The 20^th of February is the liturgical Feast of Saints Francisco and Jacinta Marto, the two shepherd children of Fatima, to whom Our Lady appeared in 1917. The World Apostolate of Fatima is encouraging its members and all Fatima devotees to observe this feast day, thanking God for the life of the two saints, models of sanctity and intercessors in heaven for our intentions.

The international President of the World Apostolate of Fatima, Prof. Michael Ogunu, has written a circular letter to all members of the association, asking to “promote devotion to the canonized little shepherds, Francisco and Jacinta, for their great importance in the history of the Church, to make possible the acceptance of the Message of Fatima around the world.” He added that, “as in past years, this feast must be celebrated as a day of prayer and recollection in every nation where the Apostolate is present”.

The feast day is to be celebrated with the practice of spiritual devotions such as, Holy  Mass, Holy Rosary, meditation on the life of the Saints, vigils of adoration and reparation to the Blessed Sacrament, procession with the images of the Saints, veneration of their relics and, when possible, also by organizing activities for children and youngsters, to honor the little shepherds.

The novena to Saint Francisco and Saint Jacinta leading to the feast begins on February 11. You can access here the novena prayer and the litany of the two Saints.

Historical Note

Francisco Marto was born in Aljustrel, Fatima, on June 11, 1908, and his sister Jacinta Marto was born in the same locality, on March 11, 1910. In their humble family, the children learned to know and to praise God and the Virgin Mary. In 1916, they saw three times an Angel and in 1917, they saw six times the Blessed Virgin Mary, asking them to pray and to make penance for the conversion of sinners and to obtain peace in the world. Both, immediately, wanted to answer with all their strength, to these exhortations. More and more inflamed in the love to God and to the souls, they had only one aspiration: to pray and to suffer according to the requests from the Angel and the Blessed Virgin Mary. Francisco died on April 4, 1919 and Jacinta on February 20, 1920. Pope Saint John Paul II travelled to Fatima on May 13, 2000, in order to beatify the two children. Pope Francis came to Fatima on May 13, 2017, during the Centenary of the Apparitions, and canonized the two first non-martyr children in the history of the Church.

The International Board of Trustees of the World Apostolate of Fatima (WAF) met in Domus Pacis, Fatima, from November 5 to 8, 2024 for its annual meeting, with the purpose to evaluate the ongoing mission of the Apostolate and to plan new pastoral initiatives, based on the main areas of the WAF Strategic Plan.

Prof. Michael Ogunu, the President, with the other members (Reynald Andales, Vice-President; David Kelly, Treasurer and the councillors Deacon Walter Karger, Oksana Bodak, Father Damian Maria, Father MV Sunni and JR Pereira), travelled to attend the meeting. Only Edith Koch, Secretary, could not make it this time.

The program of this year’s meeting included many hours sitting around the table to report on the WAF activities and discuss the other topics in the Agenda. Among these we highlight the evaluation of the execution of the WAF Strategic Plan, the WAF Finances, the Jubilee 2025, the Centennial of the Apparitions in Pontevedra, the First Saturdays worldwide campaign, the edition of Fatima materials and also the expansion of the Apostolate worldwide.    

Apart from this, we also met the WAF Episcopal Moderator, Msgr. José Ornelas, bishop of Leiria-Fátima and the Rector of the Shrine of Fatima, Father Carlos Cabecinhas. Both offered messages of encouragement to our Board and shared with us some important ideas that can enhance the mission of the World Apostolate of Fatima.

Also, we had the joy to welcome in the Byzantine chapel of Domus Pacis, during the Board meeting, a delegation of bishops and priests from Ukraine and present our WAF mission to them.  

The days spent in Fatima were also grace filled with special moments of prayer, including the daily Mass and the Rosary. There was also a pilgrimage to the Shrine of Our Lady of Ortiga, near Fatima, where the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared to a little shepherdess, many years before the apparitions at Cova da Iria.

The highest moment of our celebrations was however the day we had the Holy Mass at the Chapel of the Apparitions, to pray for the Apostolate and particularly for those who have taken the WAF Pledge recently. Their names were placed at the feet of Our Lady together with our prayer intentions.  At the end of Mass, a new beautiful statue of Our Lady’s Immaculate Heart with the Child Jesus (Apparition of Pontevedra, Spain) was blessed for the WAF Philippines. The Statue will initiate a two-year visitation around the dioceses of the country as part of the centennial celebrations of the First Five Saturdays request.

Although the Board of Trustees holds regular online meetings throughout the year, a physical meeting is always a unique occasion, because it strengthens the bonds among all and permits to combine effective work with moments of prayer and fellowship.

The World Apostolate of Fatima supports the worldwide campaign to collect donations for the renovation works of the sanctuary of the Apparitions, in Pontevedra, Spain. 

The shrine of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, known as the Shrine of the Apparitions, in Pontevedra, Spain, is a place closely associated with the history and message of Fatima. It was there, in that former convent of the Dorothean Sisters, that Lucia de Jesus, the eldest of the Fatima seers, received the visit of Our Lady and the Child Jesus, in her cell - now transformed into a chapel - on December 10, 1925.

Our Lady asked her the devotion of the First Saturdays, in reparation to Her Immaculate Heart. Over the years, the old sanctuary building has been deteriorating and it is now urgent to carry out its proper rehabilitation in order to preserve the sacred place of the apparition and its spirituality.

The Bishop’s Conference of Spain is responsible for coordinating and supervising these efforts. The costs are very high! The donations collected by the Secretariat of the World Apostolate of Fatima will be handed over to the Bishop’s Conference by the end of this year. We count on your generous contribution!

Donations can be sent by bank transfer to:

The goal is that, in year 2025, when the Centennial of the Apparition of Pontevedra occurs, the Shrine of the Immaculate Heart of Mary will have the necessary and dignified facilities to welcome all pilgrims who visit it. Let us therefore be generous! And let us remember Our Lady’s promise at Fatima: “In the end My Immaculate Heart will triumph”.

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)