Following a successful summer pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela in north-western Spain, the famous Sanctuary of Fátima in central Portugal is a fitting switch for a pilgrimage undertaken during Lent
There are two key questions that usually arise when you arrive at the Sanctuary of Fátima.
Are you going to go on your knees all the way along the 300-metre marble pathway—the Via Penitencial—to the Chapel of Apparitions that marks the spot where five of the Virgin Mary’s six apparitions occurred? Secondly, if you do, are you going to wear knee pads like some pilgrims choose to?
Fátima has been described as Disneyland for Catholics (during my first visit, I found myself staying at Hotel Hallelujah). Admittedly I have never seen so many pairs of beatific Marian eyes looking back from store windows, along with endless statues of the Holy Family and cherubic baby Jesuses. But Fátima is also the place where “heaven touched the earth to remind us of the relationship between our life in time and the life we are called to beyond death”.
So says an information panel about Jacinta, one of the three Portuguese shepherd children whose visions in 1917 amid the Cova da Iria fields led to Fátima becoming one of the most important Catholic shrines and pilgrimage sites in the world, visited by up to 20 million people a year.
“The celestial visitation also served to remind us of the continuity, responsibility and consequence between earth and heaven and between heaven and earth.”
Therein lies the motivation for the Catholic Herald to follow last summer’s Camino pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela, with a Lenten pilgrimage following the Rota Carmelita. The route is steeped in the life and work of Sister Lúcia, who was ten years old when Mary appeared to her and her cousins. We will arrive in Fátima on Laetare Sunday—the fourth Sunday in the season of Lent—viewed as a day of celebration within the austere period of Lent.
There is also the fact of how the events of Fátima still resonate now for our battered world, especially given striking parallels between current global events and when Mary appeared with her message for humanity, along with three “secrets” and a promise of a further miracle (the Miracle of the Sun, witnessed by 70,000 people who gathered at Fátima later in 1917).
Mary spoke to the three children of the need for peace, gave a warning about war and asked that Russia be consecrated to her Immaculate Heart. Then, not long after the apparitions, two of the three cousins died as a result of the influenza pandemic that swept the world. How history—and the same mistakes—repeat themselves.
Our route begins in the lovely city of Coimbra—where Sister Lúcia lived in the Carmelo de Santa Teresa (Carmelite Convent of St Teresa)—before heading 111 kilometres (68 miles) southwards through the tranquil interior of central Portugal.
It’s an appropriate setting for a contemplative Lenten pilgrimage, connecting with nature and local religious and cultural experiences as the route traverses the municipalities of Coimbra, Condeixa-a-Nova, Penela, Ansião, Alvaiázere and Ourém. We will cross fields, meadows, streams and rivers. We will pass vineyards, innumerable small chapels and historic sites that adorn the route, all of which provide important historic-heritage points of contact with the land and people.
While there is no guarantee, the weather in central Portugal in March should be relatively mild and dry—certainly more so than in the UK—as the flora and fauna begin to reclaim the land as spring gathers pace.
What will you get from the pilgrimage? This is one of the most enchanting and important things about pilgrimage: it is different for everyone. Though there tend to be some common experiences: reflection and contemplation, camaraderie, unexpected encounters, along with excellent food and wine (depending on what you might have given up for Lent). Though while this is a Lenten pilgrimage, it entirely up to the pilgrim how much that sense of celebration attributed to Laetare Sunday infuses the preceding route. We will not be enforcing austerity!
To get more of an idea about the pilgrim’s experience, I would recommend reading William Cash’s article about the previous summer pilgrimage and its Chaucerian experiences. The plan is to again have a priest in attendance to provide the sort of spiritual guidance and support that was such a boon on the Way to Santiago.
My first encounter with Fátima came after a 1,700-kilometre-long Camino to escape the pandemic lockdowns. It all made for a rather intense and emotional encounter with the Via Penitencial to the Chapel of Apparitions—it’s not too bad without knee pads—and the Basilica of Our Lady of the Rosary at the top of the large expanse where pilgrims congregate and that is Portugal’s answer to Rome’s Saint Peter’s square.
One thing that stuck most in my mind was an image you see all over Fátima: a photo of the three children taken shortly after news of their amazing story began to spread. The three ultra-serious-looking faces gazing at you could be explained by how, in those days, children had facial expressions like adults because they worked like adults and shared the same hard life, plus they weren’t used to photography.
Yet there is something more in those faces that is hauntingly powerful. Especially the expression of Jacinta. It’s the sort of face you would imagine a child to have after just witnessing heaven touch earth.
Dates: March 13 to 20/21. To reserve a place at £1,100 a head / £1,200 if staying two nights in Fatima (excluding flights and dinner) please contact: [email protected].
James Jeffrey is the Herald’s official pilgrimage guide who led our pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela in July 2022. He splits his time between the U.S., the U.K., the Iberian Peninsula and further afield. Follow him on Twitter: @jrfjeffrey and at his website: www.jamesjeffreyjournalism.com. For more on the Camino go to www.santiagotrails.co.uk.
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