The Exhibition

Taking as motif the apparition of July 1917, the Shrine of Fatima offers to its pilgrims a temporary exhibition, whose purpose is to present, by means of historical documentation and artistic pieces, one of the most important topics of Fatima: the Secret which from Cova da Iria leads to the contemplation of today’s whole world.
Before walking through the sets exhibiting each of the three parts of the Secret, the visitor is placed in the ambiance of frenzy which, already in 1917, was felt around the subject. It is in this context that, in between frames looking like windows covered with veils of different transparencies and opacities, we see the first documents where the word ‘secret’ is pinned.
Sets 1 and 2 are organized with Lucia’s original manuscripts related to the first and second parts of the Secret, presented according to the way they are in the Third Memoir (Episcopal Archives of Leiria) and contain several works of art which lead the visitor to interpret each of these parts: «the vision of Hell» and «the Devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary».
Before getting to most emblematic piece of the exhibition, the visitor has to pause for a moment, while going through a corridor that, by means of two big chronologies (about the historic moments of the XX century and the Secret), clearly states that Fatima is really «the most prophetic of contemporaneous apparitions». This «long wait» flows into an auditorium where a screen shows the revelation of the Third Part of the Secret made by Cardinal Angelo Sodano, on May 13, 2000.
It is after this announcement that the pilgrim has access to the main document of the exhibition: the original manuscript (Archives of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, A.S.381) written by Sr. Lucia on January 3, 1944, and loaned to this exhibition by the Congregation that keeps it since 1957.
This document opens up a new chapter in the exhibition, dedicated to the contemplation, by means of works of art and other strategies of representation, of the Third Part of the Secret. This last part, named «The Martyr Church», turns the literary images contained in the manuscript into visual images: the pope’s white garment (cassock of John Paul II; NSF, inv.420-TEX.I.41) is placed on the axis of the cross (Reliquary of the Holy Cross; MSF, inv. 86-OUR.II.15) which presides over this whole space, marked by Stations of the Cross (models of IV and V stations of the Stations of the Cross of Valinhos, MSF; inv. 849-ESC.II.71/72) where are projected the faces of the popes who led the Church throughout the XX century, according to the interpretation of Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger in his theological commentary on the Secret of Fatima.

On the ground floor of the Basilica of the Most Holy Trinity, in the entrance hall of “Convivium de Santo Agostinho”, is open every day of the week, between 9:00 and 19:00, the exhibition that is aimed at leading the visitors to realize that “the message of Fatima invites us to trust in the promise” contained in the Gospel: "In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world." (Jn 16: 33)" (Joseph Ratzinger, Theological Commentary on the Secret of Fatima).

Marco Daniel Duarte, Exhibition’s Curator