On 13 May 1917, three children, Lucia (10), Fransicso (9) and Jacinta (7) saw a lady in brilliant white light, which turned out to be the Virgin Mary, in a little town called Fatima approx 130km North of Lisbon, the capital of Portugal. The Virgin appeared three more times culminating in a miracle on 13 November 1917, witnessed by 70,000 locals who saw the sun "descend down upon them" and could look at it directly.
A white pillar with a statue of the Virgin marks the spot where the children saw her. All three children are buried in the Basilica you see in the photo. Fransicso and Jacinta died in 1919/1920 and Lucia in 2003 at age 96. Fatima has a population of 7,000 locals, with hotels that can sleep another 10,000 and they get 4 million visitors a year. The children where beatified by Pope John Paul II in 2000 but have not yet been canonised. Paul and I also visited the house that Fransicso and Jacinta lived in, which has been preserved.
On the way from Oporto to Lisbon, Paul and I also stopped by Coimbra before visting Fatima. This is a medieval town built around a 13th century university and a 12th century church contains the remains of the first two kings of Portugal. Distance travelled to date: 4,265km.
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