From child shepherds to saints

Two young, barely literate shepherds who had visions of the Virgin Mary 100 years ago in Fatima, a Portuguese site now a global draw for pilgrims, were declared saints Saturday by Pope Francis.

In an emotional outdoor service on a packed esplanade at the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Fatima, Catholic worshippers from around the world sang and looked on, some crying, while many more watched the canonisation on giant screens from adjacent streets.

Altogether, about 500,000 people were present, the Vatican said in a statement, quoting local authorities.

“We declare the blissful Francisco Marto and Jacinta Marto saints,” the Argentine pontiff said in front of the white basilica where the siblings are buried, with two giant portraits of the child shepherds hanging in the background. When the two impoverished siblings first reportedly had visions of the Virgin Mary 100 years ago on the spot where the sanctuary now lies, they were probably far from imagining they would one day join the ranks of prominent saints like Mother Teresa.

The Virgin Mary is said to have appeared six times between May and October 1917 to Jacinta, then 7, Francisco, 9 and their cousin Lucia, 10.

She apparently shared three prophesies with the trio at a period marked by the ravages of World War I, which the Church believes included a vision of hell and a warning of a second major conflict.

The third secret, which was made public by the Vatican only in 2000, foretold the attempted assassination in Rome of Pope John Paul II on May 13, 1981.

The siblings were canonised after the Church officially attributed two miracles to the pair. Wheelchair-bound Maria Emilia Santos said she regained the ability to walk on February 20, 1989, the anniversary of Jacinta’s death, after praying to her. And the parents of a Brazilian boy say he healed at lightning speed after falling more than six metres from a window in 2013, after they prayed to Jacinta and Francisco.