Our Lady of the Rosary in Fátima, Portugal
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The Chapel of Apparitions. Just outside the Basilica and beside the Grand Holm Oak is the Chapel of Apparitions. This open building occupies the place where the tree stood in which the Virgin Mary appeared to Francisco and Jacinta Marto and their cousin Lúcia dos Santos. Services are held daily for the pilgrims visiting the sanctuary, between 6 and 8 million each year.
The field where the children had been tending sheep has turned into a huge paved valley measuring about 500 x 150 meters. The oak trees which had filled the valley a hundred years ago are gone, along with the grasses, hedges, flowers and sheep now all beneath a sheet of concrete. The only tree remaining from 1917 is a huge oak, standing proudly beside the Chapel of Apparitions. The tree where the beautiful lady appeared is occupied by the Chapel of Apparitions. The Apparitions Tree slowly disappeared as people kept taking samples (carvings) over the years. The Chapel of Apparitions holds regular masses for the 6 to 8 million pilgrims who make the journey to the site per year.
The beautiful woman told the children secrets, but they were not to tell anyone they had seen her. The secrets were theirs to keep.
Jacinta’s mother seemed to notice something different about her daughter, and asked Jacinta what was wrong. Jacinta told her about the vision of the beautiful woman. The mother asked Francisco, and finally he confirmed the woman appearing in the tree. The local authorities, and the local priest, became involved. The children were questioned extensively, and were even jailed for a short period of time. In spite of all the pressure to change their story, they held firm that what they said they saw was true, a beautiful woman had appeared in the tree.
The Grand Holm Oak, standing proudly beside the Chapel of Apparitions is all that is left of the valley where the children managed sheep and witnessed the Virgin Mary and heard her messages. This is not the tree where the apparitions appeared, that was in a tree beside it (where the Chapel of Apparitions stands), but it is where people gathered and recited the rosary waiting for the apparition. It is one of 413 trees in Portugal classified by the Directorate General of Forest Resources as of “public interest” as an icon of symbolism and devotion.
The woman, finally determined to be Mary, the mother of Jesus, left the children with three secrets. The first, that World War I would end and there would be peace. The second, that Russia would reject God, become a Communist country and there would be a Second World War. The finale message was kept secret by the Vatican until the 1980s. The message was that someone would try to kill a Bishop dressed in white. The message was revealed 61 years later when on May 13, 1981 Pope John Paul II was shot. Pope John Paul II was convinced that he was the bishop, dressed in white, of the secret.
On October 13, 1930 Jose Alves Correa Silva, the Bishop of Leiria, determined the events to be worthy of belief. The result has been the establishment of two minor basilicas and pilgrimage support services being built in Fátima over the years. The original chapel, built near the oak tree is now enclosed in a basilica.
The pilgrimage site, the size of 15 football fields with a capacity of 300,000 pilgrims, has grown to include the Church of the Trinity, located in the southwestern corner, to the Basilica located in the northeastern area of the complex. The Basilica is dedicated to the 15 mysteries of the Rosary.
There is rumor the apparitions started in 1916, but are unconfirmed. Our Lady of Fátima Apparitions, beginning in 1917 are:
June 13, 1917
July 13, 1917
August 19, 1917
September 13, 1917
October 13, 1917
The Miracle of the Sun. During the October 13 apparition nearly 70,000 watched as the rain ended, the clouds parted and the sun appeared as an opaque spinning disk in the sky. It seemed to dance, casting multicolored lights. It appeared to dive toward the earth before zigzagging back into place. Thus creating the climatic event in the Fatima Apparitions.
Fátima is considered one the three most important pilgrimage sights in Europe along with Lourdes in France and Medugorje in Bosnia-Herzegovina. As a recognized apparition site, the small town has built a thriving industry around the pilgrimage trade. The city is filled with hotels, restaurants and shops selling souvenirs ranging from Virgin Mary statues, to replicas of the children, to magnets.
During our visit, we watched as people crawled on their knees from the Church of the Trinity toward the Chapel of Apparitions and on toward the Basilica of Our Lady of the Rosary. It was at that point that I understood it was not an understanding of theology, or history, or belief but it was a matter of faith. It was faith which had led the person into belief. Belief that there is a Sovereign God who controls our destiny. And in order for the destiny to take shape, the individual needs to believe and allow God to take control. And so, to the person crawling along the walkway on their knees performing their expression of the faith, I give my blessings, my respect, my joy to them for their belief and their faith.
Francisco and Jacinta Marto died during the flu epidemic in 1918. Lúcia dos Santos went on to stay in a series of convents. With papal permission in March 1948 she entered the convent of Santa Teresa in Coimbra as a Carmelite nun until her death. She passed away in 2005 at the age of 96.