Posted on 02/14/2005 2:03:24 PM PST by missyme
Sister Lucia Marto, the last of three children who claimed to have seen the Virgin Mary in a series of 1917 apparitions in the town of Fatima, has died, Portuguese media reported. She was 97.
Sister Lucia, a Roman Catholic nun, had been ill for the past three months and died Sunday at the Convent of Carmelitas in Coimbra, 190 kilometers (120 miles) north of Lisbon, TSF radio reported, citing family sources.
Prime Minister Pedro Santana Lopes called Lucia's death "very emotional news."
Lucia and two of her cousins, siblings Jacinta and Francisco, said in 1917 that the Virgin Mary had been appearing to them once a month and predicting events, such as world wars, the reemergence of Christianity in Russia, and one that Church officials say foretold the 1981 attempted assassination of Pope John Paul II. The appearances took place on the 13th day of each month in Fatima, a town 110 kilometers (about 70 miles) north of Lisbon.
The first sighting was May 13, and the appearances took place for another five months, ending abruptly in October of that year.
Shortly after, both Jacinta and Francisco died of respiratory diseases. But Lucia became a nun and penned two memoirs while living in convents.
The Catholic Church later built a shrine in Fatima, which is visited each year by millions of people from around the world. More than 100,000 people from dozens of countries routinely attend the annual commemorations of the sightings.
The pope has visited three times since becoming pontiff in 1978, spending a few minutes with Lucia during a 1991 trip to the site. He has claimed the Virgin of Fatima saved his life after he was shot by a Turkish gunman in St. Peter's Square in 1981. The attack, on May 13, coincided with the feast day of Our Lady of Fatima, and John Paul credits the Virgin's intercession for his survival.
In 2000, he visited Fatima to beatify Jacinta and Francisco.
A funeral was scheduled for Tuesday, TSF reported.
Isn't there a secret that the Church won't tell?
Yes there is...
Interesting news ping.
LAST SECRET REVEALED
The Vatican revealed its interpretation of the vision during the Pope's visit to Fatima in May 2000 on the anniversary of the assassination attempt. One of her last public appearances was with the Pope at Fatima.
Dos Santos's recollection of the third part of the visions, which she wrote down in 1944, saw "a bishop dressed in white (and) we had the impression that it was the Holy Father".
As the vision continued, the children say the Pope reaching the top of a mountain where "he was killed by a group of soldiers who fired bullets and arrows at him".
Before the Vatican unveiled the vision, papal envoys visited Dos Santos in her cloistered convent to seek her opinion of the Vatican's interpretation and her permission to reveal it.
"She repeated her conviction that the vision of Fatima concerns above all the struggle of atheistic communism against the Church and against Christians, and describes the terrible sufferings of the victims of the faith in 20th century," a Vatican document said in 2000.
The document went on to say: "When asked: 'Is the principal figure in the vision the Pope?' Sister Lucia replied at once that it was.
Dos Santos was born the youngest of seven children in a peasant family in Aljustrel, a village in central Portugal.
The events at Fatima unfolded against a backdrop of religious persecution under anti-clerical factions that ruled Portugal after the overthrow of the monarchy in 1910.
In 1916 she experienced her first vision, when an angel appeared to the children, she wrote in her memoirs.
On May 13, 1917, the Virgin Mary appeared to her and her cousins Jacinta and Francisco Marta on an oak tree. On her last appearance before an estimated 50,000 onlookers, witnesses claim to have experienced a 15-minute spectacle of bright lights and rainbow colours.
In her memoirs, dos Santos said the Virgin Mary appeared to the children six times in 1917. Jacinta and Francisco died in the influenza pandemic in 1919 and 1920.
The two were beatified, the last step to sainthood, by Pope John Paul during his Fatima visit in 2000.
One of her last visitors was actor Mel Gibson, director of the 2004 movie "The Passion of The Christ". He met her at the convent in July 2004 and gave her a DVD of his movie.
Saw it, thanks. My kids have a book about the Fatima apparitions, and they thought it was cool that Sr. Lucia was still alive. It's so long ago for them ...
Did the Virgin tell the kids to keep these secrets?
Weren't there some people who believed that her prophetic vision foretold the assassination of Bishop Oscar Romero, in El Salvador?
:)
-good times, G.J.P.(Jr.)
That I am not sure of...
Reg : 3rd Secret
I think the 3rd Secret actually has to do with the pain and suffering that is about to get alot worse with the corruption in the church and the rise in a Godless world
Why is this news? Claiming to see the virgin Mary is certainly no evidence of it happening; and exactly how would one know it was the virgin Mary.
What evidence are you looking for? The story and what happened is evidence...
A story is not evidence; it's merely a story.
hey connect the dots and read up on it before you speak.
uhhh, a miracle (called "the miracle of the sun") is attributed to it. It was seen by a hell whole lot of people. Go peddle your junk elsewhere.
Exactamundo!
It does seem like that little girl had a much greater degree of accuracy-as far as predictions are concerned-than Nostradamus, or any other purported clairvoyants/prophets in recent memory.
-good times, G.J.P.(Jr.)
Sister Lucia, last remaining witness of Fatima apparitions, dies at 97
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