BREAKING NEWS
Fatima Messenger Sister Lucia Laid To Rest Amid Tears And FlowersPhotographs By Our Special Correspondent
LISBON, Portugal, Feb 15 - Mourners crowded the streets and waved white handkerchiefs Tuesday in a final farewell to Portugal's Sister Lucia, the last of three shepherd children who claimed to have seen the Virgin Mary in Fatima in 1917.
Flags flew at half-staff across Portugal on a day of national mourning for the 97-year-old Roman Catholic nun who died Sunday. Her funeral in Coimbra, 120 miles north of Lisbon, was broadcast live on Portugal's three main television channels.
Pope John Paul II, who met with Lucia during his three visits to Fatima, sent Genoa Archbishop Tarcisio Bertone to preside at the funeral.
"I recall with emotion the meetings that I've had with her and the bonds of spiritual friendship that intensified as time went by,'' the pontiff said in a message sent to the bishop of Coimbra, which was read out at the ceremony.
John Paul has claimed the Virgin of Fatima saved his life after he was shot by a Turkish gunman in St. Peter's Square in 1981. The attack, on May 13, coincided with the feast day of Our Lady of Fatima, and John Paul credits Mary's intercession for his survival.
Hundreds of people packed the cathedral for her funeral, and more than 1,000 crowded outside.
Born Lucia de Jesus dos Santos, she and her two cousins Jacinta and Francisco said Mary appeared to them several times in the small farming town of Fatima, which now has a shrine that attracts millions of visitors each year. Lucia said Mary spoke only to her.
The three children said Mary appeared on the 13th day of each month and predicted events, such as world wars, the reemergence of Christianity in Russia, and one that church officials say foretold the 1981 assassination attempt.
The first sighting was May 13, and the appearances took place for another five months, ending abruptly in October 1917. Shortly after, both Jacinta and Francisco died of respiratory diseases.
"For sure, (Lucia) entered heaven led by the hand of Jesus' mother,'' Coimbra Bishop Albino Cleto said at her funeral.
The pope has visited Fatima three times since becoming pontiff in 1978, spending a few minutes with Lucia during each trip. In 2000, he visited Fatima to beatify Jacinta and Francisco.
As Lucia's coffin returned to the convent in Coimbra where she lived since 1948, the congregation and onlookers in the city streets waved white handkerchiefs in a sign of farewell.
Prime Minister Pedro Santana Lopes suspended his Social Democratic Party's campaigning for the Feb. 20 general election for 48 hours because of Lucia's death, but he canceled plans to attend the service. His office gave no explanation.
Text of the third Fatima secret
The following is the text of the third part of the secret of Fatima as written down by Sister Lucia dos Santos, one of the three children believed to have seen the Virgin Mary in 1917.
I write in obedience to you, my God, who commands me to do so through his Excellency the Bishop of Leiria and through your most Holy Mother and mine.After the two parts which I have already explained, at the left of Our Lady and a little above, we saw an angel with a flaming sword in his left hand. Flashing, it gave out flames that looked as though they would set the world on fire.
But they died out in contact with the splendour that Our Lady radiated towards him from her right hand.
Pointing to the earth with his right hand, the angel cried out in a loud voice: "Penance, penance, penance!"
And we saw in an immense light that is God, something similar to how people appear in a mirror when then pass in front of it, a bishop dressed in white.
We had the impression that it was the Holy Father.
Other bishops, priests, religious men and women were going up a steep mountain, at the top of which there was a big cross of rough-hewn trunks as of a cork-tree with the bark.
Before reaching there the Holy Father passed through a big city half in ruins and half trembling with halting step, afflicted with pain and sorrow, he prayed for the souls of the corpses he met on his way.
Having reached the top of the mountain, on his knees at the foot of the big cross he was killed by a group of soldiers who fired bullets and arrows at him, and in the same way there died one after another the bishops, priests, religious men and women, and various lay people of different ranks and positions.
Beneath the two arms of the cross there were two angels each with a crystal aspersorium in his hand, in which they gathered up the blood of the martyrs and with it sprinkled the souls that were making their way to God. (BBC- 26 June, 2000)
Papal praise at Sister Lucia's funeral
Pope John Paul II paid homage to the late Sister Lucia, and recalled his meetings with the Fatima seer, in a letter to Bishop Albinao Cleto of Coimbra, Portugal, where the Carmelite nun died on Sunday.
Bishop Cleto made the Pope's message public on February 15, as he presided at a funeral Mass for Sister Lucia. Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone of Genoa attended the funeral as the Pope's representative.
In his letter, the Pope said that he could "recall with emotion the different meetings that I had with Sister Lucia," adding that he felt a special spiritual bond with the nun "that intensified with time." The Pope said that he always felt the support of the Portuguese nun's prayers, "especially in moments of trial and of suffering." The Pope prayed that "the Lord will reward her generously for the great service she rendered to the Church."
Visit of Pope John Paul IIPope John Paul remarked that the appearance of the Virgin Mary to Sister Lucia, along with her cousins Francisco and Jacinta, "was for her the beginning of a singular mission to which she remained faithful through the end of her days." He said that Sister Lucia "gave us an example of great fidelity to the Lord and joyful adherence to his divine will."
Sister Lucia, the last survivor among the three young children to whom the Virgin appeared at Fatima, died in her Carmelite convent at Coimbra on February 13 after a long illness, at the age of 97. She had lived in the same cloistered community near Fatima since 1948. She had entered religious life at the age of 18, after having seen the Virgin Mary appear 6 times at Fatima, along with her cousins, in 1913, and subsequently experienced personal visions in 1923 and 1929.
Pope John Paul II met with Sister Lucia on three separate occasions. In 1982, he made a pilgrimage to Fatima in thanksgiving for his survival of an assassination attempt one year earlier (the Pope has always attributed his survival to the intercession of Our Lady of Fatima); he spoke with Sister Lucia there for the first time during that visit. In 1991, on the 10th anniversary of the shooting in St. Peter's Square, he again visited Fatima and spoke to the seer. And in 2000 he again met with Sister Lucia during the trip on which he beatified her cousins Jacinta and Francisco.
Cardinal Bertone, the Pope's representative at the funeral ceremony, also met with Sister Lucia on one notable occasion. As an official of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, in 2000 he met with her to confirm that the famous "third secret" of Fatima had been accurately related, after the Pope ordered the publication of a mystical vision that showed the shooting of "a bishop dressed in white." Pope John Paul concluded that the vision was a prophecy of the attempt on his own life.
Cardinal Bertone said that he found Sister Lucia "a radiant person, full of joy." The cardinal added that he had heard the Pope's frequent statements that the Virgin Mary diverted the bullet that was meant to kill him. The Italian prelate said that "the martyrdom of our Pope, who continues on despite his disease, is a gift for all humanity."
The day of Sister Lucia's funeral was declared a national day of mourning in Portugal.
-AP/BBC/Catholic World News
Previous Report
Sister Lucia, Last Remaining Witness Of Fatima Virgin Mary Dies At 97
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