Pilgrims and/or tourists?
LISBON, Portugal — Our trip to Europe this year is in the spirt of a pilgrimage to Fatima on this centenary of Our Lady’s apparition. It is my second to Fatima, Meng’s third.
We signed up with Ruy Mogrado, together with co-pilgirms/tourists Jorge from Peru who become George as an architecture student in England, Wolfgang and his non-Filipino speaking wife Mariel who was born in Germany and raised by parents from Cebu, and two ladies from Singapore. Our guide Ruy was giving us just one hour in each of what would be our four stops.
There were new elements at Fatima since our last visit in 2007. One hour was hardly enough to buy rosaries for nears and dears, and to catch the second part of the ongoing mass celebrated by Chinese priests from Mainland China at the Chapel of the Apparition. (It would need tongues of fire to understand a homily in Mandarin, but the mass is the same in any language.) We lit votive candles and and caught one of the Chinese priests to bless the rosaries and an azulejo image of the apparition of Our Lady, before saying the rosary silently because devotees waited for the next hour hour mass.
The Chapel of the Apparitions (Portuguese: Capelinha das Aparições) was constructed in the 1920s at the site where the shepherd children Lucia Santos, Jacinta and Francisco Marto received the apparitions of the Blessed Virgin Mary. There were more petitioners walking on knees in the kilometric procession.
There have been several additions to the Fatima since our last visit:
• At the entrance of the Sanctuary, on the south side of the Rectory, is a piece of the Berlin Wall – offered by Virgilio Casimiro Ferreira, a Portuguese emigrant to Germany, and the Portuguese faithful with the help of the Portuguese Consulate General in Frankfurt. Installed on 13 August 1994 as grateful memorial for the promise at Fatima, the piece weighs 2,600 kilos and measures 3.60 meters high x 1.20 meters wide.
(BTW, a piece of the Berlin Wall at our national museum waits for the Philippine government’s decision on its permanent location.)
• A marker by the Pope John II reads (original in Portuguese and translated into English): “Thank you, heavenly shepherdess, for having guided with motherly affection people to freedom.”
• In the rectory building are small fragments of the Berlin Wall strung into beads of the holy rosary intended for Pope John Paul II on his visit May 13, 1991. Five additional stones for the “Glory be’s” came from the five new member states of the reunited Germany in 1990 (Brandenburg, MecklenburgVorpommern, Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, and Thuringia). Msgr. Luciano Guerra, rector of the Fatima Shrine, suggested the rosary stay in the Shrine.
• The new Church of the Holy Trinity inaugurated on October 12, 2007 (the eve of the 90th anniversary of the Miracle of the Sun) seating 9,000 (fourth largest Catholic Church) has mixed reviews owing to design and ecumenical spirit. Shrine Rector Luciano Guerra permitted Hindus to worship at the Catholic altar at Fatima in 2004.
Like other devotees, (who pray beseechingly), we have our own petitions. But we should be mindful of Judge Pete Santiago’s reflection on his pilgrimage to Lourdes. The judge saw the crutches left by those who were healed. But to him, the miracle of Lourdes is not the number of those who come and are healed, “but those who come to be healed... are not healed... yet leave the holy shrine with their faith deepened.”
One hour at Fatima was up, and our pilgrimage continued to excursion:
Batalha. In the Battle of Aljubarrota, King Joao I and his allies defeated the Castilians to secure the independent Kingdom of Portugal. In thanksgiving, he built the church and the monastery of Batalha, now one of UNESCO’s World Heritage sites. On both sides of the main portal are sculptures of the twelve apostles. In the center is a high-relief statue of Christ in Majesty surrounded by the evangelists, framed by six carvings of Biblical kings and queens, prophets and angels holding musical instruments from the Middle Ages. Dom João I and his wife, Queen Philippa of Lancaster, lie in the chapel walls with their sons, among them Prince Henry the Navigator.
Nazaré. Church of Nossa Senhora da Nazare is on the hilltop O Sitio. Legend of Nazaré: Sheriff Dom Fuas Roupinho was chasing on horseback a deer, which jumped over the edge into the void. Before his fiery horse could follow, the knight invoked the intervention of the Madonna, who made the horse turn away and this saved his life. A chapel A Ermida da Memoria, was built near this spot, over a grotto where stood a small statue of a Black Madonna, brought from Nazareth. Near the chapel, one can see the imprint of a horseshoe in the rock. Pious belief holds the statuette suckling a Baby Jesus to be carved by the carpenter Joseph.
Several Blue Delf azulejos in the transept were made in 1708 by the Dutch ceramist Willem van der Kloet (1666-1747). They depict Biblical scenes, among them Joseph being sold as a slave by his brothers; opposite is David slaying Goliath.
On 8 September each year, a religious festival draws tourists and pilgrims for the processions, bullfights, and folk dancing. The hilltop overlooks a more worldly recreation of a beach lined with parasols.
Obidos. The best activity is the walk around the walls surrounding the town. There is craft, jewelry, toy, or whatever for everyone. Obidos is famed for the cherry liqueur called Ginja de Obidos and no trip to Obidos is complete without savoring this sweet tasting drink. Ginja is produced by infusing Morello cherries in Aguardiente (hence the strength of the drink) served straight with a cherry in the shot glass. Some bars even serve the drink in a chocolate cup. FEEDBACK: