Fatima is situated a few hours north of Lisbon by car...

On May 13, 1917 three children (Lucia de Jesus, aged 10; and her cousins Francisco and Jacinta Marto, aged 9 and 7) were attending to their flock in their tiny pasture when they witnessed a brilliant light.  Thinking it might be lightning they headed for home.  But as they went down the slope another flash lit up the area and they saw on top of a nearby oak tree (where the Chapel of Apparitions now stands) a "Lady more brilliant than the sun" from whose hands hung a white rosary.

The Lady told the three little shepherds that they should pray much and invited them to return to this place during five consecutive months on the 13th day at that hour.  The children did so and the 13th day of June, July, September and October the Lady appeared to them again and spoke to them asking for devotion to the Holy Eucharist and the Holy Rosary and warned them about Communism.

On the last apparition on October 13th, with about 70,000 people present, the Lady said to them that she was the "Lady of the Rosary" and that a chapel was to be built in her honor.  After the apparition the sun could be gazed at without difficulty, and whirling on itself like a "wheel of fire" seemed to fall upon the earth.

Our Lady of Fatima is one of the few approved apparitions of the Catholic Church.  There is a long and vigorous process of investigation that needs to occur for these apparitions to pass Vatican scrutiny and officially be approved by the Church.  Fatima is one of these along with Our Lady of Knock in Ireland in 1879, Our Lady of Lourdes in France appeared to Bernadette Soubirous in 1858, Our Lady of Guadalupe appeared to Juan Diego in Mexico City in 1531, and several others.

Lucia grew up to be a Religious Sister of Saint Dorothy and Our Lady appeared to her again in Spain in 1925, 1926, and 1929.  Lucia died only four years ago at the age of 97.  She is buried in the Basilica along with Francisco and Jacinta Marto.

As many as one million pilgrims make the journey to Fatima on the special anniversary dates of May 13 and October 13 each year.

Pope John Paul II survived a second assassination attempt here in 1982.  This attempt was made by a Spanish Jesuit priest, Juan Maria Fernandez Krohn, who stabbed the Pope with a short knife.  The Spanish priest objected to the Pope's support of the Second Vatican Council and was sentenced to six years in prison.  He has since been deported from Portugal and now lives in Brussels.  During this visit to Fatima Pope John Paul II placed one of the 9 mm bullets from the first assassination attempt into Our Lady of Fatima's crown.