LISBON (AFP) - Sister Lucia, the last survivor of the three shepherd
children to whom the Virgin Mary is said to have made a series of
apparitions in 1917, has died of old age, state television RTP
reported. She was 97.
She had lived in virtual isolation since 1948 in an old convent in the
central Portuguese city of Coimbra that houses the order of the
Carmelita Sisters where she dedicated her life to prayer and
meditation.
Named Lucia de Jesus dos Santos when she was born on March 22, 1907, in
recent years she suffered from blindness and deafness.
She died at the convent, the station said citing a spokeswoman for the
order.
Sister Lucia was just ten when she and her two cousins, Francisco Marto
and his sister Jacinta, said they saw the Virgin for the first time in
a field near the town of Fatima on May 13, 1917.
Lucia, the only one of the three children who was able to hear what the
Virgin said, wrote two memoirs about the series of apparitions which
occured throughout 1917.
The apparitions made Fatima one of Catholicism's most revered sites and
thousands of faithful flock to a shrine which has been built on the
site where the apparitions are said to have taken place each year.
Pope John Paul II attributes to Our Lady of Fatima his survival of an
assassination attempt in 1981 and has since then visited the shrine
several times.
Sister Lucia last spoke in public in May 2000 when the pope travelled
to Fatima to beatify Francisco and Jacinta.
children to whom the Virgin Mary is said to have made a series of
apparitions in 1917, has died of old age, state television RTP
reported. She was 97.
She had lived in virtual isolation since 1948 in an old convent in the
central Portuguese city of Coimbra that houses the order of the
Carmelita Sisters where she dedicated her life to prayer and
meditation.
Named Lucia de Jesus dos Santos when she was born on March 22, 1907, in
recent years she suffered from blindness and deafness.
She died at the convent, the station said citing a spokeswoman for the
order.
Sister Lucia was just ten when she and her two cousins, Francisco Marto
and his sister Jacinta, said they saw the Virgin for the first time in
a field near the town of Fatima on May 13, 1917.
Lucia, the only one of the three children who was able to hear what the
Virgin said, wrote two memoirs about the series of apparitions which
occured throughout 1917.
The apparitions made Fatima one of Catholicism's most revered sites and
thousands of faithful flock to a shrine which has been built on the
site where the apparitions are said to have taken place each year.
Pope John Paul II attributes to Our Lady of Fatima his survival of an
assassination attempt in 1981 and has since then visited the shrine
several times.
Sister Lucia last spoke in public in May 2000 when the pope travelled
to Fatima to beatify Francisco and Jacinta.
