Portugal is observing a day of mourning today to mark the death of the last of three children who claimed to have seen the Virgin Mary at Fatima.
Lucia de Jesus dos Santos, who as a child in 1917 described visions that the Catholic Church said foretold the attempt to kill Pope John Paul in 1981, died aged 97 on Sunday at her Carmelite convent in Coimbra, 150 kilometres north of Lisbon.
Hundreds of mourners, many bearing flowers and carrying rosaries, lined up at the whitewashed convent chapel to pass the open coffin, which was laid out behind a heavy grating.
Ms Dos Santos is to be buried at the convent today. Her remains will be transferred in a year to nearby Fatima, one of Catholicism's major pilgrimage sites.
Prime Minister Pedro Santana Lopes late on Sunday declared today a day of national mourning. A spokesman said he may attend the funeral.
Ms Dos Santos was said by believers to be the main recipient of prophecies from the Virgin about key 20th century events. The first part of the prophecies saw a vision of hell, the second predicted the outbreak of World War Two.
The Vatican interpreted a third part of the visions as foretelling the attempt to kill the Pope and Communism's persecution of Christianity.
The Church kept the details secret for decades until they were revealed during the Pope's visit to Fatima in 2000.
The other two children - Ms dos Santos's cousins Jacinta and Francisco Marto - died in 1919 and 1920. The two were beatified, the last step to sainthood, in 2000.