The case for Sister Lucia dos Santos’ beatification has advanced. She was the oldest kid to see the apparitions at Fatima.
The Dicastery for the Causes of Saints received a “positio” paper documenting Lucia’s heroic qualities from the postulators for her case at a meeting at the Vatican.
On October 13, the anniversary of the Miracle of the Sun, the last Marian apparition at Fatima in 1917, Father Carlos Cabecinhas, the rector of the Fatima shrine, made the update public.
Nine theologians will now evaluate the “Positio on the Life, Virtues and Reputation for Holiness of Sister Lucia de Jesus dos Santos.” Sister Lucia will be honored as a Venerable in the Catholic Church if the Vatican’s office for saints chooses to issue a decree and the proof of her valiant virtue is accepted.
In 2017, Pope Francis canonized Jacinta and Francisco Marto, the other two Fatima visionaries. The two shepherd kids, who passed away at 10 and 11 years old, respectively, are the Church’s youngest non-martyr saints.
Lucia, who was 10 years old when the 1917 Marian apparitions occurred, lived far longer than the other visionaries, reaching the age of 97.
She resided at a Carmelite monastery in Coimbra, Portugal, for the last 50 years of her life. Her written memoirs have contributed significantly to our understanding of the Fatima message since she is the only Fatima visionary who was able to hear the Virgin Mary speak throughout the sequence of apparitions at Fatima.
“At some point, the story of Fatima would be incomplete without Lucia’s perspective. In his remarks at a virtual event this month commemorating the Fatima anniversary, José Rui Teixeira, Lucia’s biographer, remarked, “I cannot envision Fatima as it is without Lucia having supplied an account for it, via her more and less recognized works.”
Teixeira, who assisted in gathering documentation for her sainthood campaign, claimed to have approximately 4,000 sources included in his bibliography.
In 2008, three years after Lucia’s death, the canonization process began when Pope Benedict XVI approved a waiver for the customary five-year waiting period. The diocesan phase of her case ended in 2017, and more than 15,000 letters, testimonials, and other documentation were gathered.
Let us pray for Sister Lucia’s cause of beatification and canonization, Cabecinhas said in his most recent report on the case.
Let us approach her intercession with the same assurance with which the pilgrims of a century ago approached her with their prayers so that she may carry them to Our Lady.