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What Statue Most Resembles Our Lady
at Fatima?


Dear TIA,

Pax et bonum.

I was reading the book Our Lady of Fatima by Thomas Walsh. Then I came to this paragraph where he asked Sister Lucia:

"Does the statue in the shrine at Cova da Iria look like the Lady you saw there?"

She replied:

“No, not much. I was disappointed when I saw it. For one thing, it was too joyful, too alegre. When I saw Our Lady she was sadder, or rather more compassionate. But it would be impossible to describe Our Lady, and it would be impossible to make a statue as beautiful as she is.”

She left the room a moment and returned with a small print of Our Lady on some sort of transparent plastic material, the most simple and unadorned I had seen, and handed it to me. “This is the picture that comes nearest to what I saw,” she said.

I think I read this somewhere else before, a source giving us a detail about the card with Our Lady pictured similar to how she appeared at Fatima. But I can't recall where I read it and the title of that statue. Could you help me find the information about this picture of Our Lady which is more similar to how she appeared at Fatima?

I am looking forward for the information. Thank you very much.

     Regards,

     H.C.
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Dr. Horvat responds:

Dear H.C.,

I am pleased to tell you that I know exactly which picture you are seeking.

Many years ago, I also read about this image, which is Nossa Senhora de Sameiro (Our Lady of Sameiro), in the book The True Story of Fatima by Fr. John de Marchi, IMC. I actually acquired a framed picture of the statue and have it in my study to remind me of the more serious expression of Our Lady at Fatima that both Lucia and Jacinta remarked upon.

Our Lady of Sameiro

Our Lady at the Sanctuary of Sameiro

In The True Story of Fatima, Fr. de Marchi writes about the time Jacinta spent in the hospital in Lisbon in1920. She had been placed under the care of one of the leading specialists on children’s diseases and diagnosed with purulent pleurisy of the large left cavity and fistulous osteitis of the seventh and eighth ribs of the same side.

During a painful operation with only a local injection of anesthesia – she was too weak to take gas – two ribs were removed. The open wound on her chest was the size of a fist and had to be cleansed often, a most painful process.

Though she suffered so much, she never complained, accepting the suffering with happiness, for she realized it would help many souls to escape the terrible fire of Hell. “Now, Thou can convert many sinners,” she spoke to Our Lord, “for I suffer a great deal, my Jesus.”

Our Lady continued to come to visit her often. Four days before her death, she said, “I am not complaining any more. Our Lady has appeared again and said that she was coming for me soon. She took all my pains away.”

Doctor Eurico Lisboa testified to this. “Her pains disappeared completely. She felt inclined to play and busied herself with looking at a few religious pictures, among which was one of Our Lady of the Sameiro. She said it was the one which most resembled the Lady she had seen. It was given to me later as a souvenir of Jacinta. (p. 72)

The Sanctuary of Our Lady of Sameiro (or Sanctuary of Sameiro) is a Marian shrine located on a hill near Braga, Portugal, built in the 18th century. The sanctuary is the largest Marian devotional shrine in Portugal, second only to the Sanctuary of Fátima. The magnificent statue of the Immaculate Virgin was sculpted in Rome and blessed by Pope Pius IX himself.

     Cordially,

      Marian T. Horvat, Ph.D.

Our Lady of Sameiro
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Posted January 2 , 2018

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