Artur Santos

Career

Although he had little formal education, Santos was made the editor the local newspaper Ouriense, in which he displayed his anti-monarchical and anti-religious opinions. In his twenties he was elected to the Masonic lodge of Leiria, and then founded a separate Lodge at Vila Nova de Ourem, his native village. Shortly after that he was made mayor or administrator of the county. He possessed the corollary titles of President of the Town Hall and Judge Substitute of Comarca, and was, at the time of the apparitions, the most influential man in his area of Portugal.

Role in the Fatima apparitions

Santos was known for his hostility towards organized religion in general and Catholicism in particular. He was especially hostile with regards to the apparitions and repeatedly sent law enforcement officials to seek to impede public access to the site. He went so far as to kidnap the three children and place them in jail, in order to prevent them from proclaiming another apparition. Years later, Lucia would recall how the three had been jailed, and that Santos had threatened the children with being boiled in oil unless they revealed to him the secret which they had reported receiving from the Lady.

In his later years, Santos professed to be a Christian, but he denied going to Mass or Confession. He sent a letter to a newspaper stating his side of the story on the issue of having arrested the children. Although stripped of political offices in his later years, he would talk of the relative fame he had once had, and he would take pride in his assertion that he was known all over the world "and in Russia, too".