page_title: Our Lady of Fátima
section_title: Pilgrimage
hierarchical_section_title: Our Lady of Fátima / Pilgrimage
caption_attribution_description: Capelinha das Aparições
context_page_description: Our Lady of Fátima, is a Catholic title of the Blessed Virgin Mary based on the Marian apparitions reported in 1917 by three shepherd children at the Cova da Iria, in Fátima, Portugal. The three children were Lúcia dos Santos and her cousins Francisco and Jacinta Marto.
  Bishop José Alves Correia da Silva declared the events worthy of belief on 13 October 1930. On 13 May 1946, Pope Pius XII granted a canonical coronation to the venerated image enshrined at the Chapel of the Apparitions of Fátima via his apostolic legate, Cardinal Benedetto Aloisi Masella. On 11 November 1954, he raised the Sanctuary of Fátima to the status of a minor basilica by his papal brief Lucer superna.
  The published memoirs of Lúcia dos Santos in the 1930s revealed two secrets that she claimed came from the Virgin while the third secret was to be revealed by the Catholic Church in 1960. The controversial events at Fátima gained fame due partly to elements of the secrets, prophecy and eschatological revelations allegedly related to the Second World War and possibly more global wars in the future, particularly the Virgin's alleged request for the Consecration of Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
context_section_description: The widely reported miracle of the Sun contributed to Fátima quickly becoming a major centre of pilgrimage. Two million pilgrims visited the site in the decade following the events of 1917. A small chapel – the Capelinha – was built by local people on the site of the apparitions. The construction was neither encouraged nor hindered by the Catholic Church authorities.
  On 13 May 1920, pilgrims defied government troops to install a statue of the Virgin Mary in the chapel. The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass was first officially celebrated there in January 1924. A hostel for the sick was begun in that year. In 1927 the first rector of the sanctuary was appointed, and a set of Stations of the Cross were erected on the mountain road. The foundation stone for the present basilica was laid the next year.
  In 1930 the Catholic Church officially recognised the apparition events as "worthy of belief" and granted a papal indulgence to pilgrims visiting Fátima. In 1935 the bodies of the child visionaries, Francisco and Jacinta, were reinterred in the basilica. Pope Pius XII granted a Canonical Coronation of the statue of Our Lady of Fátima on 13 May 1946. This event drew such large crowds that the entrance to the site had to be barred.
  In the 21st century, pilgrimage to the site takes place year round. Additional chapels, hospitals and other facilities have been constructed at the site. The principal pilgrimage festivals take place on the thirteenth day of each month, from May to October, on the anniversaries of the original apparitions. The largest crowds gather on 13 May and 13 October, when up to a million pilgrims have attended to pray and witness processions of the statue of Our Lady of Fátima, both during the day and by the light of tens of thousands of candles at night.
caption: Panoramic view of Cova da Iria.
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