FATIMA

The Sanctuary of Fátima is one of the greatest references of the Marian cult, to which pilgrims from all over the world come.

The location where o  isSanctuary of Fatima, Cova da Iria, was until 1917 an unknown place in the municipality of Ourém, in the parish of Fátima. That year, a religious event changed its history and importance forever, when three shepherd children, Jacinta, her brother Francisco and her cousin Lúcia, witnessed successive apparitions of Nossa Senhora do Rosário. Initially faced with reluctance by the Church but cherished by the people, the phenomenon was only recognized in 1930 by the Bishop of Leiria. From then on, the development of the locality was notorious, leading to Fátima being elevated to a village in 1977 and a city in 1997.

The Sanctuary's worldwide fame was accentuated during the papacy of John Paul II, an assumed devotee of Our Lady of Fátima who in 1982 went there in gratitude for having survived an attack a year earlier. In 2000, on his third visit to the site, he announced the beatification of Jacinta and Francisco, to whom the Vatican attributed the miracle of a cure.