Bendigo Apostolate of
Our Lady of Fatima
The mission of the Apostolate is to help people learn, live and spread the message of
Our Lady of Fatima in communion with the Church.
Link to the World Apostolate of Fatima
Visit the Bendigo Apostolate of Fatima Facebook page CLICK HERE
What We Do
Marian Festival
The Bendigo Apostolate of Our Lady of Fatima are a group of dedicated Catholics responding to the requests of Our Lady at Fatima by spreading devotion to her Immaculate Heart in the Diocese of Sandhurst. Our primary work project is the Marian Festival which has been celebrated annually in Bendigo since 1974 to mark the Miracle of the Sun at Fatima on 13th October, 1917; and to promote and put into practice Our Lady’s instructions for world peace. This year will be celebrating our 50th Marian Festival! We hope you will be able to join us for this great celebration. For more information on the 2024 Marian Festival please follow this link: Marian Festival 2024
To see reports and photos from our previous Marian Festivals and other events, please click on this link: Past Events
Statue Journey in the Diocese
From May 13th (the date of our Lady's first appearance to the children of Fatima) until the Marian Festival, we coordinate for our Pilgrim Statue of Our Lady of Fatima to travel to many churches of the Diocese of Sandhurst as a sign or our unity in entrusting ourselves to the protection of the Immaculate Heart of Mary and to promote the messages of our Lady of Fatima. This is a significant statue, having come from Portugal and bearing relics of the site of the Apparitions of Fatima in its base. For more information please follow this link: Statue Journey
Five First Saturdays
In answer to Our Lady's request to St Lucia, we also promote fulfilling the Five First Saturdays devotions. Our Lady asked for prayers to be offered on the first Saturday of the month in reparation for the offenses against her Immaculate Heart. For more information, follow this link: First Five Saturdays
We currently have First Saturday Devotions at St Augustine's Church, 218 Sailors Gully Rd, Myers Flat with:
8:30am Adoration (with confession available)
9:15am Mass
9:45am Rosary
If you are aware of any other First Saturday Devotions in the Sandhurst Diocese please contact us as we would love to promote it.
You can also find some other useful resources or materials from our past events by following this link: Downloads
Fr Stephen Bolling, Chaplain to the Bendigo Apostolate of Our Lady of Fatima
Excerpt from the Chapter 2 of “Consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary”, written by Fr Nicholas A. Norman.
We must always retain true perspective in our devotions. Mary, great and ineffable as she is, is not the final vanishing point, the focus of all. No one would be so angry as she if we acted on this assumption. Devotion to Mary is not an end in itself. She is the Mediatrix with the Son, and He is the sole Mediatrix with the Father. It is not she who glorifies herself, it is the Father who glorifies her. It is the Eternal Father’s free will that things be done this way. She is the way unto the Way, the truth unto the Truth, the life unto the Life.
St Louis de Montfort is among the first to decry any abuse.
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“If then, we establish solid devotion to Our Blessed Lady, it is only to establish more perfectly devotion to Jesus Christ, and to provide an easy and secure means for finding Jesus Christ”. (T. D. 61)
