More than 100,000 gather at Fatima to watch reburial of Sister Lucia

Published: 2006-02-20

FATIMA, Portugal (CNS) -- Despite a persistent rain, more than 100,000 people gathered at the Shrine of Our Lady of Fatima to pray and witness the reburial of Carmelite Sister Lucia dos Santos, the last of three Fatima visionaries. Sister Lucia died Feb. 13, 2005, in her cloistered convent in Coimbra, Portugal, at the age of 97. She had been buried temporarily at the Carmelite convent while preparations were made for final burial alongside her two cousins, Blesseds Francisco and Jacinta Marto, at the Shrine of Our Lady of Fatima. On May 13, 1917 -- when Lucia was 10 years old, Francisco was 9 and Jacinta was 7 -- the children claimed to have seen the Blessed Virgin Mary at Fatima, near their home. The apparitions continued once a month until October 1917 and later were declared worthy of belief by the Catholic Church. In 2000 Pope John Paul II beatified Sister Lucia's cousins, who died as children.

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