Our Lady of Fatima | Apparitions, Miracles, & Rosary (2024)

Our Lady of Fátima, inRoman Catholicism, theVirgin Maryin her six appearances beforethree peasant children near the village of Fátima, Portugal, in 1917. Since that revelation, millions of the faithful have madepilgrimages to the site where the woman, commonly called Our Lady of Fátima, appeared. TheRoman Catholic Churchofficially recognized the Fátima events as worthy of belief in 1930.

On May 13, 1917, Lucia dos Santos (aged 9) and her cousins Francisco and Jacinta Marto (aged 8 and 6, respectively) were tending sheep in central Portugal, about 113 km (70 miles) northeast of Lisbon, when they had a vision of a woman surrounded by light who identified herself as the Lady of the Rosary.Following the initial event, the children reported seeing the vision five more times, once each month through October. During her appearances, Our Lady of Fátima supposedly gave the children three secrets and repeatedly exhorted them to pray therosaryfor world peace and emphasized the necessity of devotions to her Immaculate Heart in order for souls to be saved. The children also said that she told them God would perform a miracle on October 13 so that people would believe. A crowd estimated at about 70,000 gathered at Fátima on that day and witnessed what has been described as a miraculous solar phenomenon in which the Sun appeared to fall toward Earth—sometimes called the Miracle of the Sun—immediately after the lady’s final appearance to the children.

After initially questioning the authenticity of the children’s visions, the Vatican accepted them as appearances of the Virgin Mary (Our Lady of the Holy Rosary of Fátima), and Fátima became the location of one of the greatest Marian shrines in the world, visited by thousands ofpilgrimseach year. The first national pilgrimage to Fátima took place in 1927, and a basilica was begun in 1928 and consecrated in 1953. With a tower 65 metres (213 feet) high and surmounted by a large bronze crown and a crystal cross, the basilica is flanked by hospitals and retreat houses and faces a vast square in which the little Chapel of the Apparitions is located. Numerous cures of the sick have been reported. On May 13, 1967—the 50th anniversary of the first vision—a crowd of about a million pilgrims gathered at Fátima to hearPope Paul VIsay mass and pray for peace.

At the end of the 20th century, there was growing speculation concerning the three secrets Our Lady of Fátima allegedly revealed to the children in 1917. Though two of the messages had been disclosed in the 1940s—commonly interpreted as the prediction of the end ofWorld War Iand the start ofWorld War IIand the rise and fall ofcommunism—the third had been kept secret by theVatican, giving rise to numerous theories. In May 2000 it was finally announced that the third message was the Virgin Mary’s vision of the May 13, 1981, assassination attempt onPope John Paul II, .and the pope publicly credited Our Lady of Fátima for saving his life.

Although Lucia dos Santos would later become aCarmelitenun and live to the age of 97, Francisco and Jacinta Marto died as children as a result of theinfluenza pandemic of 1918–19. The pious siblings were beatified in 2000 byPope John Paul II, making them the youngest non-martyredchildren to be beatified in the history of theRoman Catholic Church. They were canonized assaintsbyPope Francisin 2017 to coincide with the 100th anniversary of their visions.