The doves of Our Lady of Fatima

In 1946, Portugal celebrated the third centenary of its consecration to Our Lady of the Conception by King Juan IV. On May 13 of the same year, Cardinal Legate Aloisi-Masella crowned the statue of Our Lady of Fatima in the presence of 800,000 faithful at the closing of the Marian Congress in Evora, the town where the historic vow of consecration was made. A solemn procession of over 400 kilometers then began with the Pilgrim Virgin of Fatima.

This triumphant journey, lasting from November 22 to December 24, 1946, drew huge crowds and was marked on November 29 by the release of 5 doves by Terezinha Campos in Bombarral, a town in the center of the country. Amazingly, after soaring high into the air, all the doves returned one after the other to land at the foot of the statue of Mary and bow their heads before her, facing her in astonishing attitudes.

From that day on, many doves were released, and many came to take refuge at the foot of the statue, staying for long days, day and night, without trying to feed themselves, without pecking at the statue or the flowers, without being disturbed by the crowds, turning towards the speakers, the Blessed Sacrament or the crucifix when they were placed on the altar, following the statue in cars or planes when it went on trips to the 5 continents, or waiting for the statue at her next location. 

The story of the doves struck a chord in the minds of the Portuguese people: the cardinal of Lisbon expressed his amazement in his Christmas 1946 radio message, and the country's newspapers echoed this wonderment. Father Miguel de Oliveira wrote in the December 7 issue of Novidades, devoted almost entirely to the doves of Our Lady: “In a few centuries, there will be many irreligious people who will smile at our naiveté and ask how it was possible in the middle of the 20th century to create a medieval legend. But this is no legend, O men of the future! It is a reality that our eyes are seeing; true history witnessed by hundreds and hundreds of thousands of people.”

Excerpt from Les colombes de Notre-Dame (The Doves of Notre-Dame) featuring dozens of photos of the doves. Résiac - Fatima edition - February 1985