The Basilica of Our Lady of Fatima is a sacred shrine in central Portugual 123 km north of Lisbon. In Portuguese Nossa Senhora do Rosario da Fatima, it is built in neo-classical style on the spot where three shepherd children reportedly witnessed an appearance of the Virgin Mary`more brilliant than the sun` in 1917. According to their story Mary bade them to do penance and to make sacrifices to save sinners. They should wear tight cords around their waists in order to know suffering, to abstain from drinking water on hot days and to repeat the rosary daily. During the second apparition on June 13, 1917, the Virgin Mary predicted the deaths of two of the children and Franciso and Jacinta Marto subsequently died in the great Iberian flu epidemic of 1919. The third child, Lucia, who entered a Dorothean convent in Spain is reported to have seen the Virgin again in 1925.  The children`s tombs are in the basilica which has 15 altars dedicated to the rosary. When Jacinta`s corpse was exhumed in 1935 and again in 1951, it was found incorrupt.  Our Lady of Fatima is one of the most famous Marian shrines in the world. It is visited by pilgrims throughout the year and in particular on major Christian feast days. The most devout do penance by crawling on their knees down the slope towards the shrine which was built in 1928. The economy of Fatima is now based on religious tourism having plenty of hotels and hostels to accommodate visitors and countless shops and street stalls selling religious artefacts. Jacinta was beatified by Pope John Paul II   martyrs on a visit to Fatima in 2000. Lúcia died on February 13, 2005, at the age of 97and proceedings are underway for her canonisation.