Two of the three shepherd children who claimed to have witnessed apparitions of the Virgin Mary in Portugal in 1917 are likely to be canonised as saints by Pope Francis during his pilgrimage to Fátima in May, though the timing has yet to be confirmed by the Vatican.
The canonisation is now much anticipated following Pope Francis’ official recognition of the so-called ‘Miracle of the Sun’ witnessed by Jacinta and Francisco Marto, cousins of the eldest seer, Lúcia Santos.
The Vatican has announced that Pope Francis signed the recognition decree during a meeting with Cardinal Angelo Amato, prefect of the Congregation for Saints’ Causes.
The cardinals and bishops who are members of the congregation must vote to recommend their canonisation and then the Pope would convene the cardinals resident in Rome for a consistory to approve the sainthood, reports the Catholic Herald.
The miracle was widely reported on in October 1917 at the time of the last of six successive monthly Marian visions at Fátma.
The Marto siblings were beatified by Pope John Paul II in 2000. Official approval by the Vatican of a miracle is required to elevate beatification to canonisation.
Francisco Marto, born in 1908 and the second youngest of the Fátima seers, died in 1919, a victim of the 1918 influenza pandemic that swept through Europe. Originally buried with little ceremony in the cemetery of the local parish church, his remains were exhumed in 1935 and transferred to a tomb in Fátima shrine. His remains were exhumed again in 1951.
Jacinta Marto, the youngest of the visionaries at seven-years of age, fell seriously ill in 1919 and suffered considerably before dying in February the following year, ten days after an operation in Lisbon's Dona Estafánia Hospital. Buried in Vila Nova de Ourém, her remains were exhumed in 1935 and again in 1951.
Lúcia de Jesus Santos, the principle visionary then aged ten, died in 2002 at the age of 95. The process of beatifying and canonising Sister Lúcia has been speeded up, as it was for such luminaries as Mother Teresa and Pope John Paul II.
All three of the Fátima seers now rest together in the basilica in the Fátima sanctuary, which will welcome hundreds of thousands of pilgrims from all over the world this centenary year. The Pope will visit on 12th and 13th May.
Lúcia, Francisco and Jacinta
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