Born Lucia Dos Santos, the 97-year-old Carmelite nun was the last of the three visionaries who saw and spoke with the Virgin Mary.

The other two, her cousins Jacinta and Francisco Marta, died during the influenza pandemic in 1919 and 1920.

While playing in a field outside the village of Fatima during World War I, the three children saw a flash of light on top of a small evergreen tree. The light, the children said, turned out to be the Virgin Mary, who asked that they come back on the 13th of each month for the next six months, at which times she would tell them who she was and what she wanted.

During the apparitions, Mary made several prophecies, telling the children that if man did not stop offending God, a second great war would begin during the reign of Pope Pius XI. Twenty-Two years later, World War II broke out in Europe.

She also warned that Russia, unless converted, would wreak havoc upon the world. This was before the rise of the Soviet Union.

Mary also confided to the girls the so-called Third Secret. The secret was to be read by the pope in office in 1960 and then publicized. As it turned out, Pope John XXIII was the pope at that time. He read the secret and decided not to reveal its contents.

The contents of the Third Secret were shared with John XXIII's successors. In June 2000, Pope John Paul II released the Third Secret. The message, as recounted by Lucia, warned of tribulation for the world and persecution of the Catholic Church, including the shooting of the pope.

Sister Lucia recently made headlines when it was revealed that she and the other sisters in her convent were met by actor Mel Gibson, who gave the nuns a private showing of his film "The Passion of the Christ."

NewsMax reported on this meeting last month in Mel Gibson's Secret Meeting With Fatima Visionary.

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