Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
The pilgrim-friendly, modern Fátima (FAH-tee-mah) is a huge complex, with two big
churches bookending a vast esplanade, adjacent to a practical commercial center. Wan-
dering through the religious and commercial zones, you see the 21st-century equivalent
of a medieval pilgrimage center: lots of beds, cheap eateries, fields of picnic tables and
parking lots, and countless religious souvenir stands—all ready for the mobs of people
who inundate the place each 12th and 13th day of the month from May through October.
Any other day, it's just big and empty.
At the start of the commercial zone, browse through the horseshoe-shaped mall of
stalls selling religious trinkets—wax body parts, rosaries (which pilgrims get blessed after
attending Mass here), and so on.
Those arriving by car can simply follow the
Sanctuario parques
signs to vast lots be-
hind the church.
Mary's Three Messages
1. Peace is coming. (World War I is ending. Later, during World War II, Salazar
justified keeping Portugal neutral by saying it was in accordance with Mary's wishes
for peace.)
2. Russia will reject God and communism will rise, bringing a second great war.
3. Someone will try to kill the pope. (This third message was kept a secret for dec-
ades, supposedly lying in a sealed envelope in the Vatican. In 1981, Pope John Paul
II was shot. He visited Fátima in 2000, meeting the surviving visionary, beatifying the
two who had died, and publicly revealing this long-hidden third secret.)
Tourist Information:
The TI is near the church (daily April-Sept 10:00-13:00 &
14:00-19:00, Oct-March 10:00-13:00 & 14:00-18:00, Avenida José Alves Correia da
Silva, tel. 249-531-139,
www.rt-leiriafatima.pt
).
Esplanade
—The huge assembly ground facing the basilica is impressive even without
the fanfare of a festival day. The fountain in the middle provides holy water for pilgrims to
take home. You'll see the information center; the oak tree and Chapel of the Apparitions
marking the spot where Mary appeared; a place for lighting and leaving candles (with an
inferno below where the wax melts into a trench and flows into a vat to be resurrected
