Our Lady of Fatima with Three Doves – 11 cm

Catholics honour Mary, the mother of Jesus, as Our Lady of Fatima in memory of the apparitions reported in Portugal in 1917. On 13 May, Lúcia dos Santos and her cousins Francisco and Jacinta Marto were tending their sheep at the Cova da Iria. The children described seeing a lady dressed in white above a small holm oak.

Lúcia recalled that Mary asked the children to pray the Rosary every day for peace. On this statue, golden rosary beads hang from Mary’s folded hands as a reminder of that request. A gold pattern runs along the border of her white mantle, and her burgundy and gold crown symbolises her queenship.

The three white doves among the branches at Mary’s feet recall a pilgrimage in 1946. As the statue from the Chapel of the Apparitions passed through Bombarral on its way to Lisbon, doves landed on the platform that carried it. At 11 cm tall, this figure fits on a small home altar beside a set of rosary beads.