Fiesta masses in honor of Our Lady of Fatima to be held on Oct. 13
Iba Bishop Bartolome G. Santos will preside over a concelebrated fiesta mass at 6 p.m. on Thursday, Oct.13, at the National Shrine of Our Lady of Fatima in Valenzuela, Metro Manila, in observance of Our Lady of Fatima’s sixth and final apparition to three shepherd children in 1917 at the Cova de Ira in Fatima, Portugal.

The evening mass will be followed by a solemn candlelight procession. Holy masses will also be celebrated at 6:30 a.m., 8 a.m., and at 12 noon.
The praying of the holy rosary, novena, and novena masses was held from Oct. 4 to 12. This year marks the 105th anniversary of the Fatima apparitions.
The shrine is considered as the center of Fatima devotion and apostolate in the country. It is also the custodian of the national pilgrim image of Our Lady of Fatima in the Philippines.
The Blessed Mother’s series of apparitions to three shepherd children, Lucia dos Santos and her cousins, Jacinta and Francisco Marto in Fatima occurred for six consecutive months in 1917, beginning on May 13. Witnessed by a crowd of more than 100,000 pilgrims and said to be visible from up to 40 kilometers away, Our Lady of Fatima also known as Our Lady of the Holy Rosary, held out the scapular and asked the children to pray the rosary and do penance for the conversion of sinners.
The “miracle of the dancing sun,” when the sun suddenly appeared to change colors, rotated like a fireball, and appeared to fall from the sky before retreating, also took place during her final apparition “so that all would believe.” The apparitions were declared worthy of belief by the Vatican in October 1930.