Ven. Lúcia dos Santos

## Life Lúcia de Jesus Rosa dos Santos was born on March 28, 1907, in Aljustrel, near Fátima, Portugal, to a family of landowning peasants. She was the youngest of seven children. In 1917, at ten years of age, Lúcia and her younger cousins Francisco and Jacinta Marto witnessed six apparitions of the Blessed Virgin Mary at the Cova da Iria, near Fátima. The apparitions, occurring on the 13th of each month from May to October, culminated in the Miracle of the Sun on October 13, 1917, witnessed by approximately 70,000 people. Our Lady entrusted three secrets to the children and requested prayer, penance, and devotion to her Immaculate Heart. After her cousins died in the 1918-1919 influenza pandemic, Lúcia remained the sole surviving visionary. In 1921, she moved to Porto and in 1925 entered the Institute of the Sisters of St. Dorothy in Pontevedra, Spain. She later received additional apparitions requesting the First Saturday devotions and the Consecration of Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. In 1948, with special papal permission, Lúcia entered the Carmelite Convent of Santa Teresa in Coimbra, Portugal, making her profession on May 31, 1949, and taking the religious name Sister Maria Lúcia of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart. She lived as a cloistered Carmelite for 57 years, writing her memoirs and corresponding about the Fátima message. Pope John Paul II visited Sister Lúcia three times during his pontificate. She died on February 13, 2005, at age 97, in her convent in Coimbra. Her remains were transferred to the Basilica of Our Lady of the Rosary in Fátima on February 19, 2006. ## Cause for Canonization Sister Lúcia's cause for beatification was opened in 2017, and in 2023 she was declared Venerable by Pope Francis. **Memorial:** February 13