Pope Francis will make two Portuguese shepherd children saints today, crowning a belief that started with reported visions of the Madonna 100 years ago which have turned the Shrine of Fatima into one of the most famous in Christianity.

Up to a million people are expected to attend the canonisation mass today at the shrine for the children, who the Vatican believes received messages from the Madonna that have become known as the three secrets of Fatima.

“For this blessed moment that culminates a century of blessed moments, I rejoice in your preparations of intense prayer,” the Pope said in a message as he arrived at Monte Real military airbase before praying at the Fatima shrine yesterday.

Fatima is a town in central Portugal where the apparitions were recorded. Portugal, one of Europe’s most Catholic countries, with 81 per cent of the population slef-described as belonging to the faith, the event is a big deal and the story of Fatima universally known.

“Welcome Pope Francis,” read a huge poster with images of the Pope and the shepherd children in central Lisbon.

Father Vitor Coutinho, deputy head of the sanctuary of Fatima, said the Pope was showing the importance of Fatima to the church by carrying out the canonisation there rather than in Rome, where they are usually done. “Therefore he is confirming that a life lived in the light of the spirituality of Fatima can lead to sainthood,” Coutinho said.

The story of shepherd children Francisco and Jacinta Marto has captivated Catholics since their first reported vision on May 13, 1917.

The Catholic Church posthumously confers sainthood on people considered so holy during their lives that they are now believed to be with God and can intercede with him to perform miracles.

The miracle performed by Francisco and Jacinta is believed to be saving a Brazilian boy, Lucas, who fell out of a window in 2013 and suffered life-threatening head injuries.

“All of us in the family started to pray to the shepherd children and, two days later, Lucas woke up and started to speak, asking about his sister,” the boy’s father, Joao Batista, told reporters. Lucas was released from hospital days later after making a complete recovery.

Sister Angela Coelho said she took up Lucas’s case in her role as postulator for the sainthoods of Francisco and Jacinta.

Portugal has taken a series of security measures for the pope’s visit, including reinstating border controls.

In the open space around Fatima special cement blocks have been placed to avoid the possibility of militant attacks such as those in Stockholm and Nice.

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