Venerable Sister Lúcia

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 Discalced Carmelite from Portugal. Sister Lúcia and her cousins Francisco and Jacinta Marto claimed to have witnessed the apparitions of Our Lady of Fátima in 1917. Her beatification process was opened in 2017. In 2023, she was declared venerable. Born in 1907 to landowning peasants on the outskirts of Fátima, Portugal,: 9  Lúcia came to prominence in 1917 as the oldest of the three child seers of the apparitions Our Lady of Fátima. This involved her and her two cousins, Francisco and Jacinta Marto, claiming to see the Virgin Mary in six apparitions. These apparitions sparked major interest, concluding with what is called the Miracle of the Sun being witnessed by tens of thousands in October of that year. After Francisco and Jacinta both died during the Spanish Flu, Lúcia remained the only living seer for the rest of her life. In 1921, Lúcia became a religious sister in Spain and eventually a Discalced Carmelite nun in 1948. She wrote numerous memoirs about her experiences at Fátima and numerous letters concerning the events. She also transcribed the Three Secrets of Fátima, the last of which was only published by the Vatican in 2000. Sister Lúcia died on 13 February 2005 at the Carmelite convent of Santa Teresa in Coimbra. Lúcia was the youngest child of António dos Santos and Maria Rosa Ferreira (1869–1942), both from Aljustrel, who married on 19 November 1890. Although peasants, the Santos family was not poor, owning land "in the direction of Montelo, Ortiga, Fátima, Valinhos, Cabeço, Charneca, and Cova da Iria.": 9  Even though Lúcia's birthday is registered as 22 March 1907, her actual date of birth is 28 March.