The Organization of the 10th Conference of the Global Network of WHO Collaborating Centres for Nursing and Midwifery and the 4th Conference on Nursing Research of Ibero-American and Portuguese-Speaking Countries is going to provide everyone who is interested with a visit to the Shrine of Fatima, followed by a visit to the Batalha Monastery.

This visit includes:

- Private bus transportation which leaves from and returns to Coimbra;
- Private tour guide;
- Entrance in the venues suggested by the Organization;
- Lunch;
- Individual insurance;
- Possibility to attend a religious ceremony in the Chapel of Apparitions (Fatima).

 

Shrine of Fatima:

(Official website)

On 13th May 1917, three children were pasturing their little flock in the Cova da Iria, parish of Fatima, town of Vila Nova de Ourém, today the diocese of Leiria-Fatima. They were called: Lucia de Jesus, aged 10, and her cousins Francisco and Jacinta Marto, aged 9 and 7.

About midday, after praying the Rosary, as was their custom, they were amusing themselves building a little house of stones scattered around the place where the Basilica now stands. Suddenly they saw a brilliant light, and thinking it to be lightning, they decided to go home. But as they went down the slope another flash lit up the place, and they saw on the top of a holmoak (where the Chapel of Apparitions now stands), "a Lady more brilliant than the sun", from whose hands hung a white rosary.


The Lady told the three little shepherds that it was necessary to pray very much, and she invited them to return to the Cova da Iria during five consecutive months, on the 13th day and at that hour. The children did so and on the 13th day of June, July, September and October, the Lady appeared to them again and spoke to them in the Cova da Iria. On the 19th of August, the apparition took place at Valinhos, about 500 meters from Aljustrel, because on the 13th the children had been carried off by the local Administrator to Vila Nova de Ourém. 

At the last apparition, on October 13th, with about 70,000 people present, the Lady told them that she was the "Lady of the Rosary" and that a chapel was to be built there in her honour. After the apparition all present witnessed the miracle promised to the three children in July and September: the sun, resembling a silver disc, could be gazed at without difficulty and, whirling on itself like a wheel of fire, it seemed about to fall upon the earth. 


Afterwards, when Lucia was a Religious Sister of Saint Dorothy, Our Lady appeared to her again in Spain (10th December 1925 and 15th February 1926, in the Convent of Pontevedra, and on the night of 13th/14th June 1929, in the Convent of Tuy), requesting the devotion of the five first Saturdays (to pray the Rosary, meditate on the mysteries of the Rosary, confess and receive Holy Communion, in reparation for the sins committed against the Immaculate Heart of Mary), and the Consecration of Russia to the same Immaculate Heart. This request had been announced by the Apparition on 13th July 1917, in what is called the "Secret of Fatima". 


Years later, Sr. Lucia related that, between April and October of 1916, an Angel had appeared to the three seers on three occasions, twice in the Cabeço and once at the well in the garden behind Lucia´s house, who exhorted them to prayer and penance.  


Since 1917 pilgrims have not ceased to come to the Cova da Iria in thousands upon thousands from all parts of the world, at first on the 13th of each month, later during the summer and winter holidays, and now more and more at weekends and any day all the year round, with an annual number of five million people.

(in the Shrine of Fatima’s official website)

Batalha Monastery:

(Official website)

Classified as World Heritage since 2007 by UNESCO, the Batalha Monastery, or Convent of Santa Maria da Vitória, is one of the most magnificent architectural jewels in Portugal, and it is also the most significant symbol of the Avis Dynasty.

King João I, Master of Avis, ordered that it be built in thanksgiving for the victory in the Battle of Aljubarrota which ended the difficult crisis of 1383-85, and construction began in 1388, led by Master Afonso Domingues.

Nowadays, the Batalha Monastery is the main final Gothic monument in Portugal and the first one where the “Manueline Art” was applied.
In 1402, the Flaming Gothic influence emerged with Master Huguet who was put in charge of the Monastery’s construction work, which brought a breath of fresh air to the structure with the beginning of the construction of the Chapter House’s vault, the Founder’s Chapel and the Unfinished Chapels (king D. Duarte’s pantheon).

Later on, the D. Afonso V Cloister was built (by Fernão de Évora) and the cloister’s galleries were closed.

The Monastery’s construction was interrupted abruptly, possibly due to the construction of other important monuments, such as the Belém Monastery, and it was only given the proper restoration attention around 1840, when much conservation and restoration work was begun, which lasted many years.

Departure: The buses will only departure from venues mentioned below, and the final departure is at the Hotel D. Inês at 9:15 am.