Fátima shepherds to be canonised on centenary of apparitions

Pope Francis will canonise two of the three children, siblings Francisco and Jacinta Marto, who witnessed the apparitions of Our Lady in Fátima 100 years ago. The ceremony will take place on 13 May, the centenary of the first apparition, during Francis’ visit to the shrine, writes Filipe Avillez.

Pope Francis’ trip to Fátima had already been set months before the confirmation of a miracle attributed to the intercession of the shepherd children. The Portuguese Church had been cautiously optimistic that the Pope would set the date of the canonisation for his visit to the area on 12-13 May, and this was confirmed on Thursday of last week during a consistory of cardinals.

The canonisations will be made official at the end of a 10 a.m. open-air Mass on 13 May, which hundreds of thousands of people are expected to attend.

Blesseds Francisco and Jacinta will become the youngest children, apart from martyrs, to be recognised as saints by the Church, once they are canonised.

Francisco died, aged 10, in 1919 while his sister, Jacinta, died a year later, aged nine. Their older cousin, Lúcia, survived them and became a Carmelite nun. The cause for her beatification is already underway.

The Bishop of Leiria-Fátima, Antonio Marto, said: “The canonisation is a great gift to our diocese as well as to the Shrine of Fátima, the Church in Portugal and the Universal Church. Indeed to all who recognise the shepherd children as a shining example of a path to holiness which, through the immaculate heart of Mary, leads us to God”

Fr Carlos Cabecinhas, Rector of the Shrine of Fátima, said the canonisations were a “recognition of the importance of Fátima for the world and of Fátima as a true ‘school of sainthood’  … the canonisation of Francisco and Jacinta will be the crowning moment of the centenary of the apparitions”.  

Cardinal Dom Manuel Clemente, the Patriarch of Lisbon, said: “What they heard, what they told us, is as important now as it was then. These children, with the mother of Jesus, understood very clearly the evil of the world, but above all, and even more clearly, how this evil can be overcome by placing ourselves at God’s side.”