The Feast of Our Lady of Fatima

May 13, Monday

Our Lady of Fátima is a Catholic title of Mary, mother of Jesus 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. The bishop of Leiria, José Alves Correia da Silva declared the events worthy of belief on 13 October 1930.

Pope Pius XII granted a Pontifical decree of canonical coronation via the papal bull Celeberrima Solemnia towards the venerated image on 25 April 1946. The designated Papal legate, Cardinal Benedetto Aloisi Masella executed the coronation on 13 May 1946, now permanently enshrined at the Chapel of the Apparitions of Fátima. The same Pontiff raised the Sanctuary of Fátima to the status of a minor basilica by his Apostolic letter Luce Superna on 11 November 1954.

The published memoirs of Sister Lúcia in the 1930s revealed two secrets that she claimed came from the Virgin Mary 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 request for the Consecration of Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.