Sister Lucia's Beatification Process to Begin

Sister Lucia's Beatification Process to Begin

Pope Waves 5-Year Waiting Period

VATICAN CITY, FEB. 13, 2008 (Zenit.org).- Benedict XVI announced he

will dispense with the five-year waiting period established by Canon Law  to open the cause of beatification of Sister Lucia, one of the three Fatima visionaries.

The news was announced today in the cathedral of Coimbra, Portugal, by

 Cardinal José Saraiva Martins, prefect of the Congregation for Saints'

 Causes, on the third anniversary of the Carmelite's death.

The Holy Father dispensed with the established waiting period once

before for the cause of Pope John Paul II. Benedict XVI made the

announcement on May 13, the feast of Our Lady of Fatima, some 42 days after the Pontiff's death in 2005.

John Paul II waived the waiting period in the case of Blessed Teresa of

Calcutta. The blessed died Sept. 5, 1997, and was beatified by John

Paul II on Oct. 19, 2003.

A communiqué of the Vatican press office states: "Benedict XVI, taking

into account the petition presented by Bishop Albino Mamede Cleto of Coimbra, and supported by numerous bishops and faithful from all parts of the world, has revoked the five-year waiting period established by the canonical norms (cf. Article 9 of the 'Normae Servandae'), and he has allowed for the diocesan phase of the Carmelite's cause of

beatification to begin three years after her death."

Apparitions

Lucia de Jesus dos Santos was 10 years old when she said she saw for

the first time, on May 13, 1917, a lady whom she later identified as the Blessed Virgin Mary, in the Cova de Iria.

She saw the vision with her cousins Francisco and Jacinta Marto, who

were beatified by John Paul II in Fatima, in 2000.

In a pastoral letter dated Oct. 13, 1930, the bishop of Leiria-Fatima,

José Alves Correia da Silva, declared the apparitions of Fatima worthy

of faith and allowed public devotion. Since then, the shrine has become

a center of spirituality and pilgrimage of international scope.

Born in Aljustrel in 1907, Lucia moved to Oporto in 1921, and at 14 was

admitted as a boarder in the School of the Sisters of St. Dorothy in

Vilar, on the city's outskirts.

On Oct. 24, 1925, she entered the Institute of the Sisters of St.

Dorothy and at the same time was admitted as a postulant in the

congregation's convent in Tuy, Spain, near the Portuguese border. She made her first vows on Oct. 3, 1928, and her perpetual vows on Oct. 3, 1934, receiving the name Sister Mary of the Sorrowful Mother.

She returned to Portugal in 1946 and two years later entered the

Carmelite convent of St. Teresa in Coimbra, where she made her profession as a Discalced Carmelite on May 31, 1949, taking the name Sister Maria Lucia of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart.

She wrote two volumes, one entitled "Memories" and the other "Appeals

of the Fatima Message." In her writings, she recounts how the Virgin

Mary and Child Jesus appeared to her on other occasions, years after the initial apparitions.

The mortal remains of the Carmelite were moved in 2006 to the Shrine of

Fatima. The body of the nun, who died at age 97, is buried next to

 Jacinta. Francisco is buried in the same basilica.