Festa Da Nossa Senhora De Fatima 2017
This May 13th will be the 100th anniversary of when three shepherd children saw an apparition of the Virgin Mary in a field near Fatima. To mark this momentous occasion, Pope Francis will be visiting Fatima, Portugal on May 12th and 13th to canonize two of the Portuguese shepherd children, Jacinta and Francisco Marto, a century after they saw their first apparition of Mary. The third one, Lucia Dos Santos is on her way to becoming a saint.
For those of you that don’t know the story, three shepherd children, 9-year-old Lucia Dos Santos (who later became a nun and passed away in 2005) and her cousins Jacinta and Francisco Marto (who both passed away two years later from influenza), saw the Virgin Mary appear to them in a field six times. These types of supernatural appearances of Mary are known as Marian apparitions. The three shepherd children reported that each Marian apparition included some type of prophecy and/or secret. Each encounter happened once a month from May to October in 1917 and always on the 13th with one exception being when she appeared to them on August 19th. This story is one of the most important events in 20th century Catholicism. Just look at the number of people and reporters in Fatima for the anniversary and you can see that the world still finds it intriguing even though it happened 100 years ago.
Everything about the story is fascinating: the number of Marian apparitions, that Francisco could see but not hear the apparitions, that Mary predicted Jacinta and Francisco’s deaths, that Lucia became a nun afterwards, and above all, the secrets Mary told the children the contents of which were kept from the public for many years. These secrets came to be known as the “Three Secrets of Fatima.” The first secret was a vision of hell and a call to prayer and conversion, which if not heeded would lead to another world war. The second secret was that Russia would “spread her errors” throughout the world if people did not turn to God. The third and most famous secret was the assassination attempt on Pope John Paul II in 1981, which the Vatican did not disclose until 2000.
Whether or not you believe that these Marian apparitions happened, this story is a part of Portuguese history, culture and identity. To celebrate this phenomenon, we hold a festa called Festa Da Nossa De Fatima. Festas are a cornerstone of Portuguese traditions that are especially common in Portuguese communities across North America. It’s one of the ways we maintain ties with our homeland and celebrate our culture.
If you too want to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Senhora Fatima, but can’t fly to Portugal and be with Pope Francis and a million other people, you can attend a Festa Da Nossa Senhora De Fatima in Vancouver or in Victoria. (If there are other cities in B.C. that are celebrating, please let us know in the comment section below). Details for both these festas are provided at the end of this blog post.
Saturday, May 13th & Sunday, May 14th – Vancouver, B.C.
Our Lady of Fatima Portuguese Parish in Vancouver will be holding their Festa Da Nossa Senhora De Fatima on the weekend of May 13th and 14th. Everyone is invited to participate. See the schedule below and the poster at the top of this blog post for more details.
Saturday, May 13th
6:30 pm Rosary
7:00 pm Mass (Bilingual)
Mass will be followed by a Candlelight Procession and a social in the church hall.
Sunday, May 14th
12:00 pm Mass (Portuguese)
Mass will be followed by a Procession and Farewell.
Ceremony and social in the church hall.
Address: 1423 East 13th Avenue, Vancouver, BC
Facebook Event Page: Festa Da Nossa Senhora De Fatima
Sunday, May 14th, 2017 – Victoria, B.C.
In Victoria, Our Lady of Fatima Portuguese Parish will be holding their Festa Da Nossa De Fatima. Prior to the Festa, the church requests gifts for the bazaar. If you would like to donate a gift, please do so this week. Also, to avoid long food line-ups in the hall, the committee will be selling food tickets in advance, which are available for purchase now.
Address: 4635 Elk Lake Drive, Victoria, B.C.
Website: Church Bulletin