Sister Lucia: "There is no problem that the Rosary cannot solve."

Sister Mary Lucia of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart · Coimbra, 2005

The Fatima witness

Sister Lucia dos Santos (1907-2005) was the last seer of Fatima. Francisca and Jacinta - their cousins - died in 1919 and 1920 respectively, being children, victims of the Spanish flu. Lucia lived 97 years, the last 57 as a barefoot Carmelite in the convent of Coimbra (Portugal). He witnessed the whole of the 20th century: the two world wars, the cold war, the Second Vatican Council, the pontificate of John Paul II, the 11-S attacks.

The phrase that sums up your life

In the numerous letters and interviews that Sister Lucia granted throughout his life, there is a phrase that appears over and over again, expressed in different ways but with the same content: "There is no problem in the world, however great, that the Holy Rosary cannot solve." It was not a pious phrase of circumstances: it was the conviction forged in decades of prayer and in the testimony of having seen the consequences of the rosary prayed or not prayed.

The visions of Pontevedra and Tuy

Before entering the carmel, Sister Lucia was dorotic. In Pontevedra (1925) the Virgin appeared to him with the Immaculate Heart and the Child Jesus, and asked for the devotion of the Five First Saturdays. In Tuy (1929), a Eucharistic apparition - of the Most Holy Trinity, the Virgin and several figures - revealed the text of Russia's consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

Pope John Paul II visited her in his convent of Coimbra on 13 May 1982 (anniversary of the previous year's attack) and in May 2000. When the Pope read to him the text of the Third Secret of Fatima that would be made public that year, Sister Lucia said quietly: "That is what the Virgin showed me."

The last witness

Sister Lucía died on 13 February 2005, at the age of 97, in the convent of Coimbra. His cause of beatification was opened in 2008. Pope Francis allowed the exemption of five years of regulatory waiting, given the exceptional nature of his testimony.

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