Pope canoness Fatima visionaries, giving Church new children saints

FATIMA — Pope Francis gave the Catholic Church two of its youngest saints yesterday, canonizing shepherd siblings believed to have seen the Madonna 100 years ago in a Portuguese town that is now a major pilgrimage site.

Hundreds of thousands of people, many of whom slept outdoors to hold their places, broke into applause as the leader of the world’s 1,2 billion Catholics proclaimed the siblings — Francisco and Jacinta Marto — the newest of the Church’s saints.

The two died at the ages of 10 and nine years old, within three years of the 1917 apparitions, making them the youngest saints of the Church who were not martyrs.

The Virgin of Fatima is venerated by Catholics around the world, a following underscored by the many national flags fluttering in the huge crowd, estimated at more than half a million.

Marie Chantal (57), a life-long devotee, travelled more than 9 000km from the island of Reunion in the Indian Ocean to attend the ceremony.

“I am very emotional because this Pope is truly merciful and close to the people and I think he will bring us many good things,” she said.

In the homily of a huge outdoor mass, Francis prayed that the Madonna would protect the most vulnerable members of society, “especially the sick and the disabled, prisoners and the unemployed, the poor and the abandoned”.

Two huge tapestries made from century-old photographs of the children dressed in the traditional peasant garb of the times hung from the church that is now the focal point of the sanctuary visited by about seven million people each year. — Reuters