Fatima is a Portuguese parish of the Ourém council in the Sierra de Aire.
The population belongs to the province of Beira Litoral, in the district of Santarém and in the Central region of Portugal, sub-region of Medio Tajo. Its worldwide fame is due to the apparitions of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the Cova da Iria reported by three little shepherds from May 13 to October 13, 1917.
At the ecclesiastical level, the city of Fatima is simultaneously the seat of dioceses with the city of Leiría. The name of the then renowned diocese of Leiría-Fátima was attributed by Pope John Paul II on May 13, 1984.
Due to the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Fatima, as well as the construction of many Catholic monasteries and convents, the city has become one of the most important international destinations for religious tourism, receiving about six million people a year.

The town owes its name to the ancient occupation of the Muslims in that territory, since «Fatima» was the name of Muhammad’s favorite daughter.

The history of the city of Fatima is, above all, more associated with the phenomenon of the apparitions of the Virgin Mary. In the first place, around the year 1758, Our Lady appeared to a little shepherd girl (in the place where the Shrine of Our Lady of the Nettle stands today), and later, already in the 20th century, to three other children (known as «The Three Little Shepherds»). Lucía dos Santos and her cousins, Francisco and Jacinta Marto, on May 13, 1917, while they were pasturing their sheep in the Cova da Iria (Iria Cave), witnessed the appearance of a beautiful Lady dressed in white.