Our Lady of Fátima, is a Catholic Title of the Blessed Virgin Mary based on the famed Marian apparitions reported in 1917 by three shepherd children at the Cova da Iria, in Fátima, Portugal.
The name of the village alone has an interesting history. Centuries before the apparitions, from April, 711 to 1492 A.D., Muslims conquered and occupied the lands of Spain and Portugal, forcing the people to become Islam. During this time of Moorish occupation, the small village in Portugal was named after a beloved 12th century Muslim princess named Fatima. Due to a reconquering by the defending Christian forces, Islamic Princess Fatima was captured. Princess Fatima married the Spanish Count of Ourem and converted to Catholicism. At baptism, she changed her name to Oureana.
Our Blessed Mother appeared to three simple shepherd children six times between May 13th and October 13th in 1917 so they could warn the world of upcoming trials and tribulations. The three children were, siblings Jacinta, age 7, and Francisco Marto, age 9, and their cousin Lucia Dos Santos, age 10. On 13 May 1917, the children reported seeing a woman "brighter than the sun, shedding rays of light clearer and stronger than a crystal goblet filled with the most sparkling water and pierced by the burning rays of the sun." The woman wore a white mantle edged with gold and held a rosary in her hand. She asked them to devote themselves to the Holy Trinity and to pray "the Rosary every day, to bring peace to the world and an end to the war".
