A giant glow-in-the-dark rosary by the Portuguese artist Joana Vasconcelos has been erected at the pilgrimage site of Fátima in Portugal, and will be illuminated for the first time when Pope Francis visits on Friday (12 May). The work, titled Suspensão (suspension), is 26 metres tall and brings to mind the plastic glow-in-the-dark trinkets that overflow out of the many tourist shops surrounding the site. It is suspended above the entrance to the Basilica of the Holy Trinity, one of several churches built at the Sanctuary of Fátima. The work was commissioned to commemorate the centenary of an apparition of the Virgin Mary to three shepherd children tending sheep, that was said to have taken place at the site in 1917. Pope Francis is to make a two-day pilgrimage to Fátima this week, including a recitation of the rosary on Friday when Vasconcelos's work will be lit up.
