(ZENIT News / Vatican City, 12.02.2024).- In 2023 the Fatima Shrine took up its main mission again: that of welcoming pilgrims. Being one of the world’s most visited Marian Shrines, it surpassed its 2022 record in the global number of pilgrims, the number of organized pilgrimages and celebrations, and the variety of countries from which the pilgrims hailed. The number of pilgrims that took part in at least one celebration in the Shrine in 2023 was 6.8 million.
The figure reveals an increase of 39% in regard to 2022, and is compared with 2019, year in which the Shrine welcomed 6.3 million, a marked growth of 9%. The data presented at the 45th Meeting of Hoteliers and Heads of Religious Houses, which host pilgrims in Fatima, is in line with what was recorded before the pandemic. Since 2010, year in which the celebrations began of the Apparitions’ Centenary, the average number of pilgrims was between five and seven million, with the exception of the year 2017 itself – Year of the Centenary, with the presence of Pope Francis and the Canonization of Saints Francisco and Jacinta Marto –, when affluence to the Fatima Shrine reached over nine million people. The young people that went to Cova da Iria, in the framework of the Lisbon World Youth Day in 2023, contributed to the figure of 6.8 million attending a variety of celebrations, a total of 1,151, 287, which represents 17% of the global number of pilgrims.
The data also reflects that, in 2023, organized groups that visited the Shrine amounted to 4,779, of which 3,618 were foreigners and 1,161 were Portuguese. In this case also, the increase was 58% in respect of 2022, year in which the Shrine welcomed 3,028 groups.
The number of countries from which the pilgrims hailed was the largest since 2017. The Shrine receive people from 94 countries, a figure that was only larger in the Year of the Centenary of the Apparitions, with 109 different nationalities present in Cova da Iria.
In 2023, groups from Europe were larger, with pilgrims from Spain, Italy and Poland prevailing. America was the second Continent from which more pilgrims came, the largest numbers coming from the United States, Brazil and Mexico. Asia was the third Continent represented. In 2023, the pilgrims came primarily from the Philippines, South Korea and Vietnam. To be recalled is that in 2019, Koreans held the first place, by origin in the Asian Continent. Filipinos and Indians took second and third place, respectively.
Foreign groups preferred the months of August and October to visit Fatima. Organized Portuguese pilgrimages reached their zenith, in terms of numbers, in May and September.
The total number of recorded celebrations in 2023, both official and private, was 9,557, — an indicator that rose again in respect of 2022, year in which 8,271 celebrations were held, but without reaching the value of 2019: 10,136. The increase from 2022 to 2023 was 16%.
The Shrine’s Chapel continues being the place where most pilgrims gather: 3million 112 thousand participants in 3,6562 celebrations.
However, the Prayer Room and the Basilicas of the Most Holy Trinity and Our Lady of the Rosary also gathered over 3 million participants in the approximately one thousand celebrations, which they housed.
The Shrine is a place of agglomerations, but it’s also one of family and intimate celebrations. Celebrated there, in 2023, were 27 weddings, 130 Baptisms and 288 silver, 305 gold and 33 diamond Wedding Anniversaries, a total of 626 anniversaries.
The numbers of the Sacrament of Confession also reflect that, converging in the Fatima Shrine, are trajectories of conversion and reencounter with God: 113,500 Confessions were heard.
822,009 visitors went to the permanent exhibition in the Rectory building; to the temporal exhibition in the Basilica of the Most Holy Trinity; to the House of Saints Francisco and Jacinta Mato, and the House of Lucia of Jesus.
The year 2023 was also marked by the opening of the Lucia of Jesus Listening Center on June 17. The Center received 734 visitors in the first months after its opening.
The Shrine’s presence in the digital realm is also significant. 23,896,172 people visited its official Facebook page.
Despite the increase in donations, the year also witnessed an increase of expenses, given the increase of pilgrims in this especially singular year. Income reached 21.73 million euros and expenses 21.62 million euros. Personnel expenses amounted to 6.74 million euros, 4.24 million euros allocated to amortizations, and 4.35 million euros to services and goods. The expenses incurred in the 2023 Lisbon World Youth Day amounted to 1.42 million euros.
What the numbers presented in this meeting reveal is that Fatima is a place of many transits, where there is always space for all.
With information of the Fatima Shrine.
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