MARY WAS HERE

• Prize
• Photographer
  CESC GIRALT, Spain

According to the Catholics, the Mother of God is also the mother of
each of us. In the Sanctuary of Fatima, in central Portugal, believers
cry and shout “My Mother!, My Mother!” as the statue of Our Lady
passes in front of them during the main processions.

In Fatima it all started almost a hundred years ago, on Sunday, May
13, 1917, when three shepherds between 5 and 8 years old had an
encounter -or so they claimed- with a Beautiful Lady who was “more
brilliant than the sun”.

The kids met Mary five more times, the 13th of every next month. The
day of the final apparition, tens of thousands gathered in Fatima.  And
when Lucia Santos -the main visionary- instructed the crowd to watch
the sun, it is said the sun began to dance and change colors.

Nowadays more than four million pilgrims visit the basilica every year.