The World Apostolate of Fatima in Würzburg, Germany is promoting a Fatima prayer event for May 13th, 2023, with the special intention to pray for peace in Ukraine.

Following last year’s initiative which united South Korea and Germany in prayer, for the peaceful reunification of the peninsula of Korea, the World Apostolate of Fatima of the diocese of Würzburg, in Germany, is holding again this year, on the Feast Day of Our Lady of Fatima, another major prayer event. This time, the purpose is to unite Germany with Ukraine, to pray for peace in a country terribly devastated by the war.

The Secretariat of the World Apostolate of Fatima has been facilitating the organization of the event between the two countries. On May 13^th, members of the Apostolate and other devotees, will gather in the city of Lviv and in Würzburg, to ask Our Lady for peace in Ukraine and in the whole world. A prayer card in Ukrainian will be distributed among the faithful, to mark this day.  Our Lady, Queen of Peace, grant upon the world peace!   

In Fatima, Our Lady told the three little shepherds to pray the Rosary each day to bring peace to the world and bring an end to the war.  Today, the same invitation is made to each one of us.

During the month of May and particularly around the 13th, Feast Day of Our Lady of Fatima, we invite you to pray for peace in the world, so much needed. We also ask you to express your love to Our Blessed Mother and your support to our Apostolate's mission by shopping at our online store:  shop.worldfatima.com

May God and Our Lady of Fatima bless you and your family!   

On this coming May 8, following the appeal from the “Children of the Eucharist”, the World Apostolate of Fatima is encouraging its leaders and members to help spiritually unite the prayers of our children and youth to petition Our Lady of Fatima, Queen of Peace, for world peace.

Watch here and use this trailer video in English, subtitled in Spanish, to promote this prayer event: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5jIcF8Q3WXc

The prayers of children and youngsters are crucial to obtain from heaven the gift of peace.  Let us all contribute for this, entrusting to the Immaculate Heart of Mary ourselves, the Church and the whole world.

Our Lady, in the apparition of July 13, 1917, at Fatima, asked: "To prevent the war I will come to ask for the consecration of Russia to my Immaculate Heart and the reparative Communion on the First Saturdays." “At my request, Russia will be converted and there will be peace; if not, it will spread its errors throughout the world, promoting wars and persecutions of the Church. The good will be martyred, the Holy Father will have much to suffer, several nations will be annihilated. In the end, my Immaculate Heart will triumph."

After the apparitions of Fatima there were several acts of consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary by various pontiffs. The last was on March 25, 2022, when Pope Francis led an Act of Consecration of Russia and Ukraine to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, in St. Peter’s Basilica, in union with the universal Church.

One year after, as we recall this important moment and prepare to celebrate the Solemnity of the Annunciation, we encourage everyone to renew the prayer of consecration on this March 25th and offer other Christian acts of piety, asking Our Blessed Mother to intercede before Christ, the Prince of Peace, for the end of the conflict in Ukraine and in other nations presently affected by violence, suffering and tragedies.

Here the text of the Prayer of Consecration used by Pope Francis, last March 25^th, 2022.

The 20^th of February is the liturgical Feast of Saints Francisco and Jacinta Marto, the two shepherd children of Fatima, to whom Our Lady appeared in 1917. The World Apostolate of Fatima is encouraging its members and all Fatima devotees to observe this feast day, thanking God for the life of the two saints, models of sanctity and intercessors in heaven for our intentions.

The international President of the World Apostolate of Fatima, Prof. Michael Ogunu, has written a circular letter to all members of the association, asking to “promote devotion to the canonized little shepherds, Francisco and Jacinta, for their great importance in the history of the Church, to make possible the acceptance of the Message of Fatima around the world.” He added that, “as in past years, this feast must be celebrated as a day of prayer and recollection in every nation where the Apostolate is present”.

The feast day is to be celebrated with the practice of spiritual devotions such as, Holy  Mass, Holy Rosary, meditation on the life of the Saints, vigils of adoration and reparation to the Blessed Sacrament, procession with the images of the Saints, veneration of their relics and, when possible, also by organizing activities for children and youngsters, to honor the little shepherds.

The novena to Saint Francisco and Saint Jacinta leading to the feast begins on February 11. You can access here the novena prayer and the litany of the two Saints.

Historical Note

Francisco Marto was born in Aljustrel, Fatima, on June 11, 1908, and his sister Jacinta Marto was born in the same locality, on March 11, 1910. In their humble family, the children learned to know and to praise God and the Virgin Mary. In 1916, they saw three times an Angel and in 1917, they saw six times the Blessed Virgin Mary, asking them to pray and to make penance for the conversion of sinners and to obtain peace in the world. Both, immediately, wanted to answer with all their strength, to these exhortations. More and more inflamed in the love to God and to the souls, they had only one aspiration: to pray and to suffer according to the requests from the Angel and the Blessed Virgin Mary. Francisco died on April 4, 1919 and Jacinta on February 20, 1920. Pope Saint John Paul II travelled to Fatima on May 13, 2000, in order to beatify the two children. Pope Francis came to Fatima on May 13, 2017, during the Centenary of the Apparitions, and canonized the two first non-martyr children in the history of the Church.