On 13 August, a crowd of more than 20, 000 people were present at the Cova da Iria. In the morning, the administrator of the district de Vila Nova de Ourem came in his car to the house of Francisco and Jacinta, together with the archpriest of a major town in the surroundings. He pretended that he believed the apparitions and had come for the security of the children. So first he took them together with the archpriest to the presbytery, where the parish priest, in the presence of the administrator, interrogated the children again. After the interrogation, the administrator, declaring that he was convinced now, invited the children to be driven to the place of the apparition for their safety. But instead of bringing them to the Cova da Iria, he turned towards his town (Ourem). When they arrived, the administrator shut them up in a room and declared that they would not get out until they had revealed the secret.
Meanwhile, the people waited at the Cova da Iria in vain for the arrival of the children. Somebody announced that the administrator had kidnapped them.
“I don't know what would have happened if we hadn't heard the clap of thunder. It was much the same as the last time (13 July). Many people were shocked and some of them began to cry out that they would be killed. Everyone began to spread out away from the tree (on which Our Lady already appeared 3 times), but, of course, nobody was killed. After the thunderclap came the flash of lightning, and then we began to see a little cloud, very delicate, very white, which stopped for a few moments over the tree and then rose in the air and disappeared” – by eyewitness Maria Carreira. The majority of the pilgrims confirmed this scene. The people said to each other: “Certainly Our Lady came. What a pity that She could not see the children!”
In the meantime, the children were subjected to uninterrupted interrogations, nine in all. Only on 14 August were they were questioned separately and also examined by a doctor, without any result. Therefore, the administrator decided to use stronger weapons: he put them into the public prison. Jacinta suffered horribly because of the separation from her parents, Francisco was most hurt that he had missed the rendezvous with Our Lady. The prisoners were very good with the children and tried to console them.
Sr. Lucy writes in her memories: “Next, we decided to pray our Rosary. Jacinta took off a medal that she was wearing round her neck, and asked a prisoner to hang it up for her on a nail in the wall. Kneeling before this medal, we began to pray. The prisoners prayed with us … Afterwards, Jacinta, who no longer wept during the interrogations, began sobbing as she thought of her mother. ‘Jacinta,’ I asked, ‘don't you want to offer this sacrifice to Our Lord?’ – ‘Yes I do, but I keep thinking about my mother and I can’t help crying.’ … Suddenly a guard appeared, who in a fearsome voice called out to Jacinta: ‘The oil is boiling now: tell the secret, if you don't want to be burned!’ –
‘I can't.’ –
‘So, you can't, eh? Then I'll make you able to! Come!’
She left immediately, without even saying goodbye. Then Francisco confided to me with boundless joy and peace: ‘If they kill us as they say, we'll soon be in Heaven! How wonderful! Nothing else matters!’ Then, after a moment of silence: ‘May God grant that Jacinta not be afraid. I will say an Ave Maria for her!’”
Shortly after, the guard came to look for Francisco, then Lucy- always the same scenario. The administrator made a third threat: all three of them would boil together! Still he did not obtain the secret or any kind of confession.
The next morning after a final interrogation, the children were conducted back to Fatima. As everyone was very upset at the administrator and also at the parish priest (the children were kidnapped when they left the parish office), the latter, understanding the trickery of the administrator, wrote a public declaration that he had nothing to do with “the odious and sacrilegious act which was committed by the sudden kidnapping of the three children”. Thanks to his public letter, the events of Fatima were published for the first time in the Catholic press.
14 Después miré, y he aquí el Cordero estaba en pie sobre el monte de Sion, y con él ciento cuarenta y cuatro mil, que tenían el nombre de él y el de su Padre escrito en la frente.
2 Y oí una voz del cielo como estruendo de muchas aguas, y como sonido de un gran trueno; y la voz que oí era como de arpistas que tocaban sus arpas.
3 Y cantaban un cántico nuevo delante del trono, y delante de los cuatro seres vivientes, y de los ancianos; y nadie podía aprender el cántico sino aquellos ciento cuarenta y cuatro mil que fueron redimidos de entre los de la tierra.
4 Estos son los que no se contaminaron con mujeres, pues son vírgenes. Estos son los que siguen al Cordero por dondequiera que va. Estos fueron redimidos de entre los hombres como primicias para Dios y para el Cordero;
5 y en sus bocas no fue hallada mentira, pues son sin mancha delante del trono de Dios.
El mensaje de los tres ángeles
6 Vi volar por en medio del cielo a otro ángel, que tenía el evangelio eterno para predicarlo a los moradores de la tierra, a toda nación, tribu, lengua y pueblo,
7 diciendo a gran voz: Temed a Dios, y dadle gloria, porque la hora de su juicio ha llegado; y adorad a aquel que hizo el cielo y la tierra, el mar y las fuentes de las aguas.
8 Otro ángel le siguió, diciendo: Ha caído, ha caído Babilonia, la gran ciudad, porque ha hecho beber a todas las naciones del vino del furor de su fornicación.
9 Y el tercer ángel los siguió, diciendo a gran voz: Si alguno adora a la bestia y a su imagen, y recibe la marca en su frente o en su mano,
10 él también beberá del vino de la ira de Dios, que ha sido vaciado puro en el cáliz de su ira; y será atormentado con fuego y azufre delante de los santos ángeles y del Cordero;
11 y el humo de su tormento sube por los siglos de los siglos. Y no tienen reposo de día ni de noche los que adoran a la bestia y a su imagen, ni nadie que reciba la marca de su nombre.
12 Aquí está la paciencia de los santos, los que guardan los mandamientos de Dios y la fe de Jesús.
13 Oí una voz que desde el cielo me decía: Escribe: Bienaventurados de aquí en adelante los muertos que mueren en el Señor. Sí, dice el Espíritu, descansarán de sus trabajos, porque sus obras con ellos siguen.
La tierra es segada
14 Miré, y he aquí una nube blanca; y sobre la nube uno sentado semejante al Hijo del Hombre, que tenía en la cabeza una corona de oro, y en la mano una hoz aguda.
15 Y del templo salió otro ángel, clamando a gran voz al que estaba sentado sobre la nube: Mete tu hoz, y siega; porque la hora de segar ha llegado, pues la mies de la tierra está madura.
16 Y el que estaba sentado sobre la nube metió su hoz en la tierra, y la tierra fue segada.
17 Salió otro ángel del templo que está en el cielo, teniendo también una hoz aguda.
18 Y salió del altar otro ángel, que tenía poder sobre el fuego, y llamó a gran voz al que tenía la hoz aguda, diciendo: Mete tu hoz aguda, y vendimia los racimos de la tierra, porque sus uvas están maduras.
19 Y el ángel arrojó su hoz en la tierra, y vendimió la viña de la tierra, y echó las uvas en el gran lagar de la ira de Dios.
20 Y fue pisado el lagar fuera de la ciudad, y del lagar salió sangre hasta los frenos de los caballos, por mil seiscientos estadios.
The original Horses inside the St Mark's BasilicaThe replica Horses of Saint Mark
The Horses of Saint Mark (Italian: Cavalli di San Marco), also known as the Triumphal Quadriga or Horses of the Hippodrome of Constantinople, is a set of bronze statues of four horses, originally part of a monument depicting a quadriga (a four-horse carriage used for chariot racing). The horses were placed on the facade, on the loggia above the porch, of St Mark's Basilica in Venice, northern Italy, after the sack and looting of Constantinople in 1204. They remained there until looted by Napoleon in 1797 but were returned in 1815. The sculptures have been removed from the facade and placed in the interior of St Mark's for conservation purposes, with replicas in their position on the loggia.
The sculptures date from classical antiquity. Many scholars believe they were sculpted in the 2nd or 3rd century AD, noting similarities to the Equestrian Statue of Marcus Aurelius in Rome (c. 175 AD).[1] But some say the evident technical expertise and naturalistic rendering of the animals suggest they were made in Classical Greece of the 5th and 4th centuries BC.[2]
In light of their short backs and long legs, it has been argued that they were originally situated above the eye line,[3] probably created to top a triumphal arch or some other grand building. Perhaps commissioned by the Emperor Septimus Severus, they may originally have been made for the Eastern capital of Constantinople, where they were long displayed.[3]
Analysis suggests that the sculptures are at least 96.67% copper,[4] and therefore should be viewed not as made from bronze but of an impure copper. The relatively low tin content increased the casting temperature to 1200–1300 °C.[5] The copper was chosen to give a more satisfactory mercury gilding.
The Return of the Horses of San Marco by Vincenzo Chilone, depicting the return of the horses in 1815.
The horses, along with the quadriga with which they were depicted, were long displayed at the Hippodrome of Constantinople; they may be the "four gilt horses that stand above the Hippodrome" that "came from the island of Chios under Theodosius II" mentioned in the 8th- or early 9th-century Parastaseis syntomoi chronikai.[6] As part of the sack of the capital of the Byzantine Empire in the Fourth Crusade, they were looted by Venetian forces in 1204. That same year, the collars on the four horses were added to obscure where the animals' heads had been severed to allow them to be transported from Constantinople to Venice.[7] Shortly after the Fourth Crusade, DogeEnrico Dandolo sent the horses to Venice, where they were installed on the terrace of the façade of St Mark's Basilica in 1254. Petrarch admired them there.[8]
In 1815, following the final defeat of Napoleon, the horses were returned to Venice by Captain Dumaresq. He had fought at the Battle of Waterloo and was with the Coalition forces in Paris where he was selected, by the Emperor of Austria, to take the horses down from the Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel and return them to St Mark's in Venice. For the skillful manner in which he performed this work, the Emperor gave him a gold snuff box with his initials in diamonds on the lid.[9]
The horses remained in place over St Mark's until the early 1980s, when damage from air pollution led them to be removed and put on display inside the basilica. They were replaced on the loggia with replicas.
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