On February 13, 2005, Sr. Lucia dos Santos, the last living Fatima visionary died at the age of 97. Her childhood apparitions took place on the 13th of the months of May through October in 1917. It was Providential that she died on a “13th.†Pope John Paul II, very ill himself, and nearing the end of his own life, was not able to attend Sr. Lucia’s funeral, but he sent a letter in which he expressed his sorrow and extended his blessing to her. With the fulfillment of the Consecration that Our Lady had requested in Fatima accomplished by John Paul II, in union with the bishops on March 25, 1984, and with the release of the Third Secret of Fatima on June 26, 2000, and with the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the establishment of a diplomatic relationship between the Vatican and Russia—Sr. Lucia had seen the fulfillment of everything Our Lady had asked of her and could die a peaceful death.
