Our Lady of Fatima: Feast Day, Patronage & Prayers
Updated: Oct 3
Feast day: May 13 (optional memorial)
Patron of: Portugal; those praying for peace and the conversion of sinners.
About Our Lady of Fatima
From May 13 to October 13, 1917, while the First World War raged, three shepherd children in the Portuguese village of Fatima, Lúcia dos Santos and her cousins Francisco and Jacinta Marto, reported that a Lady brighter than the sun appeared to them on the thirteenth of each month. She asked them to pray the Rosary every day for peace, to offer sacrifices for the conversion of sinners, and to spread devotion to her Immaculate Heart. On October 13 a large crowd witnessed what came to be called the Miracle of the Sun.
In 1930 the bishop of Leiria declared the apparitions worthy of belief. Francisco and Jacinta both died young in the influenza epidemic, and Pope Francis canonized them in 2017, the centenary year. Pope St. John Paul II, who credited Our Lady of Fatima with saving his life after he was shot on May 13, 1981, added her memorial to the calendar. The prayer many Catholics add after each decade of the Rosary, "O my Jesus, forgive us our sins," comes from Fatima. Her message is simple: pray, repent, and trust.
Prayers to Our Lady of Fatima on Daily Catholic Prayers
Learn more: The Message of Fatima (Vatican.va)
Browse every saint in our Catalog of Saints A–Z.
Comments