Sister Lúcia

Lúcia was the youngest child of António dos Santos and Maria Rosa Ferreira (1869–1942), both from Aljustrel, who married on 19 November 1890.

She had six brothers and sisters.

Although peasants, the Santos family was not poor, owning land "in the direction of Montelo, Ortiga, Fátima, Valinhos, Cabeço, Charneca, and Cova da Iria."

Lúcia de Jesus Rosa dos Santos, OCD, (28 March 1907 – 13 February 2005) also known as Lúcia of Fátima and by her religious name Maria Lúcia of Jesus and of the Immaculate Heart, was a Portuguese Catholic Discalced Carmelite nun.

Even though Lúcia's birthday is registered as 22 March 1907, her actual date of birth is 28 March.

Sister Lúcia and her cousins Francisco and Jacinta Marto claimed to have witnessed the apparitions of Our Lady of Fátima in 1917.

Between May and October 1917, Lúcia and her cousins Francisco and Jacinta Marto reported visions of a luminous lady, who they believed to be the Virgin Mary, in the Cova da Iria fields outside the hamlet of Aljustrel, near Fátima, Portugal.

On 13 July 1917, around noon, the Lady is said to have entrusted the children with three secrets.

In those days, it was required that parents bring their children for baptism on the eighth day after birth or face a fine, and, because 30 March was a more convenient day, the 22nd was chosen as her birthday.

Lúcia's father António, by her report, was a hardworking and generous man who introduced her to Catholicism.

Contrary to popular reports, he believed the children when they said they had seen Mary.

Lúcia said that her father was not a particularly heavy drinker, but liked to socialize in the tavern.

Because of a controversy with the local parish priest, whom he wished to avoid, António went to church in a nearby town.

Maria Rosa was literate, although she never taught her children to read.

She had a taste for religious literature and storytelling.

She regularly gave catechism lessons to her and the neighbour's children.

According to her mother, Lúcia repeated everything that she heard "like a parrot."

De Marchi described her features in the following manner: "She was not a pretty child. The only attractions of her face—which was not on the whole repellent—were her two great black eyes which gazed out from under thick eyebrows. Her hair, thick and dark, was parted in the center over her shoulders. Her nose was rather flat, her lips thick and her mouth large."

Lúcia was a fabulous storyteller.

She composed sacred and secular songs with catchy tunes and lyrics.

She also wrote a poem about Jacinta which appears in her memoirs.

Lúcia received First Communion at six years of age, four years before the usual age.

Initially, the parish priest refused to give her Communion so early.

But Father Cruz, a Jesuit missionary visiting from Lisbon, interviewed Lúcia after finding her in tears that day and concluded that "she understands what she's doing better than many of the others."

After her First Confession she prayed before the altar of Our Lady of the Rosary and claimed to have seen the statue smile at her.

It left a deep impact on her: "I lost the taste and attraction for the things of the world, and only felt at home in some solitary place where, all alone, I could recall the delights of my First Communion."

By eight years of age, she was tending the family's sheep, accompanied by other boys and girls of the village.

Two of the secrets were revealed in 1941 in a document written by Lúcia, at the request of the Bishop of Leiria, José Alves Correia da Silva, partly to assist with the publication of a new edition of a book on Jacinta.

When asked by Bishop da Silva in 1943 to reveal the third secret, Lúcia struggled for a short period, being "not yet convinced that God had clearly authorized her to act".

She was under strict obedience in accordance with her Carmelite life, and conflicted as to whether she should obey her superiors, or the personal orders she believed were from Mary.

However, in October 1943 she fell ill with influenza and pleurisy, the same illness which had killed her cousins, and for a time believed she was about to die.

The children said the visitations took place on the 13th day of each month at approximately noon, for six months.

The only exception was August, when the children were detained by the local administrator.

That month they did not report a vision of the Lady until after they were released from jail, two days later.

According to Lúcia's accounts, the lady told the children to do penance and to make sacrifices to save sinners.

Lúcia said that the lady stressed the importance of saying the rosary every day, to bring peace to the world.

Many young Portuguese men, including relatives of the visionaries, were then fighting in World War I.

Lúcia heard Mary ask her to learn to read and write because Jesus wanted to employ her to convey messages to the world about Mary, particularly the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

Lúcia's mother believed that Lúcia was making up lies to get attention.

Although the favorite child until this point, Lúcia suffered beatings and ridicule from her mother, who was especially incredulous of the idea that Lúcia had been asked to learn to read and write.