Sister Lucia is “a national symbol”, an example of “simplicity and fidelity”: that’s how Cardinal José Policarpo, Patriarch of Lisbon, defined the seer of Fatima in his homily during the funeral that took place at Coimbra on 15 February (a day of national mourning). The cathedral was packed with thousands of faithful, and many more were unable to get in. The pontifical envoy, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, prefect of the Congregation for the Faith, also participated in the rite. Sister Lucia died at the age of 97 in the Carmelite convent of Coimbra on 13 February. She was the elder of the three shepherd children aged 10, 9 and 7 who, beginning on 13 May 1917, witnessed the apparitions of Our Lady at Fatima. The other two, brother and sister Francisco and Jacinta Marcos as announced during the apparitions died just a few years later. The process of canonization has already been begun for them, and it is said that the process for that of Sister Lucia will soon be opened. “The death of this woman touches Portugal deeply”, said Cardinal Policarpo: “When a national community is able to recognize in the simplicity of a nun a symbol that speaks to everyone, this is undoubtedly a sign of hope for us all”. Sister Lucia’s “simplicity and fidelity in performing her own mission” was repeatedly stressed by the celebrant: “What was extraordinary in the life of this woman forms a normal part of the Christian vocation”. “Lucia was the spokesperson of the apparitions”, said the Patriarch, expressing the hope that the whole Church might soon have access “to the immense spiritual doctrine written by this woman, so simple and yet so great”. Before dying, Sister Lucia had time to read the last message that the Pope sent to her on Saturday 12 February. In his letter John Paul II expressed his closeness to the Carmelite sister and gave her his blessing. He said he was praying for her that she might “experience this moment of suffering, pain and offering with the spirit of Easter, of passover”. The Pope has always maintained it was Our Lady of Fatima who deviated the bullet of Alì Agca that struck him on 13 May 1981. Indeed, during his visit to Fatima on 13 May 2004 on the anniversary of the attempt on his life, he instructed that the bullet extracted from his intestine be enshrined in the halo of the statue of the Virgin. The third secret of Fatima, hitherto secret, was also revealed on that occasion. It spoke of the “bishop dressed in white” who fell to the ground “as if dead” and of the struggle “of the atheist systems against the Church and Christians”, referring to the USSR and the countries of the Communist bloc.
