Located in west central Portugal, in the region of Leiria, the small town of Fatima is one of the most visited Marian shrines in the world today. But unlike many of Europe's great Marian pilgrimage sites, the sanctity of Fatima dates not from the Middle Ages but only from early in the 20th century. Fatima was then a small rural village in a rocky region whose main product was olive oil. There are no historical or legendary accounts of the village or surrounding area having any religious importance in earlier times.
The apparitions for which Fatima is known around the world began on May 13, 1917 and continued each month through October, always on the 13th. The first vision came to Lucia Santos and her cousins Jacinta and Francisco as they tended sheep in an isolated ravine called Cova da Iria.
On May 12, 1982 Pope John Paul II made a pilgrimage to Fatima and expressed thanks to Mary for saving his life during an assassination attempt the previous year. Incorporated into the crown of the statue of Our Lady of Fatima is the bullet removed from the Pope after he had been shot. On May 13th of 2000, the Pope again visited Fatima and this time revealed that part of the so-called "third secret of Fatima" was that Mary had prophesized the1981 assassination attempt and revealed this in her apparition to Lucia in 1917.
