Our Lady of Fatima 1917

The Marian apparitions at Fátima, Portugal, are among the most famous in the Catholic Church. They occurred in 1917, during World War I, when the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared to three shepherd children: Lúcia Santos and her cousins, Francisco and Jacinta Marto.

The Catholic Church officially approved the apparitions as "worthy of belief" in 1930. Today the the Shrine of Fátima in Portugal receives around 6 million visitors every year. The messages of Fátima are seen as a prophetic warning and a call to a deeper life of prayer and sacrifice, and devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.