Fatima statue to visit Rome for Jubilee of Marian Spirituality

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — The original statue of Our Lady of Fatima will make a rare journey from its shrine in Portugal to Rome in October 2025 for a Jubilee celebration of Marian spirituality.

The statue will be present in St. Peter’s Square Oct. 12 for the closing Mass of the Jubilee of Marian Spirituality, the Vatican announced Feb. 27.

The statue has embedded in its crown one of the bullets from the attempted assassination of St. John Paul II in 1981. A Turkish gunman shot the pope on May 13, the feast of Our Lady of Fatima, and the Polish pope credited her with saving his life. He traveled to Fatima the next year to offer his thanks in person.

The Marian jubilee will offer pilgrims the chance to cross the Holy Door of St. Peter’s Basilica and partake in a prayer vigil at the Basilica of St. Mary Major in Rome — considered the oldest Marian shrine in the West.

According to Archbishop Rino Fisichella, pro-prefect of the Dicastery for Evangelization, the statue’s visit will allow the faithful to “experience the closeness of the Virgin Mary” in a special way. Quoting Pope Francis’ Jubilee Bull of Indiction, “Spes non confundit” (“Hope does not disappoint”), he recalled how Mary is venerated as “the most affectionate of mothers, who never abandons her children.”

The Jubilee will be only the fourth time the statue has left the Shrine of Our Lady of Fatima for Rome. The first occasion was in 1984 when St. John Paul II consecrated the world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. It returned during the Holy Year 2000 and again in 2013 for the Year of Faith, which marked 50 years since the opening of the Second Vatican Council.

Father Carlos Cabecinhas, rector of the Fatima shrine, emphasized the exceptional nature of the event, noting that the statue is only moved upon the request of a pope. “In this Jubilee time, the Virgin of Fatima is the woman of Paschal joy, even in the painful times the world is experiencing,” he said. “Once again, the ‘Lady dressed in white’ will be a pilgrim of hope.”

Carved in 1920 from Brazilian cedar by Portuguese sculptor José Ferreira Thedim, the 104-centimeter-tall statue was crafted based on descriptions from the three shepherd children who claimed to witness the Marian apparitions in 1917. It was solemnly crowned in 1946.

Pope Francis visited the Marian shrine at Fatima for the second time in 2023 during his trip to Lisbon, Portugal, for World Youth Day. In 2017, he celebrated Mass there to mark the 100th anniversary of the apparitions.