Today in the Church’s calendar: Saturday in the 24th Week in Ordinary Time , liturgical colour Green
Our Lady of Fatima Church, Vidyavihar
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Our Lady of Fatima Church, Vidyavihar

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Fatima, 1917

Between May and October of that year, three shepherd children in a Portuguese field were asked to pray for peace. Our parish carries her name.

An illustration of the apparition at the Cova da Iria: Our Lady standing on a rock with her hands joined and a rosary at her fingers, the three shepherd children kneeling in prayer among their sheep, and villagers watching from a distance

Who is Our Lady of Fatima?

Our Lady of Fatima is the title given to the Blessed Virgin Mary as she appeared at the Cova da Iria, near the Portuguese town of Fatima, in 1917. The Church approved the devotion in 1930, and it spread quickly, reaching Bombay, where parishes and schools took her name through the middle of the last century.

What she asked for was not extraordinary. Pray the Rosary. Make reparation. Turn back to God. It is the ordinary Christian life, requested with unusual urgency in a year of war.

The apparitions

Six visits, from May to October.

  1. 13 May The first apparition. The children are asked to return on the thirteenth of each month.
  2. 13 June The Immaculate Heart is shown to them.
  3. 13 July The message of prayer and reparation is given in full.
  4. 19 August Delayed, because the children had been detained by the local authorities.
  5. 13 Sept She asks again for the daily Rosary.
  6. 13 Oct “I am the Lady of the Rosary.” Our patronal feast falls on this day.
The Sanctuary of Our Lady of Fatima in Portugal, built at the Cova da Iria where Our Lady appeared
Cova da Iria Fatima sanctuary in Portugal

The shepherd children

Francisco, Jacinta, and Lucia

Three cousins, aged nine, seven and ten, who could not read. Francisco and Jacinta died within three years, in the influenza epidemic; they were canonised in 2017. Lucia became a Carmelite and lived until 2005.

  • Francisco Marto as a boy, in a jacket and collarless shirt, photographed at Fatima in 1917

    St Francisco Marto

    1908 – 1919

  • Jacinta Marto as a girl, in a flowered shawl with her hands joined around a rosary, photographed at Fatima in 1917

    St Jacinta Marto

    1910 – 1920

  • Lúcia dos Santos as a girl, in a headscarf and checked dress, photographed at Fatima about 1917

    Sr Lúcia dos Santos

    1907 – 2005

“O My Jesus, forgive us our sins, save us from the fires of Hell and lead all souls to Heaven, especially those who are in most need of Thy mercy.”

The Fatima prayer Our Lady taught this prayer to the children in 1917. It is said after each decade of the Rosary.

The Rosary

Her single, repeated request. We pray it together in the church half an hour before every Mass, and through October after each Mass as well.

Rosary times

The Immaculate Heart

“My Immaculate Heart will be your refuge and the way that will lead you to God.” The parish is consecrated to her Heart each year on the feast.

First Saturdays

Confession, Holy Communion, five decades of the Rosary and fifteen minutes of meditation, kept here on the first Saturday of every month.

An archival photograph of Pope Paul VI greeting Sister Lúcia at Fatima, with the crowned statue of Our Lady of Fatima standing among flowers behind them
Pope Paul VI with Sister Lúcia at Fatima, 13 May 1967.
Our Lady of Fatima Church, Vidyavihar

Fatima and our parish

The thirteenth of October.

Our patronal feast falls on the day of the last apparition. It begins with a nine-evening novena and ends with the feast Mass and the procession of Our Lady through the streets of Vidyavihar.

Everyone is welcome: parishioners, neighbours, former parishioners who now live far away, and anyone who simply wants to walk with her.

Feast programme in the BLEST app