Fatima Books Recommendations

A reader writes:

Can you recommend a good book on Fatima? I am looking for something with a little meat on it, less inclusive than a 10,000-page multi-volume set (if such a thing exists), but not too short or simplistic.

There are three works that I’d recommend:

1. Fatima in Lucia’s Own Words
2. Fatima in Lucia’s Own Words, vol. 2
3. Calls from the Message of Fatima
4. Encountering Mary by Sandra Zimdars-Swartz

The first three are all written by Sr. Lucia herself. The first two consist of her memoirs of the incident (there are several different memoirs, which overlap to a considerable degree). The third is the volume she wrote and released after the publication of the Third Secret.

The fourth book is a critical but balanced look at recent apparitions, including Fatima. It is a semi-scholarly work that tries to take an objective look at them, presenting both the evidence for and against them without drawing definite conclusions one way or the other.

For the Vatican’s take on Fatima (including basic information on what happened), read

THE MESSAGE OF FATIMA.

Due to the poor quality of many books on Fatima (many of which contain copious amounts of material now known to be false) and other apparitions, I ask commenters to refrain from recommending additional works in the comments box.

Author: Jimmy Akin

Jimmy was born in Texas, grew up nominally Protestant, but at age 20 experienced a profound conversion to Christ. Planning on becoming a Protestant seminary professor, he started an intensive study of the Bible. But the more he immersed himself in Scripture the more he found to support the Catholic faith, and in 1992 he entered the Catholic Church. His conversion story, "A Triumph and a Tragedy," is published in Surprised by Truth. Besides being an author, Jimmy is the Senior Apologist at Catholic Answers, a contributing editor to Catholic Answers Magazine, and a weekly guest on "Catholic Answers Live." View all posts by Jimmy Akin