Miracle at Fatima Portugal

Seven years before the first visitation to the children of Fatima, revolutionists had deposed the ruling monarchy and proclaimed Portugal a Republic. Immediately after the proclamation of the Republic, all religious orders were suppressed

During this time, churches were pillaged and convents attacked. The fiercest and most targeted attack, however, came through the anti-clerical legislation the Republic passed.
The public celebration of religious feasts was suppressed as was religious teaching in schools.

By 1917, the country was in a state of complete turmoil.

“Economic failure aggravated still more by the recent entrance into the war, disorder and anarchy, dissensions and murders, assassination attempts which had become everyday occurrences – all these created the atmosphere of a real civil war. The Church had been banned from society, reduced to silence, persecuted in every way. In short, Portugal in that hour experience the darkest period of its history”.

The Whole Truth about Fatima, Volume II: The Secret and the Church. Frere Michel de la Sainte Trinite. Immaculate Heart Publications, 1989, p.303.