Holy card Nossa Senhora de Fátima Angel's Prayer Santuário

Portuguese holy card of Nossa Senhora de Fátima, issued under the reserve of the sanctuary (Edizione Riservata del Santuario) with the ecclesiastical approval of Joannes, Bishop of Leiria, and the IMF-P mark on the reverse. The card likely dates from the second half of the twentieth century. The front shows, within an oval medallion, the apparition of the Virgin as described in the visions of 1917, with the three kneeling shepherd children Lúcia, Jacinta and Francisco below. The whole is set within a golden yellow cartouche with green volutes and scalloped edges. The card is in good condition.

The reverse carries the Oração do Anjo, the prayer that according to tradition was taught in 1916 by the Angel of Portugal to the three shepherd children at Loca do Cabeço, preceding the Marian apparitions of 1917 at Cova da Iria. The prayer invokes the Holy Trinity and asks for the conversion of sinners. The mention Edizione Riservata indicates an Italian printing commissioned by the Portuguese sanctuary, a practice common into the nineteen-eighties whereby Italian publishers of religious imagery supplied devotional cards to the great Marian pilgrimage sites across Europe.