The pilgrim statue of Our Lady of Fatima is to be taken to Damascus, in Syria, during the month of September, it has been announced. The statue of Our Lady of Fatima will arrive next month in Damascus, according to the rector of the Shrine of Fatima, Fr Carlos Cabecinhas, Zenit reports. Fr Cabecinhas said the visit of the statue is in response to a petition made by his His Beatitude Gregory III Laham, Patriarch of Antioch and All the East, and Alexandria and Jerusalem. He said: “The message of Fatima is a message of peace.” Fr Cabecinhas urged Christians to support the pilgrimage with prayers "so that the Lord may grant peace to Syria and strengthen the Christians who live there." Writing in the Arab edition of the Shrine's bulletin, the rector said that an offering of three bullets and a handkerchief was recently made by three nuns to the Bishop of Leiria-Fatima, in honour of three Christians who were martyred in 2013 and relating to the third secret of Fatima which prophesied the martyrdom of Christians.