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For Filipino Catholics, the town of Fatima, in central Portugal, is a popular pilgrimage site. Fatima gained international renown because of what happened to three shepherd children. Beginning on May 13, 1917, the children saw a vision of a lady who reappeared five more times, on the 13th day of each month until October 13, except in August when they saw her on the 19th. On her last visit, the lady told the three children that she was “Our Lady of the Rosary.” She asked the children to pray the rosary each day. The lady told them to inform the local church authorities to build a church on the place of the apparitions. When the lady appeared to the children for the last time, on October 13, 1917, ahuge crowd was present; it was estimated at over 50,000.
Immediately after the children’s vision ended, the crowd witnessed some sort of solar phenomenon. The peasant children, the only three to have visions of the lady, were Lucia dos Santos and her cousins, Francisco and Jacinto Marto. Lucia and her cousins had to endure frequent interviews by church and civic officials. In August of 1917, the children were abducted and threatened by some incredulous civic officials. Taken to Valinhos pasture, near Aljustrel, the children saw a vision of the lady on August 19. Eventually, in 1922, a formal church inquiry was initiated. The Bishop of Leiria was cautious, but finally on October 13, 1930, he accepted the children’s visions as authentic. Roman Catholic officials formally approved the growing devotion at Fatima. Her two cousins died in1919, but Lucia Santos lived into adulthood and become a Carmelite nun in Coimbra, in 1948. Lucia wrote two accounts of the visions, one completed in 1937 and the other in 1942. Construction of a large church was finished in 1953. It is known today as the Basilica of Our Lady of Fatima. The village of Fatima, named after the medieval Islamic princess, is a popular pilgrimage destination for Catholics coming from all over the world. Pope Paul VI celebrated a mass for world peace there in 1967, on the 50th anniversary of the apparitions, in the company of Lucia dos Santos. 
View: Full Article | Source: Manila Bulletin
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Religious pilgrims have come to this Coastal Bend town by the hundreds to glimpse an image of Jesus they say began weeping inside a wood-framed house following a grandmother's prayers for a baby in a Houston hospital . The pilgrims were told that the tears were in response to prayers from a young grandmother for her critically disfigured grandson. The Catholic Church has not yet investigated the claims. In a small living room where Gloria Fino, 34, clutched a Bible to her heart, the cardboard print of Christ was displayed. Fino, a Catholic, dabbed cotton balls against two streams of oily substance that trickled from the outside corners of the image's eyes. She gavethem to visitors, one after another. 
Religious pilgrims have come to Robstown, a Texas Coastal Bend town, by the hundreds to catch a glimpse of an image of Jesus they say is weeping inside a wood-framed house. The pilgrims were told that the tears were in response to prayers from a young grandmother for her critically disfigured grandson. TheCatholic Church has not yet investigated the claims. 
Angry, bored and unable to sleep, Kyle Maskell grabbed his Marksman slingshot and headed out of his foster home to destroy something that might bring him a degree of infamy that rivaled his rage, police said.He soon looked up into the image of the Virgin Mary, the iridescent figure that had formed on the side of a glass building on U.S. 19 eight years earlier, drawing throngs of believers to Clearwater.Maskell reached into the pouch of his slingshot and launched three or four ball bearings, striking the image's top three panes, police said. Peoplewho showed up hours later found the virgin beheaded.That's the story Clearwater police say Maskell, an 18-year-old Clearwater High School sophomore, told them Monday morning before they arrested him on a charge of felony criminal mischief. 
