Travel Guide to Fatima, Portugal, Fatima, Portugal (B)

Catholics around the world have heard about Fátima in Portugal as it is one of the major pilgrimage centres in Europe, after Lourdes in France. Fátima is a small non-descript town of 8,000 people but the town swells with millions of devotees arriving for the annual pilgrimage seasons of 12-13 May and 12-13 October.

Fátima is a pilgrimage site for Catholics as this is where the miraculous apparitions of the Virgin Mary happened in 1917.

On 13 May 1917 at noon, three little shepherds – Lucia aged 10, and her cousins Francisco and Jacinta aged 9 and 7 respectively – were grazing their sheep and playing in the fields when they saw a bright light. Thinking it was lightning, they decided to stop playing to go home. As they walked home, they saw another flash of bright light and this time a lady dressed in white appeared who radiated light “more brilliant than the sun” and from whose hands hung a white rosary. The Lady spoke to them and invited them to the same place for the next five consecutive months on the 13th day at that hour. In the meantime, she also asked of them to, “pray the Rosary every day in order to obtain peace for the world and the end of the war”. ...... (follow the instructions below for accessing the rest of this article).