The Fatima Prayer - The Children Behind “O My Jesus”
Posted by Brother Oscar
A prayer from Fátima that found its way into the Rosary
On 13 July 1917, in a hollow among the hills near the village of Fátima in central Portugal, three children knelt in the summer heat: Lúcia dos Santos, aged ten, and her young cousins Francisco and Jacinta Marto. They were shepherds, not scholars. Yet what they said they saw and heard that day would leave a short prayer on the lips of millions of people who will never visit Portugal.
If you have prayed the Rosary with a parish group, you have almost certainly said it. After the ten Hail Marys and the Glory Be, someone begins, "O my Jesus, forgive us our sins…" and everyone joins in. It is so familiar that many Catholics assume it has always been part of the Rosary. It has not. It is barely a century old, and of all the prayers described in our guide to Christian prayer, it has one of the most unusual stories.
The Fatima Prayer, also called the Decade Prayer or the "O my Jesus" prayer, is a short Catholic prayer commonly said at the end of each decade of the Rosary, asking Jesus for forgiveness and for the salvation of all souls. According to Sister Lúcia's memoirs, the Virgin Mary taught it to the three children of Fátima during the apparition of 13 July 1917. Its most common English wording is:
"O my Jesus, forgive us our sins, save us from the fires of hell;
— The Fatima Prayer, common English text
lead all souls to Heaven, especially those in most need of thy mercy."
The Words of the Fatima Prayer
The prayer has two halves. The first is a plea for ourselves: forgive us, save us. The second widens to everyone: lead all souls to Heaven, especially those who need mercy most. In a few seconds it moves from "us" to "all," which is the movement of the Rosary itself, and of Christian prayer generally.
You will meet slightly different English versions, and it helps to know why. The Sanctuary of Fátima's own English materials give Our Lady's instruction as a prayer ending "especially those who are most in need." Many English-speaking parishes add "of thy mercy" or "of your mercy" at the end, and some say "the fire of hell" rather than "the fires." The Sanctuary's own Rosary guide uses the longer ending too. None of these differences changes the meaning, and no version is "wrong"; they reflect the different ways a short Portuguese prayer was translated as it travelled. Pray the version your community uses.
Where the Fatima Prayer Comes From
The story of Fátima begins before 1917. Lúcia later wrote that in 1916 the three children were visited three times by an angel, who taught them to pray. Then, on 13 May 1917, while they were grazing sheep in a place called the Cova da Iria, they said a lady made of light appeared to them. She asked them to return on the thirteenth of each month until October, and above all to pray the Rosary every day for peace in the world, at a time when Europe was in the third year of the First World War.
The prayer belongs to the third apparition, on 13 July 1917. According to Lúcia, the children were shown a frightening vision that day, which later became known as the first part of the "secret" of Fátima, and the Lady then asked them, when they prayed the Rosary, to say after each mystery: "O my Jesus, forgive us, save us from the fire of hell. Lead all souls to Heaven, especially those who are most in need." Lúcia later described the children adopting this prayer in their devotional lives.
The Great Holm Oak at the Sanctuary of Fátima, Portugal, traditionally associated with the three shepherd children during the reported apparitions of 1917.
Two of those lives were short. Francisco died in 1919 and Jacinta in 1920, both in the influenza pandemic that followed the war. Lúcia became a religious sister and lived until 2005. At the request of her bishop she wrote down her memories in a series of memoirs in the 1930s and 1940s, and these are the source of nearly everything we know about the prayers of Fátima, including the Fatima Prayer itself.
The Church moved carefully. On 13 October 1930, after a long investigation, the Bishop of Leiria, José Alves Correia da Silva, declared the children's visions worthy of belief. Popes later visited Fátima as pilgrims; John Paul II beatified Francisco and Jacinta there on 13 May 2000, and on 13 May 2017, the centenary of the first apparition, Pope Francis canonized them as saints.
Artistic reconstruction of Lúcia, Francisco and Jacinta Marto in rural Portugal around 1917.
The quiet countryside where the children reported their encounters has changed considerably since 1917. Cova da Iria is now home to the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Fátima, one of the world's major Catholic pilgrimage destinations. The Chapel of the Apparitions marks the traditional location of the reported encounters, while the Basilica of Our Lady of the Rosary and the surrounding sanctuary complex reflect the growth of devotion over the following century. Pilgrims still gather here to pray the Rosary, including the short Fatima Prayer associated with the July apparition.
The Sanctuary of Our Lady of Fátima, Portugal, built around the site associated with the reported apparitions of 1917.
What Catholics Are, and Are Not, Asked to Believe
This matters, and it is often misunderstood. Fátima is what the Catholic Church calls a private revelation. Public revelation, the faith the Church teaches and every Catholic professes, was completed in Christ and is handed on through Scripture and Tradition. Private revelations, even approved ones, do not add to it. The Catechism of the Catholic Church is precise: "It is not their role to complete Christ's definitive Revelation, but to help live more fully by it in a certain period of history" (CCC 67).
When the Vatican published the third part of the secret of Fátima in 2000, its theological commentary, written by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the future Pope Benedict XVI, made the same point in pastoral terms. Such a revelation, it said, is "a help which is offered, but which one is not obliged to use."
So a Catholic is free to pray the Fatima Prayer, and millions do, but is not required to believe that the apparitions happened as described in order to remain a faithful Catholic. Many Christians of other traditions are cautious about Marian apparitions altogether. What every Christian can recognise is that the words of the prayer itself are entirely biblical in spirit. Nothing in it asks for more than the Gospel asks.
What Each Line Means
"O my Jesus." Notice who the prayer is addressed to. It arrived through a Marian apparition and is prayed in the middle of a Marian devotion, but it speaks directly to Christ, and personally: my Jesus. It is a reminder that the Rosary, for all its Hail Marys, is centred on him.
"Forgive us our sins." The oldest Christian request of all. It echoes the prayer Jesus himself taught, "forgive us our debts" (Matthew 6:12), set out in our article on the Lord's Prayer, line by line, and the tax collector's prayer in the Temple at Jerusalem: "God be merciful to me a sinner" (Luke 18:13). The prayer says "us," not "me." We ask forgiveness together.
"Save us from the fires of hell." Modern ears flinch at this line, and the children of Fátima would not have been surprised; according to Lúcia, they had just been shown a vision of hell that terrified them. But the line is not meant to frighten. It is a plea from people who take the possibility of losing God seriously, as Jesus did when he warned his disciples about the fire that is not quenched (Mark 9:43). To ask to be saved is to admit we cannot save ourselves.
"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life."
— John 3:16
"Lead all souls to Heaven." Not some souls; all of them. This is the heart of the prayer, and it matches God's own desire: he "will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth" (1 Timothy 2:4). A person praying the Rosary is asked, ten times a day if they pray five decades, to want what God wants for every human being, including people they find hard to love.
"Especially those in most need of thy mercy." The prayer ends with the ones furthest away, as the Good Shepherd leaves the ninety-nine to look for the one that is lost (Luke 15:4–7). It is a prayer for the people no one else is praying for: the hardened, the forgotten, the dying who have no one at their bedside. Jacinta, the youngest of the three children, is remembered for her concern for exactly these people. For a seven-year-old, it was a remarkably large heart. For any of us, it is a good one to borrow.
The Fatima Prayer in the Rosary
In practice, the Fatima Prayer is said at the end of each decade, straight after the Glory Be and before the Our Father that opens the next decade. Our step-by-step guide to praying the Rosary shows exactly where it falls on the beads. That puts it at a natural turning point: the ten Hail Marys have meditated on one mystery of Christ's life, the Glory Be has lifted that mystery up to the Trinity, and the Fatima Prayer turns the one praying outward, toward everyone who needs God's mercy.
It is optional. The Fatima Prayer is not part of the Rosary's official structure, and Catholics who leave it out are not praying the Rosary wrongly. In his 2002 apostolic letter on the Rosary, Rosarium Virginis Mariae, Pope John Paul II noted that after the Glory Be "the Trinitarian doxology is followed by a brief concluding prayer which varies according to local custom." In many Catholic communities today, the Fatima Prayer is that prayer. The history and structure of the Rosary as a whole are explained in our pillar guide, The Rosary Explained.
For those who are drawn to the Fatima devotion, there is something fitting about praying it on beads that carry the memory of the three children. Our Our Lady of Fatima Rosary has beads of frosted blue agate and a centrepiece showing Our Lady above Lúcia, Francisco and Jacinta, and arrives in a gift box with a cotton pouch. If you prefer beads with roots in the land of the Gospel itself, you can also browse our Holy Land rosaries.
The Other Prayers of Fatima
The decade prayer is the best known, but Lúcia recorded several other short prayers from the Fátima events, two of them taught by the angel in 1916 and others from the apparitions of 1917. They are often grouped together as "the Fatima prayers." The table below gives the five most commonly listed, in the order the children received them, with the wording in its common English form.
| Prayer | Words | When, according to Lúcia |
|---|---|---|
| The Pardon Prayer | "My God, I believe, I adore, I hope and I love You! I ask pardon of You for those who do not believe, do not adore, do not hope and do not love You." | Taught by the angel at his first appearance, 1916 |
| The Angel's Prayer | "Most Holy Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, I adore You profoundly, and I offer You the most precious Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ, present in all the tabernacles of the world, in reparation for the outrages, sacrileges and indifference with which He Himself is offended. And, through the infinite merits of His Most Sacred Heart and the Immaculate Heart of Mary, I beg of You the conversion of poor sinners." | Taught by the angel at his last appearance, 1916 |
| The Eucharistic Prayer | "O Most Holy Trinity, I adore You! My God, my God, I love You in the Most Blessed Sacrament." | Prayed by the children at the first apparition, 13 May 1917 |
| The Sacrifice Prayer | "O Jesus, it is for love of You, for the conversion of sinners, and in reparation for the sins committed against the Immaculate Heart of Mary." | Taught at the third apparition, 13 July 1917, to say when offering a sacrifice |
| The Decade Prayer | "O my Jesus, forgive us our sins, save us from the fires of hell; lead all souls to Heaven, especially those in most need of thy mercy." | Taught at the third apparition, 13 July 1917, to say after each mystery of the Rosary |
You may also see lists of "seven prayers of Fatima." There is no official list, and such lists vary from source to source; the five above are a commonly used grouping drawn from the accounts associated with Lúcia. Read together, the five short prayers share one thread: adoration of God, and love for sinners. Even the Eucharistic Prayer, said in a field in Portugal, points to the altar, and to the Last Supper in an upper room in Jerusalem. For the Church's wider teaching on Mary and why Catholics honour her, see our article on the Virgin Mary in Christian faith.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the Fatima Prayer of the Rosary?
It is the short prayer said after each decade of the Rosary: "O my Jesus, forgive us our sins, save us from the fires of hell; lead all souls to Heaven, especially those in most need of thy mercy." According to Sister Lúcia, Our Lady taught it to the three children of Fátima on 13 July 1917.
When do you say the Fatima Prayer in the Rosary?
It is said at the end of each decade, straight after the Glory Be and before the Our Father of the next decade. Some people also add it after the Glory Be that follows the three opening Hail Marys.
Is the Fatima Prayer required in the Rosary?
No, it is optional and not part of the Rosary's official structure. Pope John Paul II noted that the short prayer after the Glory Be varies according to local custom.
What are the prayers of Fatima?
Five prayers are commonly listed: the Pardon Prayer and the Angel's Prayer to the Most Holy Trinity from 1916, the Eucharistic Prayer from 13 May 1917, and the Sacrifice Prayer and the Decade Prayer from 13 July 1917. Longer lists of seven also circulate, but there is no official list.
Why is the Fatima Prayer called the Decade Prayer?
Because it is commonly prayed at the end of each decade of the Rosary, after the ten Hail Marys and the Glory Be. Both names refer to the same prayer, "O my Jesus."
Closing Reflection
Jacinta Marto died at the age of nine, alone in a hospital in Lisbon, far from her family. She had spent the last three years of her short life praying for people she would never meet. The prayer she and her brother and cousin left behind is now said by strangers in every language, in parish halls and hospital chapels and on rosaries passed from hand to hand. Next time you reach the end of a decade, say it slowly, and let the last words land: especially those in most need. Somewhere tonight there is someone no one else is praying for. For the length of one short prayer, you can be the one who does.
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