A woman holds a rosary as she queues to pay her last respects to Sister Lucia Marto in Coimbra, Portugal. Photograph: Steven Governo/AP
Portugal's political parties postponed their election campaigns, flags flew at half-mast and thousands flocked to pray today in memory of a 97-year-old Roman Catholic nun who died at the weekend.
Sister Lucia Marto was the last of three shepherd children who claimed to have seen the Virgin Mary during a series of apparitions in 1917 in fields near the Portuguese town of Fatima.
The Virgin is said to have revealed predictions to them, such as world wars, the re-emergence of Christianity in Russia, and one that Catholic officials say foretold the 1981 assassination attempt on Pope John Paul II.
The apparitions began on May 13 1917, and Lucia, along with her cousins Jacinta and Francisco, subsequently saw them on the 13th of each month for the next five months.
Shortly after the apparitions, and as prophesised in them, both Jacinta and Francisco died of respiratory diseases, but Lucia became a nun and wrote two memoirs while living in the carmelite convent of Saint Teresa in the nearby city of Coimbra.
The Pope has claimed the Virgin of Fatima saved his life after he was shot by a Turkish gunman in St Peter's Square in 1981. The attack, which took place on May 13, coincided with the feast day of Our Lady of Fatima, and the pontiff credits the Virgin's intercession for his survival.
The Catholic Church built a shrine in Fatima in 1930, which is visited each year by millions of people from around the world. More than 100,000 people from dozens of countries routinely attend the annual commemorations of the sightings.
The Pope has visited the shrine three times, the last time in 2000, when he beatified Jacinta and Francisco.
The Bishop of Fatima, Serafim Ferreira e Silva, held a special service for Lucia yesterday at the town's shrine, and she was buried today at the convent that was her home for more than half a century in Coimbra.
