Religious Figure. In 1917, she and her cousins, Jacinta and Francisco Marto, said that the Virgin Mary appeared to them at Fatima on the 13th of each month for five months beginning May 13, ending on October 13. The apparitions predicted world wars and the resurgence of Christianity in Russia. A third prediction, shrouded in mystery for decades, was later interpreted by the Church in the person of Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger (later Pope Benedict XVI) as foretelling the assassination attempt on Pope John Paul II in May of 1981. Francisco died of influenza in 1919; Jacinta died of influenza and tuberculosis in 1920. Lúcia became Sister Lúcia of Jesus and of the Immaculate Heart, a Carmelite nun. Pope John Paul II visited the shrine of Fatima three times during his papacy and spent time with Sister Lúcia during his 1991 trip. He credited the Blessed Virgin's intervention for his survival after an assassination attempt. That shooting, on May 13, occurred on the feast of Our Lady of Fatima. On one visit, the pope placed a bullet which had penetrated his body into the crown of the Cathedral's Fatima statue. The government proclaimed a national day of mourning when Lúcia's funeral was held in Coimbra. Sister Lucia's body was temporarily buried at the Convent of Carmelitas in Coimbra but was later moved to its final location in the Basilica near the tombs of Jacinta and Francisco Marto.∼Lúcia de Jesus Rosa dos Santos, O.C.D., also known as Lúcia of Fátima and by her religious name Sister Maria Lúcia of Jesus and of the Immaculate Heart, was a Portuguese Catholic O.C.D. nun and one of the three children, including her cousins, Francisco and Jacinta Marto, who claimed to have witnessed Marian apparitions in Fátima in 1917.∼The last surviving witness to whom the Virgin Mary is said to have appeared in a series of apparitions in Portugal in 1917 has died aged 97. Sister Lucia de Jesus dos Santos died at the convent where she had been living since the 1940s, the Roman Catholic Church said. She was one of three shepherd children who claimed they spoke to the Virgin Mary near Fatima town over six months. The apparitions turned Fatima into one of Catholicism's most revered sites. The Virgin Mary is said to have revealed prophecies of key 20th Century events, including the end of World War I, the start of World War II and the rise and fall of Soviet communism. The Church believes the third "secret", not unveiled until 2000, foretold the attempted assassination of Pope John Paul on 13 May 1981, the anniversary of one of the 1917 apparitions. Sister Lucia was just 10 when she and her two younger cousins, Francisco Marto and his sister Jacinta, are said to have seen the Virgin Mary above an olive tree near the central town of Fatima. She was the only one who claimed to have heard clearly what the Virgin Mary said. While her cousins both died within three years of the apparitions ending, during the flu pandemic, Sister Lucia went on to write down what she had been told. The first two parts of the prophecy were known for decades and interpreted as predicting the world wars. But the third prophecy was kept secret and sparked much speculation about its content. When the Vatican revealed its interpretation of the vision, the Pope credited the Madonna of Fatima with his survival following the 1981 attempt on his life by Turkish gunman Mehmet Ali Agca in St Peter's Square. The Pope made several visits to Fatima - along with pilgrims from all over the world - and first met Sister Lucia during a trip in 1991. He travelled to Fatima in 2000 to beatify Francisco and Jacinta, and steps are expected to be taken to beatify Sister Lucia as well.∼Religious figure and Visionary. With her two cousins, Francesco Marto (Memorial #8115823) and Jacinta Marto (Memorial #8115838), Lucia dos Santos had visions of Our Lady of Fatima in 1917.
Lúcia was the youngest child of António dos Santos and Maria Rosa Ferreira dos Santos. She had six brothers and sisters. Although peasants, the Santos family was by no means poor as they owned land.
Even though Lúcia's birthday is registered as March 22, 1907, her actual date of birth is March 28. In those days, it was required that parents bring their children for baptism on the eighth day after birth or face a fine, and, because March 30 was a more convenient day, the 22nd was recorded as her birthday.
Maria Rosa was literate, although she never taught her children to read. She had a taste for religious literature and storytelling. She gave catechism lessons to her children and the neighbor's children at siesta time during the summer and during Lent. During the winter, catechism lessons took place after supper around the fire. According to her mother, Lúcia repeated everything she heard "like a parrot."
Lúcia was a storyteller. She also composed original songs. She set to music the words of the brief prayer she and her cousins had been taught by the Angel of Portugal in 1916 to prepare them for the visits from Our Lady: "O God, I believe, I adore, I hope, and I love Thee. I ask forgiveness for those who do not believe, do not hope, do not love Thee." She also wrote a poem about Jacinta which appears in her memoirs.
Lúcia's First Communion occurred at six years of age despite ten being the usual minimum. Initially, the parish priest refused because of her young age. However, Father Cruz, a Jesuit missionary visiting from Lisbon, interviewed Lúcia after finding her in tears and concluded that "she understands better than many of the others." Because of this intervention, the parish priest admitted Lúcia to Holy Communion.
By eight years of age, she was tending the family's sheep, accompanied by other boys and girls of the village.
Between May and October 1917, Lúcia and her cousins, Francisco and Jacinta Marto, reported visions of a luminous lady, who they believed to be the Virgin Mary, in the Cova da Iria fields outside the hamlet of Aljustrel, near Fátima, Portugal. The children said the visitations took place on the 13th day of each month at approximately noon, for six straight months. The only exception was August, when the children were detained by the local administrator. That month they did not report a vision until after they were released from jail, two days later.
According to Lúcia's accounts, the lady told the children to do penance and to make sacrifices to save sinners. Lúcia said that the lady stressed the importance of saying the Rosary every day to bring peace to the world. Many young Portuguese men were then fighting in World War I. Lúcia heard Mary ask her to learn to read and write because Jesus wanted to employ her to convey messages to the world about the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
Lúcia's mother did not take kindly to the news, believing that Lúcia was simply making up lies for attention. Although the favorite child until this point, Lúcia suffered beatings and ridicule from her mother. She was especially incredulous that Lúcia had been asked to learn to read and write. Lúcia's father, António, believed the children, and there is some evidence that he conspired to make sure Lúcia got to the Cova for the apparitions after her mother had forbidden it.
On July 13, 1917, around noon, the Lady is said to have entrusted the children with three secrets. Two of the secrets were revealed in 1941 in a document written by Lúcia, at the request of the Bishop of Leiria, José Alves Correia da Silva, partly to assist with the publication of a new edition of a book on Jacinta.
When asked by Bishop da Silva in 1943 to reveal the third secret, Lúcia struggled for a short period, being "not yet convinced that God had clearly authorized her to act." She was under strict obedience in accordance with her Carmelite life, and conflicted as to whether she should obey her superiors, or the personal orders she believed were from Mary. However, in October 1943, she fell ill with influenza and pleurisy, the same illness which had killed her cousins, and for a time believed she was about to die. Bishop da Silva then ordered her to put the third secret in writing. Lúcia then wrote down the secret and sealed it in an envelope not to be opened until 1960. She designated 1960 because she thought that "by then it will appear clearer." The text of the third secret was officially released by Pope John Paul II in 2000. The Vatican described the secret as a vision of the 1981 assassination attempt on Pope John Paul II.
The visions increasingly received wide publicity, and an estimated 70,000 witnesses were reportedly present for the sixth and final apparition. Lúcia had promised for several months that the Lady would perform a miracle on that day "so that all may believe." Witnesses present in the Cova da Iria that day, as well as some up to 25 miles (40 km) away, reported that the Sun appeared to change colors and rotate, like a fire wheel, casting off multicolored light across the landscape. The Sun appeared to plunge towards the Earth, frightening many into believing that it was the end of the world. The popular expression, according to the O Século reporter Avelino de Almeida, was that the Sun "danced." The event became known as the "Miracle of the Sun." The episode was widely reported, with a photo of the crowd, by the secular media. Lúcia reported that day that the Lady identified herself as "Our Lady of the Rosary." She thereafter also became known as Our Lady of Fátima.
On behalf of the Catholic Church, Bishop Da Silva approved the visions as "worthy of belief" on October 13, 1930.
Lúcia moved to Porto in 1921, and, at age 14, was admitted as a boarder in the school of the Sisters of St. Dorothy in Vilar, on the city's outskirts. On October 24, 1925, she entered the Institute of the Sisters of St. Dorothy as a postulant in the convent in Pontevedra, Spain, just across the northern Portuguese border. According to Sister Lúcia, on December 10, 1925, she experienced a vision of the Virgin Mary and the Christ Child. The Virgin Mary is said to have requested the practice of the Five First Saturdays devotion. If one fulfilled the conditions on the First Saturday of five consecutive months, the Virgin Mary promised special graces at the hour of death.
On July 20, 1926, Lucia moved to Tuy, Spain, where she began her novitiate; she received her habit on October 2 of the same year. Lúcia professed her first vows on October 3, 1928. Sister Lucia reported that on June 13, 1929, she had a vision during which the Blessed Virgin told her: "The moment has come in which God asks the Holy Father, in union with all the bishops of the world, to make the consecration of Russia to my Immaculate Heart, promising to save it by this means." She made her perpetual vows on October 3, 1934, receiving the name "Sister Maria das Dores" (Mary of the Sorrows).
On January 25, 1938, a massive aurora borealis appeared in the skies over Europe and was visible as far away as Gibraltar and even parts of the United States. Lúcia believed this event was the "night illuminated by a strange light in the sky" which she had heard Mary speak about as part of the Second Secret, predicting the events which would lead to the Second World War and requesting Acts of Reparation including the First Saturday Devotions along with the Consecration of Russia.
She returned to Portugal in 1946 where she visited Fátima incognito, and, in March 1948, after receiving special papal permission, entered the Carmelite convent of Santa Teresa in Coimbra, where she resided until her death. She made her profession as a Discalced Carmelite on May 31, 1949, taking the religious name Sister Maria Lúcia of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart.
Sr. Lucia came back to Fátima on the occasion of four Papal pilgrimages, all on May 13: by Pope Paul VI in 1967, Pope John Paul II in 1982 (in thanksgiving for surviving an assassination attempt the previous year), in 1991, and 2000 when her cousins Jacinta and Francisco were beatified.
Sister Lúcia wrote six memoirs during her lifetime. She also wrote numerous letters to clergy and devout laypeople who were curious about the Third Secret of Fátima and about Lúcia's interpretation of what she had heard the Virgin Mary request. Two letters concerned the Consecration of Russia, in which she said Our Lady's request had been fulfilled. All material written by Sister Lúcia is now held for study by the Congregation for the Causes of Saints.
Sister Lúcia had been blind, deaf, and ailing for some years prior to her death. She died at the Carmelite convent of Santa Teresa in Coimbra, where she had lived since 1948.
In Portugal, February 15, 2005, was declared a day of national mourning; even campaigning for the national parliamentary election scheduled for Sunday, February 20, was interrupted.
On Februar y 13, 2008, the third anniversary of her death, Pope Benedict XVI announced that, in the case of Sister Lúcia, he would waive the five-year waiting period established by canon law before opening her cause for beatification. On February 13, 2017, Sister Lúcia was accorded the title Servant of God, the first major step toward her canonization. In October 2022, the "Positio" (a collection of documents used in the early states of the canonization process) on Sister Lucia was presented at the Vatican to the Congregation of the Causes of Saints to examine, to see whether she lived a life of "heroic virtue." It was approved. On June 22, 2023, Sr. Lucia was given the title "Venerable." Next, a miracle attributed to her intercession will be required for her beatification.
Information from Wikipedia and from "Lucia Speaks, The Message of Fatima," c. 2005. Edited and submitted by Angela, Member #48520699.
Lúcia was the youngest child of António dos Santos and Maria Rosa Ferreira dos Santos. She had six brothers and sisters. Although peasants, the Santos family was by no means poor as they owned land.
Even though Lúcia's birthday is registered as March 22, 1907, her actual date of birth is March 28. In those days, it was required that parents bring their children for baptism on the eighth day after birth or face a fine, and, because March 30 was a more convenient day, the 22nd was recorded as her birthday.
Maria Rosa was literate, although she never taught her children to read. She had a taste for religious literature and storytelling. She gave catechism lessons to her children and the neighbor's children at siesta time during the summer and during Lent. During the winter, catechism lessons took place after supper around the fire. According to her mother, Lúcia repeated everything she heard "like a parrot."
Lúcia was a storyteller. She also composed original songs. She set to music the words of the brief prayer she and her cousins had been taught by the Angel of Portugal in 1916 to prepare them for the visits from Our Lady: "O God, I believe, I adore, I hope, and I love Thee. I ask forgiveness for those who do not believe, do not hope, do not love Thee." She also wrote a poem about Jacinta which appears in her memoirs.
Lúcia's First Communion occurred at six years of age despite ten being the usual minimum. Initially, the parish priest refused because of her young age. However, Father Cruz, a Jesuit missionary visiting from Lisbon, interviewed Lúcia after finding her in tears and concluded that "she understands better than many of the others." Because of this intervention, the parish priest admitted Lúcia to Holy Communion.
By eight years of age, she was tending the family's sheep, accompanied by other boys and girls of the village.
Between May and October 1917, Lúcia and her cousins, Francisco and Jacinta Marto, reported visions of a luminous lady, who they believed to be the Virgin Mary, in the Cova da Iria fields outside the hamlet of Aljustrel, near Fátima, Portugal. The children said the visitations took place on the 13th day of each month at approximately noon, for six straight months. The only exception was August, when the children were detained by the local administrator. That month they did not report a vision until after they were released from jail, two days later.
According to Lúcia's accounts, the lady told the children to do penance and to make sacrifices to save sinners. Lúcia said that the lady stressed the importance of saying the Rosary every day to bring peace to the world. Many young Portuguese men were then fighting in World War I. Lúcia heard Mary ask her to learn to read and write because Jesus wanted to employ her to convey messages to the world about the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
Lúcia's mother did not take kindly to the news, believing that Lúcia was simply making up lies for attention. Although the favorite child until this point, Lúcia suffered beatings and ridicule from her mother. She was especially incredulous that Lúcia had been asked to learn to read and write. Lúcia's father, António, believed the children, and there is some evidence that he conspired to make sure Lúcia got to the Cova for the apparitions after her mother had forbidden it.
On July 13, 1917, around noon, the Lady is said to have entrusted the children with three secrets. Two of the secrets were revealed in 1941 in a document written by Lúcia, at the request of the Bishop of Leiria, José Alves Correia da Silva, partly to assist with the publication of a new edition of a book on Jacinta.
When asked by Bishop da Silva in 1943 to reveal the third secret, Lúcia struggled for a short period, being "not yet convinced that God had clearly authorized her to act." She was under strict obedience in accordance with her Carmelite life, and conflicted as to whether she should obey her superiors, or the personal orders she believed were from Mary. However, in October 1943, she fell ill with influenza and pleurisy, the same illness which had killed her cousins, and for a time believed she was about to die. Bishop da Silva then ordered her to put the third secret in writing. Lúcia then wrote down the secret and sealed it in an envelope not to be opened until 1960. She designated 1960 because she thought that "by then it will appear clearer." The text of the third secret was officially released by Pope John Paul II in 2000. The Vatican described the secret as a vision of the 1981 assassination attempt on Pope John Paul II.
The visions increasingly received wide publicity, and an estimated 70,000 witnesses were reportedly present for the sixth and final apparition. Lúcia had promised for several months that the Lady would perform a miracle on that day "so that all may believe." Witnesses present in the Cova da Iria that day, as well as some up to 25 miles (40 km) away, reported that the Sun appeared to change colors and rotate, like a fire wheel, casting off multicolored light across the landscape. The Sun appeared to plunge towards the Earth, frightening many into believing that it was the end of the world. The popular expression, according to the O Século reporter Avelino de Almeida, was that the Sun "danced." The event became known as the "Miracle of the Sun." The episode was widely reported, with a photo of the crowd, by the secular media. Lúcia reported that day that the Lady identified herself as "Our Lady of the Rosary." She thereafter also became known as Our Lady of Fátima.
On behalf of the Catholic Church, Bishop Da Silva approved the visions as "worthy of belief" on October 13, 1930.
Lúcia moved to Porto in 1921, and, at age 14, was admitted as a boarder in the school of the Sisters of St. Dorothy in Vilar, on the city's outskirts. On October 24, 1925, she entered the Institute of the Sisters of St. Dorothy as a postulant in the convent in Pontevedra, Spain, just across the northern Portuguese border. According to Sister Lúcia, on December 10, 1925, she experienced a vision of the Virgin Mary and the Christ Child. The Virgin Mary is said to have requested the practice of the Five First Saturdays devotion. If one fulfilled the conditions on the First Saturday of five consecutive months, the Virgin Mary promised special graces at the hour of death.
On July 20, 1926, Lucia moved to Tuy, Spain, where she began her novitiate; she received her habit on October 2 of the same year. Lúcia professed her first vows on October 3, 1928. Sister Lucia reported that on June 13, 1929, she had a vision during which the Blessed Virgin told her: "The moment has come in which God asks the Holy Father, in union with all the bishops of the world, to make the consecration of Russia to my Immaculate Heart, promising to save it by this means." She made her perpetual vows on October 3, 1934, receiving the name "Sister Maria das Dores" (Mary of the Sorrows).
On January 25, 1938, a massive aurora borealis appeared in the skies over Europe and was visible as far away as Gibraltar and even parts of the United States. Lúcia believed this event was the "night illuminated by a strange light in the sky" which she had heard Mary speak about as part of the Second Secret, predicting the events which would lead to the Second World War and requesting Acts of Reparation including the First Saturday Devotions along with the Consecration of Russia.
She returned to Portugal in 1946 where she visited Fátima incognito, and, in March 1948, after receiving special papal permission, entered the Carmelite convent of Santa Teresa in Coimbra, where she resided until her death. She made her profession as a Discalced Carmelite on May 31, 1949, taking the religious name Sister Maria Lúcia of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart.
Sr. Lucia came back to Fátima on the occasion of four Papal pilgrimages, all on May 13: by Pope Paul VI in 1967, Pope John Paul II in 1982 (in thanksgiving for surviving an assassination attempt the previous year), in 1991, and 2000 when her cousins Jacinta and Francisco were beatified.
Sister Lúcia wrote six memoirs during her lifetime. She also wrote numerous letters to clergy and devout laypeople who were curious about the Third Secret of Fátima and about Lúcia's interpretation of what she had heard the Virgin Mary request. Two letters concerned the Consecration of Russia, in which she said Our Lady's request had been fulfilled. All material written by Sister Lúcia is now held for study by the Congregation for the Causes of Saints.
Sister Lúcia had been blind, deaf, and ailing for some years prior to her death. She died at the Carmelite convent of Santa Teresa in Coimbra, where she had lived since 1948.
In Portugal, February 15, 2005, was declared a day of national mourning; even campaigning for the national parliamentary election scheduled for Sunday, February 20, was interrupted.
On Februar y 13, 2008, the third anniversary of her death, Pope Benedict XVI announced that, in the case of Sister Lúcia, he would waive the five-year waiting period established by canon law before opening her cause for beatification. On February 13, 2017, Sister Lúcia was accorded the title Servant of God, the first major step toward her canonization. In October 2022, the "Positio" (a collection of documents used in the early states of the canonization process) on Sister Lucia was presented at the Vatican to the Congregation of the Causes of Saints to examine, to see whether she lived a life of "heroic virtue." It was approved. On June 22, 2023, Sr. Lucia was given the title "Venerable." Next, a miracle attributed to her intercession will be required for her beatification.
Information from Wikipedia and from "Lucia Speaks, The Message of Fatima," c. 2005. Edited and submitted by Angela, Member #48520699.
Religious Figure. In 1917, she and her cousins, Jacinta and Francisco Marto, said that the Virgin Mary appeared to them at Fatima on the 13th of each month for five months beginning May 13, ending on October 13. The apparitions predicted world wars and the resurgence of Christianity in Russia. A third prediction, shrouded in mystery for decades, was later interpreted by the Church in the person of Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger (later Pope Benedict XVI) as foretelling the assassination attempt on Pope John Paul II in May of 1981. Francisco died of influenza in 1919; Jacinta died of influenza and tuberculosis in 1920. Lúcia became Sister Lúcia of Jesus and of the Immaculate Heart, a Carmelite nun. Pope John Paul II visited the shrine of Fatima three times during his papacy and spent time with Sister Lúcia during his 1991 trip. He credited the Blessed Virgin's intervention for his survival after an assassination attempt. That shooting, on May 13, occurred on the feast of Our Lady of Fatima. On one visit, the pope placed a bullet which had penetrated his body into the crown of the Cathedral's Fatima statue. The government proclaimed a national day of mourning when Lúcia's funeral was held in Coimbra. Sister Lucia's body was temporarily buried at the Convent of Carmelitas in Coimbra but was later moved to its final location in the Basilica near the tombs of Jacinta and Francisco Marto.∼Lúcia de Jesus Rosa dos Santos, O.C.D., also known as Lúcia of Fátima and by her religious name Sister Maria Lúcia of Jesus and of the Immaculate Heart, was a Portuguese Catholic O.C.D. nun and one of the three children, including her cousins, Francisco and Jacinta Marto, who claimed to have witnessed Marian apparitions in Fátima in 1917.∼The last surviving witness to whom the Virgin Mary is said to have appeared in a series of apparitions in Portugal in 1917 has died aged 97. Sister Lucia de Jesus dos Santos died at the convent where she had been living since the 1940s, the Roman Catholic Church said. She was one of three shepherd children who claimed they spoke to the Virgin Mary near Fatima town over six months. The apparitions turned Fatima into one of Catholicism's most revered sites. The Virgin Mary is said to have revealed prophecies of key 20th Century events, including the end of World War I, the start of World War II and the rise and fall of Soviet communism. The Church believes the third "secret", not unveiled until 2000, foretold the attempted assassination of Pope John Paul on 13 May 1981, the anniversary of one of the 1917 apparitions. Sister Lucia was just 10 when she and her two younger cousins, Francisco Marto and his sister Jacinta, are said to have seen the Virgin Mary above an olive tree near the central town of Fatima. She was the only one who claimed to have heard clearly what the Virgin Mary said. While her cousins both died within three years of the apparitions ending, during the flu pandemic, Sister Lucia went on to write down what she had been told. The first two parts of the prophecy were known for decades and interpreted as predicting the world wars. But the third prophecy was kept secret and sparked much speculation about its content. When the Vatican revealed its interpretation of the vision, the Pope credited the Madonna of Fatima with his survival following the 1981 attempt on his life by Turkish gunman Mehmet Ali Agca in St Peter's Square. The Pope made several visits to Fatima - along with pilgrims from all over the world - and first met Sister Lucia during a trip in 1991. He travelled to Fatima in 2000 to beatify Francisco and Jacinta, and steps are expected to be taken to beatify Sister Lucia as well.∼Religious figure and Visionary. With her two cousins, Francesco Marto (Memorial #8115823) and Jacinta Marto (Memorial #8115838), Lucia dos Santos had visions of Our Lady of Fatima in 1917.
Lúcia was the youngest child of António dos Santos and Maria Rosa Ferreira dos Santos. She had six brothers and sisters. Although peasants, the Santos family was by no means poor as they owned land.
Even though Lúcia's birthday is registered as March 22, 1907, her actual date of birth is March 28. In those days, it was required that parents bring their children for baptism on the eighth day after birth or face a fine, and, because March 30 was a more convenient day, the 22nd was recorded as her birthday.
Maria Rosa was literate, although she never taught her children to read. She had a taste for religious literature and storytelling. She gave catechism lessons to her children and the neighbor's children at siesta time during the summer and during Lent. During the winter, catechism lessons took place after supper around the fire. According to her mother, Lúcia repeated everything she heard "like a parrot."
Lúcia was a storyteller. She also composed original songs. She set to music the words of the brief prayer she and her cousins had been taught by the Angel of Portugal in 1916 to prepare them for the visits from Our Lady: "O God, I believe, I adore, I hope, and I love Thee. I ask forgiveness for those who do not believe, do not hope, do not love Thee." She also wrote a poem about Jacinta which appears in her memoirs.
Lúcia's First Communion occurred at six years of age despite ten being the usual minimum. Initially, the parish priest refused because of her young age. However, Father Cruz, a Jesuit missionary visiting from Lisbon, interviewed Lúcia after finding her in tears and concluded that "she understands better than many of the others." Because of this intervention, the parish priest admitted Lúcia to Holy Communion.
By eight years of age, she was tending the family's sheep, accompanied by other boys and girls of the village.
Between May and October 1917, Lúcia and her cousins, Francisco and Jacinta Marto, reported visions of a luminous lady, who they believed to be the Virgin Mary, in the Cova da Iria fields outside the hamlet of Aljustrel, near Fátima, Portugal. The children said the visitations took place on the 13th day of each month at approximately noon, for six straight months. The only exception was August, when the children were detained by the local administrator. That month they did not report a vision until after they were released from jail, two days later.
According to Lúcia's accounts, the lady told the children to do penance and to make sacrifices to save sinners. Lúcia said that the lady stressed the importance of saying the Rosary every day to bring peace to the world. Many young Portuguese men were then fighting in World War I. Lúcia heard Mary ask her to learn to read and write because Jesus wanted to employ her to convey messages to the world about the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
Lúcia's mother did not take kindly to the news, believing that Lúcia was simply making up lies for attention. Although the favorite child until this point, Lúcia suffered beatings and ridicule from her mother. She was especially incredulous that Lúcia had been asked to learn to read and write. Lúcia's father, António, believed the children, and there is some evidence that he conspired to make sure Lúcia got to the Cova for the apparitions after her mother had forbidden it.
On July 13, 1917, around noon, the Lady is said to have entrusted the children with three secrets. Two of the secrets were revealed in 1941 in a document written by Lúcia, at the request of the Bishop of Leiria, José Alves Correia da Silva, partly to assist with the publication of a new edition of a book on Jacinta.
When asked by Bishop da Silva in 1943 to reveal the third secret, Lúcia struggled for a short period, being "not yet convinced that God had clearly authorized her to act." She was under strict obedience in accordance with her Carmelite life, and conflicted as to whether she should obey her superiors, or the personal orders she believed were from Mary. However, in October 1943, she fell ill with influenza and pleurisy, the same illness which had killed her cousins, and for a time believed she was about to die. Bishop da Silva then ordered her to put the third secret in writing. Lúcia then wrote down the secret and sealed it in an envelope not to be opened until 1960. She designated 1960 because she thought that "by then it will appear clearer." The text of the third secret was officially released by Pope John Paul II in 2000. The Vatican described the secret as a vision of the 1981 assassination attempt on Pope John Paul II.
The visions increasingly received wide publicity, and an estimated 70,000 witnesses were reportedly present for the sixth and final apparition. Lúcia had promised for several months that the Lady would perform a miracle on that day "so that all may believe." Witnesses present in the Cova da Iria that day, as well as some up to 25 miles (40 km) away, reported that the Sun appeared to change colors and rotate, like a fire wheel, casting off multicolored light across the landscape. The Sun appeared to plunge towards the Earth, frightening many into believing that it was the end of the world. The popular expression, according to the O Século reporter Avelino de Almeida, was that the Sun "danced." The event became known as the "Miracle of the Sun." The episode was widely reported, with a photo of the crowd, by the secular media. Lúcia reported that day that the Lady identified herself as "Our Lady of the Rosary." She thereafter also became known as Our Lady of Fátima.
On behalf of the Catholic Church, Bishop Da Silva approved the visions as "worthy of belief" on October 13, 1930.
Lúcia moved to Porto in 1921, and, at age 14, was admitted as a boarder in the school of the Sisters of St. Dorothy in Vilar, on the city's outskirts. On October 24, 1925, she entered the Institute of the Sisters of St. Dorothy as a postulant in the convent in Pontevedra, Spain, just across the northern Portuguese border. According to Sister Lúcia, on December 10, 1925, she experienced a vision of the Virgin Mary and the Christ Child. The Virgin Mary is said to have requested the practice of the Five First Saturdays devotion. If one fulfilled the conditions on the First Saturday of five consecutive months, the Virgin Mary promised special graces at the hour of death.
On July 20, 1926, Lucia moved to Tuy, Spain, where she began her novitiate; she received her habit on October 2 of the same year. Lúcia professed her first vows on October 3, 1928. Sister Lucia reported that on June 13, 1929, she had a vision during which the Blessed Virgin told her: "The moment has come in which God asks the Holy Father, in union with all the bishops of the world, to make the consecration of Russia to my Immaculate Heart, promising to save it by this means." She made her perpetual vows on October 3, 1934, receiving the name "Sister Maria das Dores" (Mary of the Sorrows).
On January 25, 1938, a massive aurora borealis appeared in the skies over Europe and was visible as far away as Gibraltar and even parts of the United States. Lúcia believed this event was the "night illuminated by a strange light in the sky" which she had heard Mary speak about as part of the Second Secret, predicting the events which would lead to the Second World War and requesting Acts of Reparation including the First Saturday Devotions along with the Consecration of Russia.
She returned to Portugal in 1946 where she visited Fátima incognito, and, in March 1948, after receiving special papal permission, entered the Carmelite convent of Santa Teresa in Coimbra, where she resided until her death. She made her profession as a Discalced Carmelite on May 31, 1949, taking the religious name Sister Maria Lúcia of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart.
Sr. Lucia came back to Fátima on the occasion of four Papal pilgrimages, all on May 13: by Pope Paul VI in 1967, Pope John Paul II in 1982 (in thanksgiving for surviving an assassination attempt the previous year), in 1991, and 2000 when her cousins Jacinta and Francisco were beatified.
Sister Lúcia wrote six memoirs during her lifetime. She also wrote numerous letters to clergy and devout laypeople who were curious about the Third Secret of Fátima and about Lúcia's interpretation of what she had heard the Virgin Mary request. Two letters concerned the Consecration of Russia, in which she said Our Lady's request had been fulfilled. All material written by Sister Lúcia is now held for study by the Congregation for the Causes of Saints.
Sister Lúcia had been blind, deaf, and ailing for some years prior to her death. She died at the Carmelite convent of Santa Teresa in Coimbra, where she had lived since 1948.
In Portugal, February 15, 2005, was declared a day of national mourning; even campaigning for the national parliamentary election scheduled for Sunday, February 20, was interrupted.
On Februar y 13, 2008, the third anniversary of her death, Pope Benedict XVI announced that, in the case of Sister Lúcia, he would waive the five-year waiting period established by canon law before opening her cause for beatification. On February 13, 2017, Sister Lúcia was accorded the title Servant of God, the first major step toward her canonization. In October 2022, the "Positio" (a collection of documents used in the early states of the canonization process) on Sister Lucia was presented at the Vatican to the Congregation of the Causes of Saints to examine, to see whether she lived a life of "heroic virtue." It was approved. On June 22, 2023, Sr. Lucia was given the title "Venerable." Next, a miracle attributed to her intercession will be required for her beatification.
Information from Wikipedia and from "Lucia Speaks, The Message of Fatima," c. 2005. Edited and submitted by Angela, Member #48520699.
Lúcia was the youngest child of António dos Santos and Maria Rosa Ferreira dos Santos. She had six brothers and sisters. Although peasants, the Santos family was by no means poor as they owned land.
Even though Lúcia's birthday is registered as March 22, 1907, her actual date of birth is March 28. In those days, it was required that parents bring their children for baptism on the eighth day after birth or face a fine, and, because March 30 was a more convenient day, the 22nd was recorded as her birthday.
Maria Rosa was literate, although she never taught her children to read. She had a taste for religious literature and storytelling. She gave catechism lessons to her children and the neighbor's children at siesta time during the summer and during Lent. During the winter, catechism lessons took place after supper around the fire. According to her mother, Lúcia repeated everything she heard "like a parrot."
Lúcia was a storyteller. She also composed original songs. She set to music the words of the brief prayer she and her cousins had been taught by the Angel of Portugal in 1916 to prepare them for the visits from Our Lady: "O God, I believe, I adore, I hope, and I love Thee. I ask forgiveness for those who do not believe, do not hope, do not love Thee." She also wrote a poem about Jacinta which appears in her memoirs.
Lúcia's First Communion occurred at six years of age despite ten being the usual minimum. Initially, the parish priest refused because of her young age. However, Father Cruz, a Jesuit missionary visiting from Lisbon, interviewed Lúcia after finding her in tears and concluded that "she understands better than many of the others." Because of this intervention, the parish priest admitted Lúcia to Holy Communion.
By eight years of age, she was tending the family's sheep, accompanied by other boys and girls of the village.
Between May and October 1917, Lúcia and her cousins, Francisco and Jacinta Marto, reported visions of a luminous lady, who they believed to be the Virgin Mary, in the Cova da Iria fields outside the hamlet of Aljustrel, near Fátima, Portugal. The children said the visitations took place on the 13th day of each month at approximately noon, for six straight months. The only exception was August, when the children were detained by the local administrator. That month they did not report a vision until after they were released from jail, two days later.
According to Lúcia's accounts, the lady told the children to do penance and to make sacrifices to save sinners. Lúcia said that the lady stressed the importance of saying the Rosary every day to bring peace to the world. Many young Portuguese men were then fighting in World War I. Lúcia heard Mary ask her to learn to read and write because Jesus wanted to employ her to convey messages to the world about the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
Lúcia's mother did not take kindly to the news, believing that Lúcia was simply making up lies for attention. Although the favorite child until this point, Lúcia suffered beatings and ridicule from her mother. She was especially incredulous that Lúcia had been asked to learn to read and write. Lúcia's father, António, believed the children, and there is some evidence that he conspired to make sure Lúcia got to the Cova for the apparitions after her mother had forbidden it.
On July 13, 1917, around noon, the Lady is said to have entrusted the children with three secrets. Two of the secrets were revealed in 1941 in a document written by Lúcia, at the request of the Bishop of Leiria, José Alves Correia da Silva, partly to assist with the publication of a new edition of a book on Jacinta.
When asked by Bishop da Silva in 1943 to reveal the third secret, Lúcia struggled for a short period, being "not yet convinced that God had clearly authorized her to act." She was under strict obedience in accordance with her Carmelite life, and conflicted as to whether she should obey her superiors, or the personal orders she believed were from Mary. However, in October 1943, she fell ill with influenza and pleurisy, the same illness which had killed her cousins, and for a time believed she was about to die. Bishop da Silva then ordered her to put the third secret in writing. Lúcia then wrote down the secret and sealed it in an envelope not to be opened until 1960. She designated 1960 because she thought that "by then it will appear clearer." The text of the third secret was officially released by Pope John Paul II in 2000. The Vatican described the secret as a vision of the 1981 assassination attempt on Pope John Paul II.
The visions increasingly received wide publicity, and an estimated 70,000 witnesses were reportedly present for the sixth and final apparition. Lúcia had promised for several months that the Lady would perform a miracle on that day "so that all may believe." Witnesses present in the Cova da Iria that day, as well as some up to 25 miles (40 km) away, reported that the Sun appeared to change colors and rotate, like a fire wheel, casting off multicolored light across the landscape. The Sun appeared to plunge towards the Earth, frightening many into believing that it was the end of the world. The popular expression, according to the O Século reporter Avelino de Almeida, was that the Sun "danced." The event became known as the "Miracle of the Sun." The episode was widely reported, with a photo of the crowd, by the secular media. Lúcia reported that day that the Lady identified herself as "Our Lady of the Rosary." She thereafter also became known as Our Lady of Fátima.
On behalf of the Catholic Church, Bishop Da Silva approved the visions as "worthy of belief" on October 13, 1930.
Lúcia moved to Porto in 1921, and, at age 14, was admitted as a boarder in the school of the Sisters of St. Dorothy in Vilar, on the city's outskirts. On October 24, 1925, she entered the Institute of the Sisters of St. Dorothy as a postulant in the convent in Pontevedra, Spain, just across the northern Portuguese border. According to Sister Lúcia, on December 10, 1925, she experienced a vision of the Virgin Mary and the Christ Child. The Virgin Mary is said to have requested the practice of the Five First Saturdays devotion. If one fulfilled the conditions on the First Saturday of five consecutive months, the Virgin Mary promised special graces at the hour of death.
On July 20, 1926, Lucia moved to Tuy, Spain, where she began her novitiate; she received her habit on October 2 of the same year. Lúcia professed her first vows on October 3, 1928. Sister Lucia reported that on June 13, 1929, she had a vision during which the Blessed Virgin told her: "The moment has come in which God asks the Holy Father, in union with all the bishops of the world, to make the consecration of Russia to my Immaculate Heart, promising to save it by this means." She made her perpetual vows on October 3, 1934, receiving the name "Sister Maria das Dores" (Mary of the Sorrows).
On January 25, 1938, a massive aurora borealis appeared in the skies over Europe and was visible as far away as Gibraltar and even parts of the United States. Lúcia believed this event was the "night illuminated by a strange light in the sky" which she had heard Mary speak about as part of the Second Secret, predicting the events which would lead to the Second World War and requesting Acts of Reparation including the First Saturday Devotions along with the Consecration of Russia.
She returned to Portugal in 1946 where she visited Fátima incognito, and, in March 1948, after receiving special papal permission, entered the Carmelite convent of Santa Teresa in Coimbra, where she resided until her death. She made her profession as a Discalced Carmelite on May 31, 1949, taking the religious name Sister Maria Lúcia of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart.
Sr. Lucia came back to Fátima on the occasion of four Papal pilgrimages, all on May 13: by Pope Paul VI in 1967, Pope John Paul II in 1982 (in thanksgiving for surviving an assassination attempt the previous year), in 1991, and 2000 when her cousins Jacinta and Francisco were beatified.
Sister Lúcia wrote six memoirs during her lifetime. She also wrote numerous letters to clergy and devout laypeople who were curious about the Third Secret of Fátima and about Lúcia's interpretation of what she had heard the Virgin Mary request. Two letters concerned the Consecration of Russia, in which she said Our Lady's request had been fulfilled. All material written by Sister Lúcia is now held for study by the Congregation for the Causes of Saints.
Sister Lúcia had been blind, deaf, and ailing for some years prior to her death. She died at the Carmelite convent of Santa Teresa in Coimbra, where she had lived since 1948.
In Portugal, February 15, 2005, was declared a day of national mourning; even campaigning for the national parliamentary election scheduled for Sunday, February 20, was interrupted.
On Februar y 13, 2008, the third anniversary of her death, Pope Benedict XVI announced that, in the case of Sister Lúcia, he would waive the five-year waiting period established by canon law before opening her cause for beatification. On February 13, 2017, Sister Lúcia was accorded the title Servant of God, the first major step toward her canonization. In October 2022, the "Positio" (a collection of documents used in the early states of the canonization process) on Sister Lucia was presented at the Vatican to the Congregation of the Causes of Saints to examine, to see whether she lived a life of "heroic virtue." It was approved. On June 22, 2023, Sr. Lucia was given the title "Venerable." Next, a miracle attributed to her intercession will be required for her beatification.
Information from Wikipedia and from "Lucia Speaks, The Message of Fatima," c. 2005. Edited and submitted by Angela, Member #48520699.
Bio by: rjschatz
