Imperhotel

Some Dates 2

by NunoF

13-05-1967 - The Holy Father Paul Vl came to Fatima, for the 50th anniversary of Our Lady's 1st Apparition, to pray for peace in the world and unity in the Church.
10-07-1977 - The pilgrimage to Fatima of Cardinal Luciani, Patriarch of Venice, future Pope John Paul I
12/13-05-1982 - The Holy Father John Paul 11 came on pilgrimage to Fatima in thanksgiving for having escaped with his life, one year before, in St. Peter's Square and, on his knees, consecrated the Church, all peoples and nations, with a veiled mention of Russia, to the Immaculate Heart of Mary
25-03-1984 - In St. Peter's Square in Rome, before the Statue from the Chapel of Apparitions, John Paul 11 made once more the Consecration of the world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, in union with all the Bishops of the world
13/13-05-1991 - The Holy Father came a second time to Fatima, as a pilgrim, on the 10th anniversary of the attempt on his life.

The Sanctuary - Berlin Wall

by Mundus

At the entrance of the Sanctuary, on the south side of the Rectory, one may visit a monument of the Berlin Wall's, consisting of a concrete segment that was part of it. (The Walls construction started during the night between the 12th. and 13th. of August, 1961 and its demolition began the 9th. of November, 1989) This segment was offered by means of Virgilio Casimiro Ferreira, a Portuguese emigrant to Germany and is here placed as a grateful memorial of God's intervention for the fall of Communism as promised at Fatima. The segment weighs 2,600 kilos (5,732 lbs.) and measures 3.60 meters (11 ft. 9 in.) high by 1.20 meters (3 ft. in.) wide. The present monument was designed by the architect J. Carlos Loureiro and was inaugurated on the 13th. of August, 1994.

Jumping Around Fatima

by jumpingnorman

We took a picture at the exact spot where Lucia, Jacinta and Francisco took their famous photograph - it is amazing that the wall and home is preserved and you can still pinpoint the exact rocks that were on the wall...(in the picture are the jumping siblings and the guy at the left is a Filipino we met during the tour)

Fátima

by NunoF

The sanctuary of Fátima is a devotional shrine on a prodigious scale, a pilgrim destination on a par with Santiago de Compostela in Spain or Lourdes in France. The Neo-Baroque limestone basilica, flanked by statues of saints, has a 65-m tower and an esplanade twice the size of St Peter’s Square in Rome.
On 13 of May and 13 of October thousands of pilgrims arrive to commemorate appearances of the Virgin to three shepherd children. On 13 of May 1917, 10-year-old Lucia Santos and her young cousins, Francisco and Jacinta, saw a shining figure in a holm oak tree. She ordered them to return to the tree on the same day for six months and by 13 October 70,000 pilgrims were with the children by the tree. Many spoke of “the miracle of the sun”, yet only Lucia heard the three “Secrets of Fátima”, spoken on her last appearance. The first talked of peace (this was during World War I), the second was about Russia, the third was never divulged as it supposedly prophesied a disater so terrible “the living would envy the dead”.

Inside the basilica, begun in 1928, are the tombs of Jacinta and Francisco. Lucia, who became a Carmelite nun, is still alive today. The stained-glass windows show scenes of the sightings. In the esplanade, the Capela das Aparições marks the site of the apparition. Inside, the crown of the Virgin holds the bullet extracted from Pope John Paul II after the assassination attempt in 1981. A symbolic holm oak stands outside.