Our Lady of Fátima

The story

On 13 May 1917, during the First World War, three children watching sheep at the Cova da Iria saw a Lady “brighter than the sun” standing over a small holm oak. She asked them to come back on the 13th of each month for six months, and to pray the Rosary every day for peace.

The children kept coming, and the crowds grew. In July the Lady showed them a vision of hell and asked for devotion to her Immaculate Heart and for prayer and sacrifice for sinners. In August the children were held by the local administrator, so she appeared to them a few days later at Valinhos.

On 13 October, before a crowd of about 70,000, the Lady said: “I am the Lady of the Rosary.” Many there saw the sun seem to dance and spin in the sky. Francisco and Jacinta died young in the flu epidemic and were canonized in 2017. Lúcia became a Carmelite nun and died in 2005.

Key dates

1. 13 May 1917First apparition at the Cova da Iria.
2. 13 June, 13 July 1917The Immaculate Heart; the vision of hell and the requests.
3. 19 August 1917Apparition at Valinhos, after the children's detention.
4. 13 September 1917“Continue to pray the Rosary.”
5. 13 October 1917“I am the Lady of the Rosary”; the miracle of the sun.
6. 13 October 1930The Bishop of Leiria approves the apparitions.

Mary's message

• “Pray the Rosary every day, to obtain peace for the world.”
• Prayer and sacrifice for the conversion of sinners.
• Devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, including the Communion of reparation on the First Saturdays.
• “O my Jesus, forgive us our sins, save us from the fires of hell…” – the prayer to add after each decade.
• “I am the Lady of the Rosary.”

The Church's judgment

On 13 October 1930, Bishop da Silva of Leiria declared the visions of the children at the Cova da Iria worthy of belief and officially permitted devotion to Our Lady of Fátima. Popes have since visited the shrine and canonized Francisco and Jacinta.