By News room
Pope Francis and pilgrims from around the world are flocking to Fatima Mother Mary shrine in the North of Lisbon Portugal to honour two poor, illiterate shepherd children (Francisco and Jacinta) whose visions of the Virgin Mary 100 years ago marked one of the most important events of the 20th Century Catholic Church.
Pope Francis is to celebrate the centenary of the apparitions and canonize the children.
He is hoping the message of peace that they reported 100 years ago, when Europe was in the throes of World War I, will resonate with the Catholic faithful today.
On May 13, 1917, while they were grazing their sheep, the children saw the first of a half-dozen visions of the Virgin Mary revealing to them three secrets — apocalyptic messages foreshadowing World War II, hell, the rise and fall of communism and the death of a pope — and urged them to pray for peace and turn away from sin.
The Catholic Church officially accepted as an authentic apparition of Mother Mary in 1930 and the three children being canonized, brother and Sister Francisco and Jacinta Marto, who were 9 and 7 at the time of the apparitions, died of influenza two years later.
Their cousin, Lucia dos Santos, at 10 the ringleader of the group and who became the main raconteur of their tale, is on track for beatification.
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