AT A GLANCE
Why go?
At the upper edge of the great esplanade of the Sanctuary of Fátima, a bronze figure of a stooped, gentle-looking bishop keeps quiet watch over the Cova da Iria. This is the Statue of Bishop José Alves Correia da Silva (1872–1957), the first bishop of the restored Diocese of Leiria and the man who, more than anyone else, turned an unremarkable hollow in the Serra de Aire into one of the world's most visited shrines.↗↗
Carved by the Portuguese sculptor Joaquim Correia and inaugurated on 2 February 1973, the monument stands at the top of the open esplanade near the tall sanctuary cross, facing the place where the Virgin Mary is said to have appeared to three shepherd children in 1917. It is a free, outdoor stop that slots naturally into any visit to the shrine, a quiet counterpoint to the crowded Capelinha das Aparições below.↗↗
Good to know
- Sculpture
- 2 kmfrom Fatima center
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- Fatima
Who the statue honours
Dom José Alves Correia da Silva was born on 15 January 1872 at São Pedro de Fins, near Porto, and ordained a priest in 1894. On 5 August 1920 he took possession of the newly restored Diocese of Leiria—the diocese to which the parish of Fátima now belonged—and he would govern it for thirty-seven years until his death on 4 December 1957. He is remembered as the churchman who gave Fátima both its official endorsement and its first stones.
