Shepherdess Lucia from Fatima Sculpted in wood Statue and Hand Painted Madonna wood Carved; Lucia de Jesus dos Santos (* March 22, 1907 in Aljustrel, now part of Fátima in Portugal; † February 13, 2005 in Coimbra) was a Portuguese religious sister and nun. She is said to have witnessed an apparition of Mary in Fátima as a child.
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Together with her cousin Jacinta Marto and her cousin Francisco Marto, she had six Marian apparitions in the Cova da Iria near Fátima from May 13 to October 13, 1917, at the age of ten. Francisco Marto died of Spanish flu in 1919, Jacinta in 1920, and both were beatified by Pope John Paul II in Fátima on May 13, 2000, and canonized by Pope Francis in Fátima on May 13, 2017.
Lucia entered the College of the Dorothea Sisters of Vilar, near Porto, on May 17, 1921, where she learned to read and write. On October 2, 1926, she was received into the convent of Tuy (Spain). She received the religious name Maria das Dores (German: Maria of Sorrows), made her temporary profession on October 3, 1928, and her perpetual profession on October 3, 1934. After the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War, she was sent to the College do Sardou near Porto (Portugal) in 1936 and returned to the monastery of Tuy in 1946. With the permission of Pope Pius XII, she was allowed to transfer to the Carmel of St. Theresa in Coimbra on March 25, 1948. On May 13, 1948, she was initiated there as a Carmelite nun and made solemn profession on May 31, 1949. At the time of her profession, she received the religious name Maria Lucia of the Immaculate Heart.
In 1941 she wrote down the so-called first and second secrets, and in 1944 the third secret of Fatima. The transcript contains the messages that, according to her, were transmitted to the children by the Blessed Mother.
According to Wegener, she had first written two reports (80 pages in typescript) in 1936/1937 on behalf of José Alves Correia da Silva (1852-1957), the bishop of Leiria, who had been responsible for Fátima since 1920. In the first report, memories about Jacinta were reproduced, and in the second Lucia also reported about herself. Four years later, the bishop commissioned her to write a more detailed memoir. On August 31 and December 8, 1941, she completed a report (over 60 typewritten pages). In it, for the first time, apparitions of an angel in 1916 and the """"secrets of the second and third apparitions of Our Lady"""" as well as some visions of Jacinta were mentioned. According to Wegener, as early as the spring of 1921, the Bishop of Leiria bought the land in the Cova da Iria, where construction work on the """"Basilica of Our Lady of the Rosary"""" began in the fall of that year.
Tombs of Jacinta Marto and Lucia dos Santos in the Basilica Antiga of Fátima.
The day of Sr. Lucia's funeral, February 15, 2005, was declared a national day of mourning in Portugal. On February 19, 2006, Sr. Lucia dos Santos was transferred from Coimbra to Fátima and buried in the Basilica of the Rosary next to Jacinta and Francisco. On the third anniversary of her death in 2008, Pope Benedict XVI gave his consent for the initiation of the beatification process of Lucia do Santos, overriding a rule of canon law according to which a beatification process may be opened no earlier than five years after the death of a person.
Table of Contents
Together with her cousin Jacinta Marto and her cousin Francisco Marto, she had six Marian apparitions in the Cova da Iria near Fátima from May 13 to October 13, 1917, at the age of ten. Francisco Marto died of Spanish flu in 1919, Jacinta in 1920, and both were beatified by Pope John Paul II in Fátima on May 13, 2000, and canonized by Pope Francis in Fátima on May 13, 2017.
Lucia entered the College of the Dorothea Sisters of Vilar, near Porto, on May 17, 1921, where she learned to read and write. On October 2, 1926, she was received into the convent of Tuy (Spain). She received the religious name Maria das Dores (German: Maria of Sorrows), made her temporary profession on October 3, 1928, and her perpetual profession on October 3, 1934. After the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War, she was sent to the College do Sardou near Porto (Portugal) in 1936 and returned to the monastery of Tuy in 1946. With the permission of Pope Pius XII, she was allowed to transfer to the Carmel of St. Theresa in Coimbra on March 25, 1948. On May 13, 1948, she was initiated there as a Carmelite nun and made solemn profession on May 31, 1949. At the time of her profession, she received the religious name Maria Lucia of the Immaculate Heart.
In 1941 she wrote down the so-called first and second secrets, and in 1944 the third secret of Fatima. The transcript contains the messages that, according to her, were transmitted to the children by the Blessed Mother.
According to Wegener, she had first written two reports (80 pages in typescript) in 1936/1937 on behalf of José Alves Correia da Silva (1852-1957), the bishop of Leiria, who had been responsible for Fátima since 1920. In the first report, memories about Jacinta were reproduced, and in the second Lucia also reported about herself. Four years later, the bishop commissioned her to write a more detailed memoir. On August 31 and December 8, 1941, she completed a report (over 60 typewritten pages). In it, for the first time, apparitions of an angel in 1916 and the """"secrets of the second and third apparitions of Our Lady"""" as well as some visions of Jacinta were mentioned. According to Wegener, as early as the spring of 1921, the Bishop of Leiria bought the land in the Cova da Iria, where construction work on the """"Basilica of Our Lady of the Rosary"""" began in the fall of that year.
Tombs of Jacinta Marto and Lucia dos Santos in the Basilica Antiga of Fátima.
The day of Sr. Lucia's funeral, February 15, 2005, was declared a national day of mourning in Portugal. On February 19, 2006, Sr. Lucia dos Santos was transferred from Coimbra to Fátima and buried in the Basilica of the Rosary next to Jacinta and Francisco. On the third anniversary of her death in 2008, Pope Benedict XVI gave his consent for the initiation of the beatification process of Lucia do Santos, overriding a rule of canon law according to which a beatification process may be opened no earlier than five years after the death of a person.
