisco        Jacinta        Lucia        Manuel Goncalves

After I had finished questioning Francisco, I called Jacinta, who was playing in the road with some other children, and sitting her on a little stool at my side, I subjected her to a similar interrogation, and succeeded in obtaining complete and detailed replies as in the case of her brother:

After hearing Lucia, Dr. Formigao went to Senhor Marto's house, and in his presence, and before some of his daughters, he questioned Jacinta.

"Did the Lady tell you to say the Rosary?"

"Yes."

"When?"

"When she appeared the first time."

"Did you hear the secret or was it only Lucia who heard?"

"I heard too."

"When? "

"At the second apparition on St. Anthony's day."

"Is the secret that you will be rich?"

"No."

"That you will be good and happy?"

"Yes, it is for the good of all three of us."

"Is it that you will go to heaven?"

"No."

"Can you tell the secret?"

"I can't.

"Why?"

"Because the Lady said we were not to tell it to anyone."

"If the people knew it, would they be sad?"

"Yes."

"How did the Lady have her hands?"

"She had them stretched out."

"Always? "

"Sometimes she turned the palms up to heaven."

"In May did the Lady say she wanted you to go to the Cova da Iria again?"

"She said she wanted us to go there each month until October, when she would say what she wanted."

"Has she light round her head?"

"Yes."

"Can you look easily at her face?"

"No, because it hurts my eyes."

"Do you always hear well, what the Lady says?"

"Last time I couldn't hear everything, because of the noise the people were making."

Francisco        Jacinta        Lucia        Manuel Goncalves

Half an hour after this interrogation Lucia appeared. She came from a little property belonging to her family where she had been helping with the vintage.

Taller and better nourished than the other two, with a clearer skin and a more robust, healthier appearance, she presented herself before me with an unselfconciousness which contrasted in a marked manner with the shyness and timidity of Jacinta. Simply dressed, like the latter, neither her attitude nor her expression denoted a sign of vanity, still less of confusion.

Seating herself on a chair at my side, in response to my gesture, she willingly consented to be questioned on the events in which she was the principal protagonist, in spite of the fact that she was visibly fatigued and depressed by the incessant visits and the repeated and lengthy questionings to which she was subjected.

"Is it true that our Lady has appeared in a place called the Cova da Iria?"

"Yes, it is true."

"How many times has she appeared to you?"

"Five times, once each month."

"On what day of the month?"

"Always on the 13th, except in the month of August, when I was taken to Ourem by the mayor. In that month I only saw her a few days afterwards, on the 19th, at Valinhos."

"People say that our Lady also appeared to you last year? Is there any truth in this?"

"She never appeared to me last year, never before May of this year; nor did I ever say so to anybody, because it is not true."

"Where does she come from? From the east?"

"I don't know because I don't see her come from anywhere. She appears over the oak tree and when she goes away she goes into the sky in the direction where the sun rises."

"How long does she stay? A long or a short time?"

"A short time."

"Enough to be able to recite an Our Father and Hail Mary, or more?"

"A good deal more, but it is not always the same time; perhaps it would not be long enough to say a Rosary."

"The first time you saw her were you frightened?"

'I was, so much so that I wanted to run away with Jacinta and Francisco, but she told us not to be afraid because she would not hurt us."

"How is she dressed?"

"She has a white dress, which reaches to her feet, and her head was covered with a mantle, the same color and the same length."

"Has the dress anything on it?"

"You can see, in the front, two gold cords which fall from the neck and are joined at the waist by a tassel, also gold."

"Is there any belt or ribbon?"

"No."

"Her earrings? "

"They are little rings."

"In which hand does she hold the rosary?"

"In the right hand."

"Is it a rosary of five or fifteen decades?"

"I didn't notice."

"Had it a cross?"

"Yes, a white cross and the beads, too, were white; so was the chain."

"Did you ever ask who she was?"

"I did, but she said she would only tell us on the 13th of October."

"Did you ask her where she came from?"

"I did, and she told me that she came from heaven."

"When did you ask her this?"

"The second time, on the 13th of June."

"Did she smile sometimes, or was she sad?"

"She neither smiled, nor was she sad; she was always serious."

"Did she tell you and your cousins to say certain prayers?"

"She told us to say the Rosary in honor of Our Lady of the Rosary, to obtain the peace of the world."

"Did she say that many people were to be present in the Cova da Iria during the apparitions of the 13th?"

"She said nothing about that."

"Is it true that she told you a secret that you were not to tell to anybody at all?"

"Yes."

"Does it only concern you or your cousins also?"

"It concerns all three of us."

"Could you not tell it even to your confessor?"

At this question Lucia was silent and appeared confused. I judged it better not to insist by repeating the question.

"In order to free yourself from the mayor on the day he imprisoned you, did you tell him something as if it were the secret, thus deceiving him and boasting of it afterwards?"

"That is not true. Senhor Santos really did want me to reveal the secret, but I could not, and did not do so, although he tried in every way to make me do what he wanted. I told the mayor everything that the Lady had said to me except the secret. Perhaps it was because of this that he thought I had told him the secret too. I never wanted to deceive him."

"Did the Lady tell you to learn to read?"

"Yes, the second time she appeared."

"But if she told you that she would take you to heaven in October next, what would be the good of learning to read?"

"That is not true. The Lady never said that she would take me to heaven in October, and I never told anyone that she had said such a thing."

"What did the Lady say was to be done with the money which the people left under the oak tree in the Cova da Iria?"

"She said that we were to make two andores and that I and Jacinta and two more girls were to carry one, and Francisco with three more boys the other, to the parish church. Part of this money was to be for the Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary and the rest to help to build a new chapel."

"Where does the Lady want the chapel built? In the Cova da Iria?"

"I don't know; she didn't say."

"Are you glad that our Lady appeared to you?"

"Yes."

"On the 13th of October will our Lady come alone?"

"St. Joseph and the Holy Child will come, and a little time afterwards the world will have peace."

"Did our Lady reveal anything more?"

"She said that on the 13th of October she would perform a miracle so that the people can believe that she appeared."

"Why do you often lower your eyes, instead of keeping them on the Lady?"

"Because she sometimes blinds me."

"Did she teach you any prayer?"

"Yes, and she wants us to recite it after each mystery of the Rosary."

"Do you know this prayer by heart?"

"Yes."

"Say it."

"O my Jesus, forgive us and deliver us from the fire of hell. Take all souls to heaven, especially those who are most in need."

"They must be bought with the money which is given on the Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary."

"Do you know for certain where our Lady wants the chapel in her honour to be built?"

"I don't know for certain, but I think she wants the chapel in the Cova da Iria."

"What did she say that she would do in order that people might believe?"

"She said that she would perform a miracle."

"When did she say this?"

"She said it several times, but once, during the first apparition, I asked her." "Are you not afraid of what the people will do if nothing extraordinary happens on that day?" "I am not at all afraid." "Do you feel something inside you, some force which draws you to the Cova da Iria on the 13th of each month?" "I feel I want to go there, and I should be sad if I didn't." "Did you ever see the Lady make the sign of the cross, pray, or tell the beads?" "No." "Did she tell you to pray?" "She told me to pray several times."

"Did you see the signs which-other people said they saw, such as a star, or roses falling from the Lady's dress?"

"I didn't see a star nor any other signs."

"Did you hear any noise or an earthquake?"

"No, I heard nothing."

"Can you read?"

"No "

"Are you learning?"

"No."

"Then you are not doing what our Lady wants?..." Lucia did not reply to this. "When you tell the people to kneel and pray is it the Lady who tells you to?" "No, it is not the Lady. I tell them to."

"Do you always kneel when she appears?"

"Sometimes I kneel, sometimes I stand."

"When she speaks is her voice sweet and agreeable?"

"Yes."

"How old is the Lady?"

"She looks about fifteen years old."

"What colour is the rosary chain?"

"White."

"And the crucifix?"

"White too."

"Does the veil cover the forehead of the Lady?"

"It does not cover it; you can see her forehead."

"Is the light which surrounds her very beautiful?"

"More beautiful than the most brilliant light of the sun."

"Did the Lady ever greet you with her head or with her hands?"

"Never."

"Did she ever laugh?"

"Never."

"Does she usually look at the people?"

"I never saw her look at them,"

"Do you hear the voices and the cries of the people while you are talking to the Lady?"

"No."

"Did the Lady ask you in May to come back every month until October to the Cova-da Iria?"

"She said we were to come back from month to month on the 13th for six months."

"Do you remember your mother reading a book called Short Mission, where there is a story of an apparition of our Lady to a girl?"

"Yes."

"Did you think much about this story, or speak about it to other children?"

"I never thought about this story, and I never talked about it to anyone."

Francisco        Jacinta        Lucia        Manuel Goncalves

"Have the parents of these children a good name? Are they respectable, decent living people?"

"The parents of Jacinta and Francisco are very good people, profoundly religious and well thought of by everybody. Lucia's father is not a churchgoer, but he is not at all a bad man. On the thirteenth of June some of his more disreputable friends succeeded in making him drunk in the hope of getting him to commit some folly or other in the place of the apparitions, and although he had allowed his daughter to go to the place as usual, he ordered the other people off, as proprietor of the ground where the oak tree grows. When the people saw that he was drunk, they took no notice of his order, but a man pushed him so that he fell to the ground. The mother is a pious hard-working woman."

"What do the inhabitants of Fátima think of the children's affirmations? Do they believe them? Do they think they are lying, or perhaps victims of a hallucination?"

"At first the people did not want to go to the Cova. No one believed the children. On the 13th of June, the day of the second apparition, there was a feast in the parish in honor of St. Anthony. In the Cova there were only about seventy people at the time of the apparition. The parents of Jacinta and Francisco had gone in the morning to Porto de Mos for the so-called 'Fair of the thirteenth,' with the intention of buying oxen and returning at night. In their absence the house filled up with people who wanted to see the children and question them. At present a large proportion of the people think that the children are speaking the truth. For my own part I am convinced of this."

"On the days of the apparitions are there extraordinary signs? Many people claim to have seen them."

"The signs are very numerous. In August almost everyone who was present saw them. A cloud came down on the oak tree. In July the same thing was seen, and there was no dust. The cloud seemed to sweep the air clean."

"Were there any other signs?"

"In the sky, near the sun, there were some white clouds which turned successively bright red (the color of blood), pink and yellow. The people themselves turned this last color. The light of the sun sensibly diminished in intensity, and in July and August a noise was heard."

"Is it possible that anyone could have induced the children to play a hoax?"

"That would be impossible!"

"Have many people come from outside to talk to the children?"

"Innumerable people from all parts."

"Do they accept the money which is offered them?"

They have accepted something from people who insist, but they do not' accept it willingly."

"Are there people in Fátima who have been close to the children during the apparitions?"

"In July, Jacinto Lopes da Amoreira and Manual de Oliveira from this village of Montelo, were near them.'

"What does Lucia do during the apparitions?"

"She says the Rosary. When she speaks to the Lady she speaks loudly. I myself heard her in June, because I was near her. Some people say that they heard the sound of the reply."

"Is the place of the apparitions much frequented on the other days?"