Catholics mourn death of last living witness of Virgin Mary visions seen in Fatima, Portugal

VATICAN CITY - Pope John Paul II and other Catholics mourned the death of the last of the shepherd children said to have received prophecies from the Virgin Mary at Fatima, Portugal, in 1917.

Portuguese Prime Minister Pedro Santana Lopez declared Feb. 15 a day of national mourning for Lucia de Jesus dos Santos, who died Feb. 13 at age 97.

Lucia and her two younger cousins became celebrated throughout the Catholic world for reporting visions of and messages from the Virgin Mary starting on May 13, 1917.

The on-site Shrine of Fatima is one of Catholicism's most visited sanctuaries, attracting 3.75 million pilgrims last year.

Except for martyrs, the Marto children, who died in an epidemic of Spanish influenza in 1919 and 1920, were the youngest ever to be declared blessed.

The pope received word March 13 that Lucia had died in the Carmelite Convent of Santa Teresa at Coimbra in central Portugal, where she had lived a life of prayer and contemplation since 1948. She had been blind and deaf for some years.