Classic Pilgrimages - Marian Shrines

“In her motherly solitude, the Blessed Virgin came here, to Fatima, to ask men not to offend God any more. It was a mother's sorrow that obliged her to speak.” These are the words of Pope John Paul II when he presided at the beatification ceremony of Fransisco and Jacinta—two of the three seers at Fatima—on May 12 and 13, 2000.

In the early 1900s, much of Europe was at war. Russia was weathering the Bolshevik revolution, and other countries across the globe, including Portugal, were enduring harsh political violence, succession and strife. Interestingly, in a world slipping farther from the breath of salvation, three shepherd children in a small Portuguese village would experience one of the greatest religious events of the 20th century—the 1917 Apparitions at Fatima.

On May 13, 1917, 10-year-old Lucia dos Santos and her cousins Fransisco, age 9, and Jacinta, age 7, were tending sheep in the Cova da Iria when, suddenly, they saw a distinct light shining above the branches of a holm oak. Then, a figure appeared, “a lady more brilliant than the sun,” standing on a cloud just above the tree. The Blessed Virgin appeared and asked the three children to pray for world peace. She then summoned the three of them to return to that very spot on the thirteenth of every month, assuring them, that in October she would reveal her true identity. The children did as they were asked.

Speculation among the villagers immediately ensued. People began accompanying the children to the Cova da Iria; and by September, crowds had grown to 10, 000, eventually exceeding 50,000 by October. It was then, on a wet October 13, that the lady appeared before the children and announced she was Our Lady of the Rosary. Though only the children witnessed the apparition, some of those in the crowd claimed they saw movements in the tree and clouds, mysterious movements which would soon become known as the Miracle of the Sun.

Over the course of the apparitions, the Blessed Virgin asked the three children to encourage others to “pray a great deal and make many sacrifices,” and to “pray the rosary every day to obtain world peace.” The Blessed Virgin warned that if her requests were not acted upon, the world would undergo a “second great war,” and that “the good [would] be martyred, the Holy Father [would] have much to suffer, [and] various nations [would] be annihilated.” Soon after, the small village of Fatima, home to an estimated 10,000 persons, received thousands of pilgrims converging on the Cova da Iria, seeking prayer at the site of the apparitions. Miracle cures were soon proclaimed, and in 1930, the bishop of Leiria “pronounced the visions worthy of credence and authorized the cult of Our Lady of Fatima.” Some four decades later, the apparitions of Fatima were proclaimed “an affirmation of the Gospel” by Pope Paul VI.

Fransisco (April, 4, 1918) and Jacinta (February 20, 1920) died, as predicted, a few years after the apparitions. In 1926, Lucia joined the the Sisters of St. Dorothy and became a Carmelite sister in 1948. Up until her recent death, she lived in the Carmelite convent and continued to receive three known visits from the Blessed Virgin.

Once a remote village in the heart of Portugal, Fatima is now home to one of the world's most visited Marian shrines. Pilgrimages to the town and the site of the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Fatima take place annually, particularly on the 13th of every month between May and October. More specifically, the feast of Our Lady of Fatima, held on the 13th of May each year, receives an impressive 500,000 pilgrims. On the site of the apparitions in the Cova da Iria stands the Fatima Basilica, a Neoclassical church with a large tower topped by a great crystal cross.