The Miracle of the Doves

Recently I discovered a miracle that I had never heard about before, which happened in the mid 1940’s. What was also amazing was the way I discovered it, which in and of itself was also rather miraculous.

Several weeks ago, my daughter Helena sent me a picture of a Dove that was sitting on the railing of her second-floor porch. She said it was there like 6 hours, just sitting or jumping around, but never leaving the porch. She thought it very strange because she had not remembered seeing a dove there before. Interestingly, it happened on the day we celebrate the feast of Our Lady of Fatima in the Catholic Church. If you remember, Fatima is the place where the Blessed Mother appeared to three children in 1917, once a month for six months, and performed a miracle seen by 70,000 on her last appearance. If you’d like more details about all that went on at Fatima, you can check out my third entry on this blog, posted a little over a year ago. The first day she appeared to them was on May 13 of that year, and that same date (May 13^th), was the day the dove appeared on Helena’s porch.

That seemed rather interesting to me, so I decided to do a little research on any connection between Our Lady of Fatima and doves. Lo and behold I discovered quite an interesting correlation! It seems that in 1946, the statue of Our Lady of Fatima was being carried in procession from the Cova da Iria (where Mary appeared) to the cathedral in Lisbon. This was a distance of around ninety miles. In the city of Bombarral, one of the villages on the way, two girls, carrying a box, ran out and stood before the approaching statue. They opened the box, and out flew five doves, to honor the Virgin, the Queen of Peace.

Two of the doves flew away immediately. To everyone’s amazement, the other three flew to the statue and nestled in the flowers at its feet. The men carrying the statue were annoyed and tried to shoo the doves away, but the birds refused to leave. When they were forced out of the flowers, they fluttered about a minute and returned.

For five days the doves remained at the foot of the statue, leaving only for short flights in search of food. There were loud cheers from spectators, bands playing, and fireworks as they processed through the towns. The doves, usually timid birds, were not perturbed by any of this. They remained firmly in their places. No cold, rain or wind forced them to leave their post.

This procession had been arranged for the celebration of the three hundredth anniversary of the declaration of Mary Immaculate as Queen of Portugal, which was proclaimed by King Joao IV in 1646. For most of those three centuries Portugal had remained the Land of Our Lady. The first stop the statue made in Lisbon was at a new parish church, Our Lady of Fatima. The statue was kept in the church for two days, and the doves remained with it. While Communion was being distributed during Mass, one of the doves moved to the crown that had been placed on the head of the statue by the papal legate. It remained there with its wings wide open during the whole of Communion. It was as if the Holy Spirit descended to confirm that Mary was present there loving and interceding for her people.

The statue was then carried three miles through Lisbon to the Cathedral, and the doves remained with it. On the feast of the Immaculate Conception, December 8^th, the Cardinal, the President of the country, the Premier, and members of the diplomatic corps were in the cathedral to renew the act of consecration of Portugal to the Immaculate Conception. When the statue began its return to Fatima, the doves disappeared.

This gift, this miracle of the doves being present with Blessed Mother’s statue, what does it mean? Perhaps the doves represented the Trinity, or the three children who saw Our Lady at Fatima. Or possible it was a sign that Mother Mary was pleased with Portugal, and how they have heeded Our Lady of Fatima’s call for prayer and sacrifice.

God knows that often we need something visible and tangible, to shake our souls. It is definitely a reminder that Our Lady continues to visit us, to protect us, and to invite us to come closer to Her son. And most importantly, it’s a reminder that She loves us. Undoubtedly that was Her message to Helena when the dove visited her porch on the feast of Our Lady of Fatima.