LÚCIA DOS SANTOS was one of three children who apparently saw a series of visions of the Virgin Mary at Fatima, Portugal, in 1917. The news that the Virgin had promised to appear at an appointed spot for six months spread, and Fatima became an important pilgrimage site. Some years after these events Lúcia joined an order of nuns and passed the remainder of her life in virtual seclusion.

Lúcia was born in 1907, the youngest of seven children, in Aljustrel, a village in the parish of Fatima, west-central Portugal, some 110 km (70 miles) north of Lisbon. Although her parents were not especially religious, she had made her first confession and Communion by the age of 7. At 10 she was being sent out to the hills to watch her parents’ sheep. Her cousins, Francisco and Jacinta Marto, two and four years her junior, were allowed to go with her.

In the spring and summer of 1916, they were visited three times by a figure who introduced himself as the angel of peace and later explained that he was the angel of Portugal. He taught them to pray and urged them to do so regularly: only this way would they be able to bring peace to their country.

On his third visit the angel offered Lúcia the Host and Francisco and Jacinta the contents of a chalice, into which drops of blood had dripped from the bread.

The following year, on the 13th of each month between May and October (except August when they were imprisoned by the mayor of the district, who had hoped to force them to recant — and even then their appointment was merely postponed by two days), the three children claimed to be visited by the Virgin Mary by an oak tree at the Cova da Iria, some arid pastureland owned by Lúcia’s father.

Lúcia was the principal beneficiary of the Virgin’s attention, according to interviews of the children. Francisco could only see the figure, and while Jacinta heard her too, it was Lúcia whom the apparition addressed.

Initially the news of the apparitions was received with scepticism, and the children were threatened, beaten and even accused of seeing demonic hallucinations. It was only the last time she appeared, on October 13, 1917, that she revealed herself to be the “Lady of the Rosary” — and performed a miracle for the gathered crowds, an estimated 50,000: “It might have been an eclipse which was taking place,” the anti-clerical, pro-government Lisbon paper, O Seculo, reported shortly after the incident. “Before the astonished eyes of the crowd. . .the sun trembled, made sudden incredible movements outside all cosmic laws — the sun ‘danced’ according to the typical expression of the people.”

The Virgin spoke to the children about their futures and about 20th-century world events. This constituted the first part of the controversial “Secret” of Fatima, which has only become public in the past five years. The second part told of the outbreak of the Second World War, the horrors that Russia would spread through communism and Christianity’s eventual triumph over it. The third part, written down in 1944, when Lúcia was seriously ill, was sealed in an envelope and sent to the Pope who decided that it should remain unpublished, as did his successor. Pope John Paul II, however, identified himself as the protagonist in the vision. After the beatification on May 13, 2000, of the two “little shepherds”, Francisco and Jacinta, who had died of influenza shortly after their experiences of 1917, he chose to reveal the third part of the Secret.

The “Third Secret”, which some refuse to accept as having been revealed in full, despite Lúcia’s assurances, describes a bishop dressed in white “who is caught up in a battle against an atheistic system that oppresses the Church”. That bishop “falls to the ground, as if dead” — Pope John Paul believes that this figure was himself and it was the attempt by a Turkish gunman to assassinate him in St Peter’s Square on May 13, 1981, that is being detailed. He attributes his survival to the Virgin of Fatima.

Fatima swiftly became a place of pilgrimage — it is one of the most popular Marian shrines in the world. In 1921 Lúcia had to leave her home to escape the attentions of the adoring faithful and the prying sceptical. In 1925 she joined the Sisters of St Dorothy near Porto, where she changed her name to Maria de los Dolores and was told not to speak of her apparitions. She was later moved to a convent at Pontevedra in Spain. Only in 1930 were her visions officially given credence within the Church. In 1948 Sister Maria entered the Carmelite convent in Coimbra, Portugal, where she remained until the end of her life.

She had a number of other visions, most particularly concerning the Virgin. Fatima in Lúcia’s Own Words was published in 1976 and has been through numerous editions and Os apelos da mensagem de Fatima, (Appeals of the Fatima Message), appeared in 2001. In it Sister Maria sought to clarify “the advice and appeals that correspond to Our Lady’s wishes”, particularly in the light of rumours that abounded after the events of September 11, that the “Third Secret” had not been fully disclosed.

Sister Lúcia Dos Santos, OCD, one of three children who claimed to see the Virgin Mary at Fatima, Portugal, was born on March 22, 1907. She died on February 13, 2005, aged 97.