Centennial sainthood

Richard A. Sokerka

Of all Marian apparitions, those relating to Our Lady of Fatima are among the most famous. On May 13, 1917, siblings Francisco, 9, and Jacinta, 7, and their cousin, 10-year-old Lucia, took their sheep to graze near the Portuguese town of Fatima when they saw a figure of a woman dressed in white and holding a rosary.

After this first appearance, the Virgin Mary then appeared to the children on the 13th of every month from May until October. The message of the Fatima apparitions can be summarized primarily as a call to repentance and prayer. In 1930, the Church proclaimed the supernatural character of the apparitions and a shrine was erected at Fatima.

This year the Church celebrates the 100th anniversary of the first apparition of the Blessed Mother at Fatima. To mark the centennial, not only will Pope Francis visit Fatima May 12-13, he will also canonize Blessed Francisco, who died in 1919, and Blessed Jacinta, who died in 1920. On March 23, the children cleared the final hurdle to sainthood when Pope Francis approved a second and final miracle attributed to their intercession needed for sainthood. When Pope John Paul II beatified Francisco and Jacinta on May 13, 2000, they became the youngest non-martyrs to be beatified in the history of the Church. Their cousin, Lucia, went on to become a nun, and died in 2005 at 97. Her cause for beatification is under way.

Fatima is visited annually by more than one million pilgrims. The centenary of the Blessed Mother’s apparitions to the shepherd children will truly be a unique celebration in which the whole Church turns with special and renewed devotion to Mary, fervently praying to her for conversion in our troubled society and world.