History
The Canadian National Pilgrim Virgin of Fatima Statue is one of 25 hand-carved rosewood statues commissioned and blessed by Pope Paul VI on May 13, 1967, the 50th anniversary of the first apparition of Our Lady at Fatima. These Pilgrim Virgin statues were intended to be taken throughout the world to make the Message of Fatima known and loved. The Canadian statue was crowned in a special ceremony by Bishop Joseph R. Windle, at the Shrine of Our Lady of Knock in Quebec on May 13, 1971.
Because they were hand carved, each Pilgrim Virgin statue was slightly different from the others. The Canadian statue is the most widely known and recognized Pilgrim Virgin of Fatima statue in the world. It has travelled hundreds of thousands of miles with Father Gruner and The Fatima Center and its image has appeared on more than one-hundred million pieces of literature distributed by The Fatima Center and on billboards, posters, store windows, walls of religious priories, buses, and jeepneys around the world.
Canadian Visits
Over the years, Father Gruner and The Fatima Center have taken the statue throughout Canada to promote the Message of Our Lady of Fatima. From the Maritime provinces in the east to British Columbia in the west, the statue visited churches, schools, convents, hospitals, and senior citizen homes. Parishes organized outdoor candle-light processions, Marian hours, and living Rosaries in honor of Our Lady to mark the statue’s visits. During the statue’s visit to Edmonton, 6000 people were enrolled in the Brown Scapular. The statue was taken in a two-hour procession involving 100,000 participants and onlookers through the streets of downtown Toronto. The statue even visited the diocese of Mackenzie-Fort Smith in the Northwest Territories in Canada’s far north – the largest Canadian diocese by area. Some people flew in from over 1000 miles away to be there, while others were so moved that they approached the Pilgrim Virgin on their knees. Official meetings in one town had to be cancelled because of the great number of people who came to honor Our Lady.
Read about the Statue’s 2026 visit to the Maritime provinces.
International Travel
The statue has been to many areas in the United Stated, to several European countries, and to destinations in Central America, South America, the Philippines, and India. In 2012, the statue accompanied Father Gruner by plane to Strasbourg, France where he had been invited to speak about the Fatima Message before a special meeting of the European Parliament. Apparently, this visit was not to everyone’s liking, however, as the airline misplaced the statue in its custom-made and hard–to–miss heavy metal travel case just long enough for it to miss the special meeting!
A Miraculous Statue
The statue has been called miraculous because Our Lady’s delicate facial expressions have been known to change, showing varied emotions from happiness to sadness. This can be seen by reviewing various pieces of Fatima Center literature featuring the statue’s image. Many have also reported smelling a beautiful fragrance similar to that of flowers in the statue’s presence.
On one of Father Gruner’s trips to India, thousands of people came to see the statue and to participate in a procession during a severe drought that had lasted for months. Due to the lack of water, walking along the path to be used for the procession raised clouds of dust. Out of reverence for Our Lady and Her sacred image, some of the villagers went ahead of the statue in the procession and sprinkled some precious water on the path to keep the dust from being stirred up and soiling the statue.
Shortly after the procession, Our Lady expressed Her thanks to the good people who had been so generous to Her with their scant supply of water by dousing the village with a tremendous downpour of rain.
In 1999, Bishop Francis Joseph Gossman permitted the parishes of his diocese in Raleigh, North Carolina to invite the statue for a visit. Five parishes responded, but just before the visit, areas of Raleigh were hit with intense storms and flooding. Our Lady protected those who had asked Her to visit. While there was major damage to many homes and buildings in the area, the churches that had invited the statue, and the homes of those who had offered overnight accommodation to the staff accompanying the statue, were unscathed.
A Statue That Attracts Attention
The many beautiful images of the Canadian Pilgrim Virgin of Fatima Statue found in literature and videos from The Fatima Center do not convey the full beauty of the statue when seen in person. The statue draws people like a magnet.
In October 2001, Father Gruner took the statue to Rome for a Fatima Center conference. On Wednesday morning of the conference, he accompanied the statue and conference attendees to St. Peter’s Square for the weekly papal audience, hoping that the presence of the Pilgrim Virgin statue would remind the Pope to heed the requests of Our Lady of Fatima to consecrate Russia to Her Immaculate Heart.
Father Gruner, his group, and the statue were far back from the Pope during the audience. That did not stop many in the crowd from turning to look at the statue and coming up to venerate and take photos of Our Lady’s beautiful image.
Once the papal audience ended, Father Gruner began to lead the young men carrying the statue in procession back to The Fatima Center’s Rome office, where the box to transport the statue had been left. As he led the statue all around the inside of St. Peter’s Square, many people joined the impromptu procession. By the time the statue exited the Square, there was a long line of people who then followed it along the Vatican wall. As the procession passed, an officer of the Italian military police force stood at attention and saluted Our Lady’s image.
For the entire morning of the papal audience, the sky was cloudy and threatened rain. Father Gruner, staff of The Fatima Center, and conference attendees prayed the rain would hold off until the statue was safely indoors, and those prayers were heard. The moment the statue was carried inside the building that housed The Fatima Center’s Rome office, it began to pour!
Pay Homage to Our Lady
We please Our Lord by paying homage to His Mother, Whom He gave to us as our spiritual Mother. Our Lord wishes to establish in the world devotion to Our Lady’s Immaculate Heart. Our Lady promised to assist at the hour of death with all the graces necessary for eternal salvation everyone who embraces this devotion.
When the Canadian National Pilgrim Virgin of Fatima Statue comes to your area, come out to honor Her, Whose image this beautiful, unique, miraculous statue bears. Come with your problems and petitions and lay them at Her feet, trusting in Her mercy and the singular love She has for you.