Our Lady of Fátima

About Our Lady of Fátima

On 13 May 1917, three children herding sheep at Cova da Iria, near Fátima, saw a lady dressed in white above a holm oak. Lúcia was ten, Francisco nine, Jacinta seven. The apparition returned on the 13th of every month until October, always with the same request: pray the rosary daily, do penance, ask for peace. It was the third year of the First World War.

The children were questioned, threatened and jailed by a local official who wanted them to recant. None of them did. On 13 October, before a crowd estimated at seventy thousand, many reported seeing the sun spin in the sky after hours of rain. Francisco and Jacinta died a few years later in the Spanish flu, and were canonised in 2017.

Fátima is the mother of families and of the intentions people only speak on their knees: a marriage in crisis, a sick child, an addiction nobody at home can bring themselves to name. Her feast is 13 May.

A message from Our Lady of Fátima is sent on 13 May, for birthdays, and to families going through a hard season.