When Sister Agnes Sasagawa, the visionary of Akita, Japan, died at age 93 on Aug. 15, on the Solemnity of the Assumption, the messages she was purportedly given and their connection to those of Fatima again came into the spotlight.

The connections between Akita and Fatima are striking, beginning with Akita’s major message and Fatima’s “Miracle of the Sun” both taking place on Oct. 13. The day of the week was also the same — a Saturday, our Blessed Mother’s special day. Our Lady’s apparitions ended at Fatima with the Miracle of the Sun on this date in 1917; and on this same date and same day of the week in 1973, she gave her third in a series of four messages to Sister Agnes.

Rosary and Adoration

Both Fatima and Akita began with visits from an angel.

When Sister Agnes of the Handmaids of the Holy Eucharist was praying the Rosary while recovering at home from an illness in 1969, her guardian angel appeared and told her to add after each decade, “O my Jesus, forgive us our sins, save us from the fires of hell, lead all souls to heaven, especially those who are most in need of your mercy.” It was the prayer Our Lady taught and requested at Fatima. The nun had never heard of this additional prayer to the Rosary since as of that time there was no translation of it into Japanese. Then came Saturday, Oct. 13, 1973, when Our Lady appeared to Sister Agnes while she was at Eucharistic adoration with her superior and reciting the Rosary.

Words of Warning

The message Sister Agnes reported was similar to one Mary had given the children seers at Fatima. She had just begun the Rosary when she heard Our Lady speak these words to her:

“As I told you, if men do not repent and better themselves, the Father will inflict a terrible punishment on all humanity. It will be a punishment greater than the deluge, such as one will never have seen before. Fire will fall from the sky and will wipe out a great part of humanity, the good as well as the bad, sparing neither priests nor faithful. The survivors will find themselves so desolate that they will envy the dead. The only arms which will remain for you will be the Rosary and the Sign left by My Son.”

At Fatima, when the Miracle of the Sun was happening, people thought the sun was heading toward the Earth, as if “fire” were falling from the sky.

Our Lady continued at Akita: “The work of the devil will infiltrate even into the Church in such a way that one will see cardinals opposing cardinals, bishops against bishops. The priests who venerate me will be scorned and opposed by their confreres ... churches and altars sacked; the Church will be full of those who accept compromises and the demon will press many priests and consecrated souls to leave the service of the Lord.”

“The demon will be especially implacable against souls consecrated to God. The thought of the loss of so many souls is the cause of my sorrow. If sins increase in number and gravity, there will be no longer pardon for them,” Mary continued.

And “fire” could yet fall from the sky — from man or from heaven (Revelation 9).

In his book Akita: The Tears and Messages of Mary, Father Teiji Yasuda, chaplain of the Akita convent, also drew the connection: “The heart of the third message given by Our Lady at Akita is a warning which can be summed up thus, ‘If men do not repent and better themselves, there will be a terrible chastisement.’ At Fatima, Our Lady gave a dreadful warning. If her requests were not heeded, error would spread from an atheist Russia throughout the entire world, fomenting further wars; the good will be persecuted; the Holy Father will suffer much, and several entire nations will be annihilated.”

In an earlier message in August to Sister Agnes, our Blessed Mother also revealed, in part: “In order that the world might know His anger, the Heavenly Father is preparing to inflict a great chastisement on all mankind. With my Son, I have intervened so many times to appease the wrath of the Father. I have prevented the coming of calamities by offering him the sufferings of the Son on the Cross, his Precious Blood and beloved souls who console him and form a cohort of victim souls. Prayer, penance and courageous sacrifices can soften the Father’s anger.”

Hopeful Words

Such chastisement did not (and still does not) have to be, because of that big “if” — if people listen to what our Blessed Mother instructed. Prior to this appearance in October, on July 6, in the chapel, Sister Agnes, who was suffering from incurable deafness, heard a voice coming from the statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The three-foot-tall carved statue began to “sweat” tears — which happened a total of 101 times until the tears eventually stopped on Sept. 15, 1981, the feast of Our Lady of Sorrows. Linking back to Portugal, during Mary’s final appearance on Oct. 13, 1917, at Fatima, one of the three ways Our Lady appeared to the seers was as Our Lady of Sorrows. Sister Agnes was told she would be cured. This promise from the Blessed Mother was meant to show the apparitions were authentic. That cure came after the major October apparition, during Benediction in the chapel — on Oct. 13.

And as always, our Blessed Mother gave hope through her apparitions in Portugal and Japan. Akita’s solution is Fatima’s solution.

Fatima’s core instructions are Akita’s core instructions. They are very simple:

First, pray the prayers of the Rosary. In every appearance at Fatima, Our Lady said to pray the Rosary “every day in honor of Our Lady of the Rosary, in order to obtain the peace of the world and the end of the war, because only she can obtain it.” In Akita on Oct. 13, she again stressed the Rosary four times in that one message, instructing, “Pray very much the prayers of the Rosary. I alone am able still to save you from the calamities which approach. Those who place their confidence in me will be saved.” And again, “Each day recite the prayers of the Rosary. With the Rosary, pray for the Pope, the bishops and priests.” Our Lady said at Fatima: “If you do what I tell you, many souls will be saved, and there will be peace.”

Second, cultivate a devotion to St. Joseph and make Fatima’s First Saturday devotions routine. On the feast of St. Joseph the Worker, a First Saturday, Sister Agnes’ guardian angel told her, “Attach great importance to this day for the glory of God and of his holy Mother. With courage spread this devotion among the greatest number.” How does one fulfill the First Saturday conditions? One should, on the First Saturday of any five consecutive months, go to confession, receive Holy Communion, say five decades of the Rosary, and keep Mary company while meditating on those mysteries of the Rosary for 15 minutes. In the Oct. 13 Fatima apparition, St. Joseph also appeared with Our Lady and Jesus.

In Summary

The Akita-Fatima connections are unmistakable. John Haffert, co-founder of the Blue Army, wrote in his study of Akita that Bishop John Shojiro Ito, who had formally declared approval for the Akita apparitions on April 22, 1984, called Akita “an update of Fatima and its promise.”

And remember the final hope-filled words from Our Lady through Sister Agnes: “Pray very much the prayers of the Rosary. I alone am able still to save you from the calamities which approach. Those who place their confidence in me will be saved.”

Sister Agnes showed the way.