Last of Children to See Fatima Virgin Dies at 97

COMMENT: This is just bizarre. And, they call the Al-Queda Muslims fanatics.



LISBON (Reuters) - Lucia de Jesus dos Santos, the last of three children who claimed to see the Virgin at Fatima and who revealed a vision the Catholic Church said foretold the attempt to kill Pope John Paul (news - web sites), died on Sunday, the Church said. The Vatican (news - web sites) interpreted one part of the visions as foretelling the attempt to kill the Pope and Communism's persecution of Christianity. The apparitions took place the same year as the Russian Revolution.
In a sign of gratitude a year after the assassination attempt, the Pope had one of the 9mm bullets which Agca fired at him placed in the crown of the statue at Fatima.

The Vatican revealed its interpretation of the vision during the Pope's visit to Fatima in May 2000 on the anniversary of the assassination attempt. One of her last public appearances was with the Pope at Fatima. Dos Santos's recollection of the third part of the visions, which she wrote down in 1944, saw "a bishop dressed in white (and) we had the impression that it was the Holy Father." As the vision continued, the children say the Pope reaching the top of a mountain where "he was killed by a group of soldiers who fired bullets and arrows at him."

Dos Santos was born the youngest of seven children in a peasant family in Aljustrel, a village in central Portugal. In 1916 she experienced her first vision, when an angel appeared to the children, she wrote in her memoirs. On May 13, 1917, the Virgin Mary appeared to her and her cousins Jacinta and Francisco Marta on an oak tree. On her last appearance before an estimated 50,000 onlookers, witnesses claim to have experienced a 15-minute spectacle of bright lights and rainbow colors.

One of her last visitors was actor Mel Gibson, director of the 2004 movie "The Passion of The Christ." He met her at the convent in July 2004 and gave her a DVD of his movie.