Fátima

Fátima (Portuguese pronunciation: [ˈfatimɐ] ( listen)) is a civil parish in the municipality of Ourém, in the Portuguese Santarém District, Beira Litoral Province. The population in 2011 was 11,596, in an area of 71.84 km². The parish encompasses several villages and localities of which Fátima, with a population of 7,756 residents, is the largest. Part of the urban agglomeration of Leiria, it is 187 km (116 mi) south of Porto and 123 km (76 mi) north of Lisbon. The civil parish has been permanently associated with the Marian apparitions that were purportedly witnessed by three local shepherd children at the Cova da Iria in 1917. The Catholic Church later recognized these events as "worthy of belief". A small chapel was built at the site of the apparition, now known as Our Lady of Fátima, b