The First Saturday Devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary was first mentioned by Our Lady of Fatima on July 13, 1917. After showing the three children a vision of hell she said, "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 what I say to you is done, many souls will be saved and there will be peace... I shall come to ask for... the Communion of Reparation on the First Saturdays..."

Eight years later, on December 10, 1925, Mary and the Child Jesus appeared to Lucia, the sole surviving Fatima visionary, at a convent in Pontevedra, Spain. Our Lady rested her hand on Lucia's shoulder, revealing a heart encircled by thorns.

The Child Jesus said: "Have compassion on the heart of your most holy Mother, covered with thorns with which ungrateful men pierce it at every moment, and there is no one to make an act of reparation..."

Our Lady spoke: "Look, my daughter, at my heart, surrounded with thorns with which ungrateful men pierce it at every moment by their blasphemies and ingratitude. You at least try to console me and say that I promise to assist at the hour of death, with the graces necessary for salvation, all those who, on the first Saturday of five consecutive months, shall confess, receive Holy Communion, recite five decades of the Rosary, and keep me company for fifteen minutes while meditating on fifteen mysteries of the Rosary, with the intention of making reparation to me.

1. Going to confession, which may be done from 8 days before to 8 days after the first Saturday. If a person is in the state of serious sin, the confession must be made before receiving communion.
2. Receiving Holy Communion.
3. Recitation of 5 decades of the rosary.
4. Meditating for 15 minutes on the mysteries of the rosary.

All of these, except confession, must be completed on the first Saturday of 5 consecutive months with the intention of making reparation to the Immaculate Heart. For those who make the Five First Saturdays, Our Lady of Fatima has promised to assist them at the hour of death with all the graces necessary for salvation.

Why Five Saturdays?

Five First Saturdays of Reparation were requested to atone for the five ways in which people offend the Immaculate Heart of Mary:

Attacks upon Mary's Immaculate Conception

Attacks against her Perpetual Virginity

Attacks upon her Divine Maternity and the refusal to accept her as the Mother of all mankind

For those who try to publicly implant in children's hearts indifference, contempt and even hatred of this Immaculate Mother

For those who insult her directly in her sacred images.