Mary protects her own!

On May 13, 1981, Mehmet Ali Ağca fired a gun at the Holy Father, Pope John Paul II, in St. Peter's Square in Rome. At the same moment, the Pontiff leaned over to examine a little girl’s medal of Fatima, narrowly avoiding the lethal bullets aimed at his head and chest.

A year later, the Pope went to the shrine of Fatima, where he left the assassin's bullet in thanksgiving to Our Lady for saving his life.

On May 13, 2000, the Pope beatified Francisco and Jacinta Marto, two of the three children who had seen the Virgin Mary in Fatima during the apparitions of 1917 (Lucia was still alive in 2000). That same year he made public the "Third Secret" of Fatima: Sister Lucia's vision of the martyrdom of "a bishop clothed in white" surrounded by other Catholics.

In 2002, Pope John Paul II added the feast of Our Lady of Fatima to the calendar of the Catholic Church as an optional memorial on May 13.

Adapted from wherewewalked