Pilgrims from all over the world descended on the Fátima Shrine in Portugal to commemorate the feast of Our Lady of Fátima.
On the eve of the feast of Our Lady of Fátima, May 12, the light of thousands of candles illuminated the night at the spot where Our Lady appeared to three shepherd children 109 years ago.
The faithful filled the shrine, gathering to participate in the recitation of the rosary and the traditional candlelight procession.
‘We come as pilgrims and depart as missionary disciples’
Rui Manuel Sousa Valério, patriarch of Lisbon, Portugal, celebrated the Mass on May 13. In his homily, the prelate emphasized that the pilgrimage “does not end here” but rather Fátima is “a point for sending forth.”
This celebration commemorates the first of the six apparitions of Our Lady of Fátima to the three shepherd children, Lucia dos Santos, 10, and her cousins Francisco and Jacinta Marto, 9 and 7, in 1917.
The pilgrimage on May 13 is the most attended, welcoming more than 450,000 pilgrims last year. They gather at Cova da Iria, a neighborhood that was once the field where the three shepherd children pastured their familyʼs sheep and where the Virgin Mary appeared.
The Catholic Church officially recognized the apparitions as worthy of belief in 1930.
“We come as pilgrims and depart as missionary disciples; everything we experience here — prayer, silence, reconciliation, and communion — cannot remain confined within the Cova da Iria,” the prelate noted.
He invited the faithful to let the experience of Fátima “enter into our hearts” as well as into all areas of life — our homes, families, workplaces, and schools — and also “into the wounds and joys of daily life.”
Sousa emphasized that the message of Fátima is truly embraced “when it transforms into a mission, and what we receive becomes a light for others.”
He further recalled that in her apparitions, the Virgin called for conversion and for the responsibility of love: “True devotion to Mary never closes the heart. It opens it; it never isolates, it sends forth; it never sleeps, it awakens.”
The Virgin Mary asked the children to pray the rosary every day for the conversion of sinners and to obtain peace for the world, especially an end to the ongoing First World War. She also invited them to make personal sacrifices and offer their sufferings on behalf of sinners.
She promised to return on the 13th day of each month for the next six months and confided that she had secrets to reveal concerning the fate of the world.
To prove that the apparitions were true, Mary promised the children that during the last of her six appearances, she would provide a sign so people would believe in the apparitions and in her message. What happened on that day — Oct. 13, 1917 — has come to be known as the “Miracle of the Sun,” or “the day the sun danced.”
May 13, 2026, also marks the 45th anniversary of the assassination attempt on Pope John Paul II in St. Peterʼs Square. For this reason, the Mass in Fátima was celebrated using the chalice that the Polish pontiff donated during one of his visits to the site.
This story was first published by ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.
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