St. Mary’s to celebrate 90th anniversary of Our Lady Fatima today

Catholics in the Rio Grande Valley and around the world today will mark the 90th anniversary of Fatima, Portugal’s “Miracle of the Sun.”

In Brownsville, a rosary rally will be held at 11:30 a.m. at St. Mary’s Catholic Church at Barnard and Los Ebanos.

Lucy Vega is one of the organizers of the rosary crusade.

“The rosary rally is a group of people who will come together at St. Mary’s to celebrate the 90th anniversary of Our Lady of Fatima,” Vega said.

At least 1000 similar ceremonies will take place across the United States at the same time.

“We’ll carry an image of the Virgin Mary into the church and to the altar and then once inside we’ll pray a bilingual rosary. One decade in Spanish, one decade in English.”

The Catholic Church considers the apparition of the Virgin Mary as a miracle.

Church history says for six consecutive months in 1917, the Virgin Mary appeared to the three children on the 13th day of each month, the last time on Oct. 13 in front of crowd of about 70,000.

In Lisbon, Portugal more than 40 cardinals and bishops from around the world will mark the anniversary by dedicating the opening of the Santissima Trindade church.

The church, which can hold more than 8,600 people, is said to be the fourth-largest Catholic Church in the world and was built near the apparition site.