A journey to Fatima

In Portugal, the dogma of the Faith will always be preserved..."

These were the words of the Virgin Mary, as told to three children sometime before the 1920s as part of the Secret of Fatima. I remembered these words as I looked at the path towards the Chapel of Revelation. Scattered in between a long pavement, about six hundred and sixty feet towards the Chapel, I saw people of all ages, old women with rosaries, young men in sport jackets, mothers, fathers, the sick, the healthy, the rich and the poor alike, crawling on their knees on the pathway. There were a few who crawled on their bellies in respectful silence. None laughed or gawked as if it were the most natural thing in the world.

I was particularly touched by the sight of a mother with her infant child, her face turned towards heaven, an image comparable to the young Virgin presenting her Child in the Temple. Why, the poor child must have been ill and the mother was prepared to walk on her knees, as Lucia did on the same path (now cemented) to cure her mother many years ago. I surreptitiously and politely asked what the child’s illness was. To my amazement, she was actually offering a prayer of thanksgiving for the Most High for giving her a child! There were many others who had similar sentiments.

Unlike the Ten Lepers whom the Lord healed where only one returned and thanked Him, here was a whole nation eager to thank Him for His blessings, such was the crowd and throng at Fatima and perhaps the whole of Portugal.

I often seemed to find myself in very crowded places full of pilgrims, like Antipolo, Lourdes, Guadalupe, Czestochowa, Krakow and now Fatima. Observing and absorbing, I have seen many traditions in honor of the Blessed Virgin with her so many titles. The effort involved in going on a pilgrimage is not easy to convey to those who have never experienced it. It brings with it extreme tiredness and the desire to make sacrifices. Occasionally, it even brings pain and sufferings. This was the vision I saw in the walkway, and in every similar place I’ve visited. There is always the childlike desire to go to the Mother, to pray, to talk to her about one’s troubles and to cry, or to thank Her for one’s happiness.

It was fortunate that I was invited to be a guest artist in Portugal last May. Under the sponsorship of the Portuguese Embassy in Manila and the Instituto Portuguese do Oriente in Portugal, I was given a very good program to explore the country and experience the deep-rooted sense of hospitality of the Portuguese people.

My main task originally was to construct a visual diary of the country, an idea that came from the very enthusiastic Portuguese Ambassador to the Philippines, Joao Caetano de Silva. This October, they will have a Portuguese festival in Manila organized by the embassy and Rustan’s, and my work will be part of their cultural event program.

I was interested of course. After all, it was the Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan who made it known to the world the existence of our modest nation, resulting in our becoming the first Christian nation in Asia.

I especially wanted to visit the Shrine of Our Lady of Fatima and so I requested my trip to be postponed to the beginning of May, to have ample time to catch up on a very important event. May 13 was one of the special days of Fatima for it is the anniversary of the first apparitions of the Virgin Mary to the three shepherd children, Lucia, Francisco and Jacinta. Thereafter, I was informed to go ahead with my schedule so I could have sufficient time to prepare considering the enormous volume of visitors and pilgrims during the special days of Fatima.

Fatima is a Portuguese village located in the northern part of the capital, Lisbon. The shrine of the Blessed Virgin is the most famous in Portugal and almost at par with Lourdes in France in terms of popularity. It is visited by over five million pilgrims each year.

The history behind the small village of Fatima began when the Mother of God appeared to the three children, ten-year old Lucia and her cousins, nine-year old Francisco and seven-year old Jacinta that fateful day on May 13, 1917. They described her as "dressed in white and brighter than the sun, the light was purer and more intense than the rays of the sun shining through a crystal goblet of water." The children were asked by the Blessed Virgin to return five more times on the 13th day of each month. She also instructed them to say the Rosary everyday in order to pray for the end of the First World War.

After the initial apparitions, the children were ridiculed by various sectors, mostly by the media and anti-religious factions within the government. When it was learned that the Lady promised a miracle in October to be seen by all, these same sectors publicized the event all over Portugal to give a blow to religion when the prophesied miracle failed to occur.

On Oct. 13, 1917, the reverse happened. The Lady appeared telling the children her desire to see a shrine built on the spot. And the miracle was witnessed by everyone to see, much to the horror of their would-be accusers. The famous "dance of the sun" occurred, with onlooker not just from Fatima but also the nearby villages witnessing the sun stop in the sky and spin much to their amazement.

I felt doubly blessed to find myself with a special guide waiting for me at the airport in the person of Francisco Marto of Fatima. He is a third generation relative and namesake of the little shepherd boy Francisco Marto, whom the Blessed Mother chose, together with cousins Lucia dos Santos and Jacinta Marto. The Marto family opened their hearts to me during my short stay in their residence.

The ambassador was absolutely correct: The whole town was full of pilgrims. Hotels, pensions and boarding houses were fully occupied. All parking areas were covered by a virtual city of tents. I was informed about 1,700,000 people visited Fatima last year and it certainly looked that way this year, too. And yet, in spite of the extreme volume of visitors, the event was very well organized. Water was always available, toilets and garbage bins were everywhere and traffic was so organized. I’ve also noticed tents for medical assistance, as well as boy scouts and civic-minded volunteers for the needy. The food in their restaurants was agreeable and affordable.

In addition, many people, not necessarily part of the organizer’s staff, volunteered in assisting other pilgrims. No one threw trash indiscriminately in spite of so many people sleeping in various spots, using the Portuguese equivalent of a banig. When they moved, they took the pieces of garbage with them and put them in their proper place. There were no beggars, vendors or hawkers either. Truly the people radiated a love for God, Fatima, their churches and the Blessed Virgin.

The shrine attracts pilgrims not only from Portugal but from all over the world. The statue of the Virgin of Fatima is credited with many miracles during the years since. It is even speculated by some that the Lady of Fatima has answered the prayers of 70 percent of the people of Portugal at one point in their lives. And seeing the walkway towards the Chapel of Revelation crawled by so many people made me feel a strong leaning towards the veracity of the statement.

Of the three children who witnessed the apparitions in 1917, only Lucia is still alive. Made a nun at the Carmelite convent in Coimbra, she celebrated her 95th birthday last March.

Since I arrived ahead of the May 13 celebration, I had the opportunity to visit some interesting neighboring towns, together with Francisco Marto. I’ve noticed right away many Portuguese pilgrims in all ages walking as far as 200 kilometers to visit the shrine. Some pilgrims have come from as far as Spain and France to commemorate that very special day.

In every Church I’ve visited in Portugal, there was always an image of the Virgin of Fatima. Paintings of her in azulejos tiles are permanently displayed in their doors and windows of their houses. In addition, scattered among various areas can be found many shrines with an icon or statue of the Blessed Mary.

Being in Fatima during Her celebration was a blessing and a spiritual experience of a lifetime. I became part of the pilgrims attending masses every 9 p.m. out in the open where we would throw ourselves at the mercy of the rain, wind and the coldness of the spring weather. At the same time, I got a chance to meet like-minded people and share our joy of encountering Our Lady. I really felt that I belonged to one large family, with our Heavenly Father and Blessed Mother watching over us. Christianity is truly a universal faith, one that transcends all cultural and lingual borders, united under the One True Shepherd, Jesus Christ.

Before leaving the small town of Fatima for the next stop in my itinerary, I paid homage to each of the important areas of Fatima, the church, the Cova where the Blessed Virgin appeared, and the houses where the three visionaries lived. I did not ask for anything in my prayers. For that was the prayer of thanksgiving, in gratitude for allowing me to see with clarity what is not always apparent in daily life, the Divine in my neighbor.

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From Oct. 1 to 25, my artworks, entitled Treasures of Portugal, will be on view at the sixth floor exhibition area of Rustan’s Makati. It is part of Rustan’s Portuguese Festival in Manila.