Temporary Exhibitions

SERVING: THE ONLY PREACHING

Exhibition commemorating the centenary of the Association of the Servites of Our Lady of Fatima

From 30 November 2024 to 15 October 2025

Saint Augustine’s Convivium | Basilica of the Most Holy Trinity

Conceived from one of Christianity’s most defining key concepts, the exhibition “Serving: the only preaching” presents a wide and revolutionary reflection on the type-figures who, in the context of Western Christian culture, represent — from their discourse and, above all, from their actions — the giving of one’s life for others.

Consisting of seven sections, “Serving: the only preaching” takes up major themes such as the selfless giving of oneself — and to the ultimate consequences — in favour of the Other, based on figures from the biblical narrative and Church history read from the semantics of ‘kenosis’ (= lowering oneself) and ‘diakonia’ (= service).

Based on reflection through works of art and historical documentation, visitors will be able to confront the examples of Christ himself, Mary, the Angels, different saints and ordinary men and women, in most cases unknown and ignored by the media, who, in their historical actions, agreed to serve humankind.

The exhibition, which does not dispense with the dialogue between so-called ancient art and so-called contemporary art, also celebrates the centenary of the Association of the Servites of Our Lady of Fatima, which takes its name from the word “serve” and which, in the Shrine of Cova da Iria, is at the service of the pilgrims of Fatima, along with many other “ministers” (= servants).

Among the many examples of service is also, as a meta-reference, artistic production itself, which, since time immemorial, has served human thought and is also a place for human thought. Thus, the authors featured here, from the anonymous sculptors of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance to the well-known artists of contemporary times, also show themselves to be servants of the artistic idea and of human thought that continues, through art, to unsettle consciences and interact with the debate on issues of citizenship and the place that everyone — men and women — has in society and within the framework of Catholicism itself.

Why is this exhibition revolutionary? Because — even more so in times of dehumanisation — it reaffirms to the visitor that it is only possible to love your neighbour when human beings are able to conjugate the verb “to serve”. This is where the glorious face of Christ can be glimpsed, as the History and Message of Fatima itself emphasise.

Commissioner and museology: Marco Daniel Duarte
Museography: Humberto Dias
Design: Inês do Carmo

OPENING TIMES

Monday to Sunday: 9:00 to 12:30 a.m. (last entry) and 2:00 to 5:30 p.m. (last entry). Free entry.

Closed December 24th (in the afternoon), December 25th and January 1st.

Guided tours: [email protected]

OPENING TIMES

Monday to Sunday: 9:00 to 12:30 a.m. (last entry) and 2:00 to 5:30 p.m. (last entry). Free entry.

Closed December 24th (in the afternoon), December 25th and January 1st.

Guided tours: [email protected]

ROSARIUM: JOY AND LIGHT, SORROW AND GLORY

The Rosary as a path to peace

From 26 November 2022 to 15 October 2024

Saint Augustine’s Convivium | Basilica of the Most Holy Trinity

Em Fátima, segundo o testemunho de Francisco, Jacinta e Lúcia, a Virgem Maria pediu que se rezasse o terço todos os dias para alcançar a paz. Desde 1917, não mais se deixou de tomar as contas por entre as mãos com esse intuito. Por essas contas, feitas das mais variadas matérias e ligadas por uma cadeia rematada pela cruz, passam as alegrias e as luzes, as dores e as glórias dos mistérios de Deus e da humanidade.

Commissioner and museology: Marco Daniel Duarte
Museography: Humberto Dias
Design: implica, designers

THE FACES OF FATIMA

Images of a spiritual setting

From 30 November 2020 to 15 October 2022

Saint Augustine’s Convivium | Basilica of the Most Holy Trinity

“The faces of Fatima: images of a spiritual setting” is a history of Fatima told with the names that built it.  

In this pandemic time, the exhibition invites us to reflect upon the topic of death and life as bright moments of the ‘homo-viator’ pilgrimage.

Commissioner and museology: Marco Daniel Duarte
Museography: Humberto Dias
Design: Inês do Carmo

OPENING TIMES

Monday to Sunday: 9:00 to 12:45 a.m. (last entry) and 2:00 to 5:45 p.m. (last entry). Free entry.

Closed December 24th (in the afternoon), December 25th and January 1st.

Guided tours: [email protected]

OPENING TIMES

Tuesday to Sunday: 9:00 to 12:45 a.m. (last entry) and 2:00 to 5:45 p.m. (last entry).

Closed on Monday.

Free entry.

DRESSED IN WHITE

Exhibition commemorating the 100th anniversary of the first sculpture of Our Lady of Fatima

From 30 November to 15 October 2020

Saint Augustine’s Convivium | Basilica of the Most Holy Trinity

The most important sculpture of contemporary Catholicism was created in Portugal, based on the Fatima Apparitions narrative.

The centenary of its creation is a moment for reflection on the relation between art and devotion and is an opportunity to contemplate the most beautiful images of the Virgin Mary, the Woman «dressed in white».

Emerging from an excerpt of the interrogation of Lúcia de Jesus, when questioned about how the Mother of God was dressed, the image of Our Lady of the Rosary of Fatima shows how one of the most important icons of contemporary Catholicism was disseminated starting at Cova da Iria. 

The exhibition along its seven nuclei invites to reflect on the relation between art and devotion, in a permanent dialogue between ancient art and contemporary art, tradition and innovation. Resorting to pieces of historical and artistic value from the Shrine of Fatima Museum collection, as well as from other museology institutions and different ecclesiastic organizations, through the museology language the visitor is provided with knowledge about the historical and artistic process of the creation and establishment of the official model of the Image worshipped in the Apparitions Chapel, the devotional and artistic interpretation resulting from it, as well as the myths, challenges and inheritance of one of the greatest Marian iconographic symbols, in an experience that is simultaneously educational and of aesthetic enjoyment of the multiple ways used in the different historical periods to dress the Virgin Mary.

Commissioner and museology: Marco Daniel Duarte
Museography: Humberto Dias and Pedro Gândara, architects
Design: Inês do Carmo

CAPELA-MÚNDI

Commemorative Temporary Exhibition 
of the Centennial of the construction of the Chapel of the Apparitions

from the 1st of December 2018 to 15th of October 2019

Saint Augustine Hall | Basilica of the Most Holy Trinity

every day from 9:00 am to 6:00 pm | Free entry

On how a little white chapel
can become the centre of attention
of a large part of humanity:
from the historical path to the symbolic path of a spiritual building.

Composed of nine areas, the exhibition is based on a thoroughly historical research that seeks to read the Little Chapel of the Apparitions as one of the most important icons of the Shrine of Fatima.
Because it was built from a desire that the Little Shepherds of Fatima assure to be delivered by the Virgin Mary, this small temple, of vernacular outline, is considered the heart of the Shrine of Fatima and it is around that take place the most intimate expression of faith of the pilgrims of Cova da Iria.

Themes such as the physical construction of the chapel, the characters linked, the blasting in 1922 and the symbolic associated, will be mentioned through the language of museology, using artworks of historical and artistic value not only from the assets of the Museum of the Shrine of Fatima but also from other museological institutions, such as museums, libraries and palaces of the Portuguese State and from museums and archives of the Catholic Church. Different ecclesial organisms (parishes, religious congregations, fraternities and dioceses of the country and of Spain) have likewise lent artworks to the exhibition, which will provide an experience that it intended to be a time of training and aesthetical delight.

Curatorship and museology: Marco Daniel Duarte
Architecture: Maria Joana Delgado 
Design: Inês do Carmo

Guided tours
From December 3rd, 2016 to December 30th, 2017: every Saturday, from 11:30 to 12:15 am and from 3:30 to 4:15 pm

Thematic visits
May 2nd, June 6th, July 4th, August 1st, September 5th and October 3rd, 2018, from 09:15 to 10:00 pm
 

Virtual tour

The color of the Sun: the light of Fatima in the contemporary world

Evocative temporary exhibition of the Apparition of October 1917

From November 26, 2016 until October 31, 2018

St. Augustine’s Social Hall | Basilica of the Most Holy Trinity

From 9:00 am to 7:00 pm | free admission

Using as exhibition material the photographs from the 13th October 1917 and the direct and indirect reports about the Miracle of the Sun, the exhibit intends to recreate, through several sensorial mechanisms, scenery sets related with the landscape of the day of the last apparition of the Virgin Mary in Fatima. Set from this memory, the visitor will be aware that the Miracle of the Sun was not the moment of closure in the story of the apparitions, but the initial day from a story in which the pilgrim becomes the true main character.

Earth and Heaven: pilgrims and saints of Fatima

Evocative temporary exhibition of the September 1917 Apparition

From November 28, 2015 until October 31, 2016

St. Augustine’s Social Hall | Basilica of The Most Holy Trinity

9:00 am to 7:00 pm | free admission

Above all, this exhibition is an experience that takes the visitor for a walk through a path that reflects Earth and Heaven. As perceived by the Message of Fatima, those are two non-competing, but luminously complementary concepts. With their feet firm because they plough the Hearth, the pilgrims of Fatima look at Heaven. In fact, between Hearth and Heaven, there are many names enrolled that once experienced Fatima as a place of holiness

Virtual Tour

Virtual Tour

In this valley of tears

Evocative temporary exhibition of the August 1917 Apparition

From November 29, 2014 until October, 31 2015

St. Augustine’s Social Hall | Basilica of The Most Holy Trinity

Having as a theme the adversity lived by the little shepherds of Fatima, in mid-august 1917, "In this valley of tears" is a prayerful contemplation of the weep and cry, of the banishments and all the supplications that consolidate the tribulations of the contemporary era, interpreted in the light of hope that irradiates from the Message of Fatima.

Secret and Revelation

Evocative temporary exhibition of the July 1917 Apparition

From the November 30, 2013 until  October 31, 2014

St. Augustine’s Social Hall | Basilica of The Most Holy Trinity

Having as a theme the apparition of July 1917, the Shrine of Fatima offers to the pilgrims a temporary exhibition that aims to present, through historical documentation and private art collection, one of the most important subject areas of Fatima: The Secret that leads to the contemplation of a whole modern world from Cova da Iria. "Secret and revelation" makes the visitors realise that «the message of Fatima invites us to trust in the promise» in the Gospel: "I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world."» (Jo 16,33) (Joseph Ratzinger, Theological commentary on the Secret of Fatima).

Virtual Tour

Virtual Tour

To be, the secret of the Heart

Evocative temporary exhibition of the June 1917 Apparition

From the November 24,  2012 until the October 31, 2013

St. Augustine’s Social Hall | Basilica of The Most Holy Trinity

Under the title "To be, the secret of the Heart" six cores were developed through which a story unfolds. This narrative offers the visitor a sensory and reflective experience on the Immaculate Heart of Mary, a story that portrays the Immaculate Heart of Mary in a historical, theological and spiritual dimension, through many documents and works of art. "To be, the secret of the Heart" aims to be a contribution for the reflexion on this Marian devotion, which, in spite of already being present in the hearts of the faithful since the seventieth century, acquires a universal and contemporary prominence from Fatima.