May 14 (UPI) — Pope Francis canonized two shepherd children in Fatima, Portugal, on Saturday, 100 years after they said they saw visions of the Virgin Mary.
Jacinta and Francisco Marto were declared saints by Pope Francis at a mass in Fatima. The children told skeptical elders they witnessed six apparitions of the Virgin Mary while tending sheep with their older cousin Lucia de Jesus dos Santos between May 13, 1917, and Oct. 13, 1917. The Roman Catholic Church later confirmed the visions, making Fatima a main pilgrimage site.
“We declare the blissful Francisco Marto and Jacinta Marto saints,” the Pope said to a crowd the Vatican estimated contained about 500,000 people.
The Vatican said Jacinta, Francisco and Lucia were 7, 9 and 10 respectively when they witnessed the Virgin Mary. The Marto children died during the European influenza pandemic in 1918.
Dos Santos, who made a written recording of the visions, died in 2005 at the age of 97. The process for her sainthood began in 2008.
When composing her memoirs in 1941, dos Santos wrote of “three secrets” the children were told by the Virgin Mary. The first two described visions of World War I and the dangers of Soviet Communism. The third foretold of an angel demanding “penance!” before the pope and other clergy climbed a mountain to be killed by soldiers firing bullets and arrows.
Pope John Paul II credited the Virgin Mary of Fatima and the “secret,” which was delivered to the Vatican in a sealed envelope in 1957, with surviving an assassination attempt on the anniversary of the visions in 1981.
Portugal increased security and temporarily re-instated border controls as one million pilgrims were expected to visit the country from around the world.
