Our Lady of Fátima — title for the Virgin Mary due to her alleged apparitions to three shepherd children at Fátima, Portugal
The reported 1917 Marian apparitions at Fátima became one of the most influential events in modern Catholic devotion, shaping papal policy and global religious practice.
Key Facts
- Date of first apparition
- 13 May 1917
- Number of child witnesses
- 3
- Church declaration of worthy belief
- 13 October 1930
- Canonical coronation of venerated image
- 13 May 1946
- Sanctuary raised to minor basilica
- 11 November 1954
- Number of secrets revealed by Lúcia
- 3
By the Numbers
Location
Cause → Event → Consequence
In 1917, amid the upheaval of World War I, three young shepherd children — Lúcia dos Santos and her cousins Francisco and Jacinta Marto — reported a series of visions near the Cova da Iria in Fátima, Portugal. They claimed a luminous figure, identified as the Virgin Mary, appeared to them repeatedly beginning in May of that year.
Between May and October 1917, the children reported six apparitions of the Virgin Mary, who allegedly conveyed three secrets and called for prayer and the Consecration of Russia to her Immaculate Heart. The final apparition on 13 October 1917 was accompanied by the widely witnessed 'Miracle of the Sun,' drawing thousands of observers to the site.
Bishop José Alves Correia da Silva declared the events worthy of Catholic belief in 1930. Pope Pius XII subsequently ordered the canonical coronation of the venerated image in 1946 and elevated the Sanctuary of Fátima to a minor basilica in 1954. The site became a major Catholic pilgrimage destination, and the secrets of Fátima influenced Church discourse on prophecy, war, and eschatology throughout the twentieth century.