Photo Pest: Atheist Pilgrim (Four Times Over!)

Tuesday, May 23, 2023

Atheist Pilgrim (Four Times Over!)

Our hotel in Coimbra advised us not to arrive before 7 p.m. due to an unspecified "civic event." What better way to kill time than make a religious pilgrimage.

Fátima makes my fourth, after Santiago de Compostela, Lourdes and Our Lady of Guadalupe. Possession of a punch ticket might cut me some slack with Saint Peter if there is a god. Chris and Janet are standing in front of the Basilica of Our Lady of the Rosary.

In 1917, three shepherd children had a vision of the virgin, who shared three secrets that they used to support their claim, including a prophecy that wouldn't occur 1960. The Vatican bestowed legitimacy in 1930. Do you see haloed Mary waving?

Just ten days before our arrival, nearly a million pilgrims congregated in the enormous plaza in front of the basilica where the shepherd children had their vision 106 years earlier. The plaza gets just as crowded every October 13, the day the church recognized the children's vision.

Some pilgrims literally walk the length of the plaza on their knees, praying. This woman brought her knee pads. Don't you love the jazzy crucifix?

Painted mosaic brick depictions of the Stations of the Cross decorate the curved exterior wall in between the arches on the far side of the chairs where Janet and Chris are seated.

Here, Jesus "meets his most holy evil."

The stations motif is repeated inside the church. The bronze relief depicts Christ's resurrection.

I wish I'd paid more attention to the painting behind the altar. I'm guessing it illustrates the vision that put Fatima on the worldwide pilgrimage map.

Instead, I was more focused on the tombs that flank the altar. Two of the children, Francisco and his sister Jacinta Marto, are buried beneath this strikingly modernist tableau. Spanish flu had taken their lives at ages ten and nine by early 1920. John Paul II beatified the Marian visionaries in 2000, pushing aside the objections of a previous pope who declared that children could neither understand heroic virtue or have had a chance to practice it repeatedly, both of which are essential qualifications for sainthood, after 300 bishops worldwide petitioned on their behalf. Four million people pay their respects annually. I bet that makes them the most visited child graves in history. Where's Alex Trebek when you need him? The church should beatify him!

Lúcia dos Santos, the third child and others' cousin rests here. She became a nun and didn't die until 2005 at the age of 97. Pope Benedict XVI waived the requirement that five years must pass before the canonization process can begin, and Sister Lucia is well on her way to sainthood, too, after Pope Francis declared her venerable this year.

Outside, pilgrims gather around a giant fire pit constructed to reflect the Sanctuary. "It's where they burn Jews," Chris teased Janet.

I wanted to pick up a bottle of holy water at one of the souvenir shops that surround the Sanctuary, like I did at Lourdes. It has long since evaporated. Much easier to transport than praying virgins!

Beeswax body parts also were available for purchase. Apparently, pilgrims burn them in the fire pit after their prayers to cure a matching kind of medical condition are answered.