Fátima, Portugal · Cova da Iria · 1917
In 1917, in a poor village in the hills of central Portugal, three shepherd children — Lúcia, Francisco, and Jacinta — were given a vision that would speak to the whole twentieth century. Our Lady of Fátima came not only with comfort, but with urgency: a call to prayer, to penance, and to peace. Her message has shaped the heart of modern Marian devotion.
The Apparitions
Between May 13 and October 13, 1917, the Blessed Virgin appeared six times to three children — Lúcia dos Santos, then nine years old, and her cousins Francisco and Jacinta Marto, ages eight and seven — at a place called Cova da Iria, near the village of Fátima.
The Lady was, in Lúcia’s words, “more brilliant than the sun.” She asked the children to pray the Rosary daily for peace and for the end of the war that was then engulfing Europe. She entrusted to them three secrets — the third revealed by the Vatican only in the year 2000 — and asked for the consecration of Russia to her Immaculate Heart.
On October 13, 1917, before some seventy thousand witnesses, including journalists and avowed skeptics, the sun appeared to spin and dance in the sky and plunge toward the earth before returning to its place. The faithful and the doubting alike were soaked from heavy rain — yet within minutes, all were dry. This “Miracle of the Sun” has never been adequately explained by anyone but the children to whom Mary had promised: “I will perform a miracle so that all may believe.”
The Sanctuary Today
The Sanctuary of Fátima rises above the Cova da Iria. Its great basilicas — the older Basilica of Our Lady of the Rosary and the modern Basilica of the Most Holy Trinity — together draw more than four million pilgrims every year. The little chapel built on the very spot of the apparitions, the Capelinha das Aparições, still stands at the heart of it all. There, day and night, the Rosary is prayed.
Francisco and Jacinta Marto, who died as children in the influenza pandemic that followed the Great War, were canonized in 2017 by Pope Francis on the centenary of the apparitions. Their cousin Lúcia, who became a Carmelite nun and lived to old age in the convent at Coimbra, died in 2005 and is now a Servant of God on her own road to canonization.
A Prayer at Fátima
O Mother of Fátima, who came to children
to teach the world to pray:
remember the children of every age who suffer.
Remember those who bear war and those who fear it.
Pray for peace in our time —
peace among the nations, peace in our homes,
peace in the hidden places of every heart.
Immaculate Heart of Mary, refuge of sinners, pray for us. Amen.
Live from Fátima
The Sanctuary of Fátima broadcasts live every day from the Capelinha das Aparições — the Rosary, the Mass, and the candlelight processions of pilgrims who have come from every corner of the earth.
Visit & Learn More
- Sanctuary of Fátima (official): www.fatima.pt/en
- Wikipedia: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Our_Lady_of_Fátima
Journey with Mary: A Path to Jesus 