Sanctuary of Fátima

Overview

The Sanctuary of Fátima is a Catholic pilgrimage site in the town of Fátima in central Portugal. It developed at the Cova da Iria, a field where Catholic tradition holds that Mary, the mother of Jesus, appeared six times to three shepherd children in 1917. Millions of pilgrims visit each year, with the largest gatherings on the anniversary pilgrimages of 12-13 May and 12-13 October, marking the first and last apparitions.

Present

The Sanctuary of Fátima is administered by the Catholic Diocese of Leiria-Fátima. Masses and the rosary, a Catholic prayer counted on beads, are celebrated daily, and candlelight processions take place on the evenings of the major pilgrimages. Anniversary pilgrimages are held on the 12th and 13th of each month from May to October, with the largest gatherings in May and October. Two of the three visionaries, Francisco and Jacinta Marto, were declared saints by the Catholic Church in 2017, one hundred years after the apparitions. The third, Lúcia dos Santos, who died in 2005, has been declared venerable, a formal step in the Catholic process toward sainthood.

Religious Significance

Catholic tradition holds that Mary, the mother of Jesus, appeared six times to three shepherd children, Lúcia dos Santos and her cousins Francisco and Jacinta Marto, at the Cova da Iria between May and October 1917. According to the children's accounts, the apparitions called for prayer, especially the rosary, for penance, and for devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, and entrusted the children with three messages that became known as the secrets of Fátima. On 13 October 1917, the date of the final apparition, tens of thousands of people gathered at the site reported seeing the sun appear to move and change color, an event that became known as the Miracle of the Sun. The Catholic Church declared the apparitions worthy of belief in 1930.

Mary is venerated at the sanctuary under the title Our Lady of Fátima. Pope John Paul II attributed his survival of a 1981 assassination attempt to her protection, and the bullet removed from his body was later set into the crown of the statue of Our Lady of Fátima in the Chapel of the Apparitions.

History & Structure

The first building at the site was the Chapel of the Apparitions, a small chapel built in 1919 at the spot where the children reported seeing Mary; it was destroyed by a bomb in 1922 and rebuilt the following year. The Basilica of Our Lady of the Rosary, a white church with a central bell tower about 65 meters high, was begun in 1928 and consecrated in 1953; it contains the tombs of all three visionaries. Curved colonnades extend from the basilica around a vast open square where the large pilgrimage gatherings take place. At the opposite end of the square, the circular Basilica of the Holy Trinity, completed in 2007, seats around 8,600 people. The Chapel of the Apparitions, sheltered under a modern canopy, holds the crowned statue of Our Lady of Fátima and is the center of daily devotion at the sanctuary.

Additional Resources

• Official website: Shrine of Fátima
• Book: When the Sun Danced: Myth, Miracles, and Modernity in Early Twentieth-Century Portugal by Jeffrey S. Bennett (2012)