In a video produced by the Shrine of Fatima for the series "Faces of Fatima", Nuno Prazeres, the director of the International Secretariat of the World Apostolate of Fatima, speaks about the importance of the travels of the Pilgrim Virgin Statue of Our Lady of Fatima around the world. 

As the guest of another video of the series "Faces of Fatima", which, every month, presents the faces that integrate the new temporary exhibition of the Shrine of Fatima, Nuno Prazeres presents, in this episode, the Pilgrim Statue of Our Lady of Fatima as the "face of a missionary Church".

“Today, just as yesterday, Mary continues to travel in haste to where she is called. She becomes a pilgrim travelling the roads of the world, bringing consolation and hope to the hearts of a humanity so often wounded and distressed, a humanity which seeks peace. But she never imposes herself! Each visit to any country or place is the result of an invitation, of a pastoral desire often matured over months or even years”, he says, deducing a "recognition of the importance of the message of Fatima" in the "numerous requests of the Pilgrim Statue".

From the painted wooden World Map, from 1956, on display at the exhibition, which describes the first travels of the Pilgrim Statue, Nuno Prazeres revisits some of the most symbolic pilgrimages that the Pilgrim Statue has fulfilled, over almost 75 years.

“During the first nine years of her pilgrimages, as we can see on this World Map, the Statue travelled more than half a million kilometres and was welcomed by more than 300 million people. In Europe, during this period, Our Lady travelled as a Symbol of Peace, inspiring unity and solidarity amongst nations in the aftermath of a world war which had caused divisions and destroyed so much” he recalls.

The video also evokes the famous 'Peace flights’ that carried the the second Pilgrim Statue to visit many countries, on various continents, under the World Apostolate of Fatima, a movement founded in the United States of America by Monsignor Harold Colgan and John Haffert, faces that are also present in the temporary exhibition of the Shrine of Fatima.

The exhibition "The Faces of Fatima - Images of a Spiritual Setting" is open until October 15, 2022, at the Convivium of St. Augustine, in the lower floor of the Basilica of the Holy Trinity, and can be visited, free of charge, every day from 9:00 am to 1:00 pm and from 2:00 pm to 6:00 pm. (www.fatima.pt)