What Happened To The Three Children To Whom The Virgin Mary Allegedly Appeared At Fatima In Portugal?
The three young shepherd children to whom the Virgin Mary is said to have appeared were Lucia Santos, aged 10 years old, and her two cousins Francisco and Jacinta Marto, aged 9 and 7 respectively. The apparition of Mary is said to have made number of predictions to the children, among which were that Francisco and Jacinta would die not long after. This indeed happened. Francisco died the following year and Jacinta died in 1920. Both had been profoundly affected by their experience of the vision, and afterwards spent much of the time that remained of their lives in prayer and church attendance. Lucia was the only one of the three children who had actually spoken to the apparition. In 1921 she left her home and went to live with an order of nuns, the Dorothean Sisters of Vilar. She formally joined the order in 1928. In 1946, she joined the Carmelite Sisters of Coimbra and remained with them until she died in 2005.
