In Preparation for the 100th Anniversary of Fatima on Friday...

...read this wonderful account of Lucia's experiences. It begins:

Editor’s note: The following, commemorating the 100th anniversary of the apparitions at Fatima, come from Jonathan and Clara Fleischmann. This is Part I of a four-part series. Parts I and II were originally published by Missio Immaculatae Magazine and are edited and reprinted here with the authors’ permission. 

Introducing Lucia 

Lucia de Jesus dos Santos, also known as Lucia of Fatima, or by her religious name, Sr. Maria Lucia de Jesus e do Coração Imaculado (Maria Lucia of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart), OCD, was born on March 28, 1907, in Aljustrel, a parish of Fatima, Portugal. She was the seventh [1] and youngest child of António Santos and Maria Rosa. They were hardworking and happy peasants, not poor, as they had good fertile land and a sizeable herd of sheep. Lucia was a loved and almost spoiled little girl, as she relates in her memoirs: Read more here.