(ZENIT News / Rome, 27.02.2025).- The original statue of Our Lady of Fatima will be in Rome on October 11-12, 2025, on the occasion of the Jubilee of Marian Spirituality. The famous image of the Virgin, known by the faithful worldwide and symbol of the “Hope That Does Not Disappoint,” will be present among the faithful attending Holy Mass in Saint Peter’s Square on Sunday, October 12 of this year at 10:30 am, enriching even more this moment of prayer and reflection. Entrance to Saint Peter’s Square, on the occasion of the Eucharistic Celebration, will be free; no ticket is needed. Registration to take part in the event is already open on the Webpage and will end on August 10, 2025.
This is the fourth time that the statue leaves the Fatima Shrine to go to Rome. The first was in 1984, on the occasion of the Extraordinary Jubilee of the Redemption when, on March 25, Saint John Paul II consecrated the world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. The second time was in the Great Jubilee of the Year 2000, and the third on the occasion of the Year of Faith with Pope Francis.
“The presence of the beloved statue of Our Lady of Fatima will enable all to experience the Virgin Mary’s closeness,” said the Pro-Prefect of the Dicastery for Evangelization, H.E. Archbishop Rino Fisichella, “one of the most significant Marian icons for Christians worldwide that, as the Holy Father underscored in the Bull of Indiction of the Jubilee Spes Non Confundit, venerate her as the “most affectionate of mothers, who never abandons her children.” In fact in Fatima, the Virgin said to the three little shepherds what follows, assuring each one of us: “I shall never abandon you. My Immaculate Heart will be your refuge and the way that will lead you to God.”
“This statue leaves the Shrine of Cova de Iria exceptionally, and only at the request of Popes,” said the Rector oof the Fatima Shrine, Father Carlos Cabecinhas. “In this Jubilee time, the Virgin of Fatima is the Woman of Easter joy, including in the painful time the world is living. Once again, the “Lady dressed in white,” will be the pilgrim of hope and, in Rome, she will be with the “Bishop dressed in white,” as the shepherd children of Fatima affectionately called the Holy Father.”
The sculpture, work of the Portuguese artist José Ferreira Thedim, who created it in 1920, is usually kept in the Chapel of the Apparitions of the Shrine of Our Lady of Fatima. It was there that, from May to October of 1917, the Virgin appeared six times to the shepherd children Lucia dos Santos, 10, Jacinta Marto, 7 and Francisco Marto, 9. The statue is104 centimeters high and was carved from a Brazilian cedar, following the indications of the three children. It was solemnly crowned on May 13, 1946 and the bullet that struck John Paul II in the 1981 attack was subsequently incrusted in the crown.
