However, prior to that she was also a professed nun. After the early death of her two cousins in 1919 and 1920. Lucia went to a boarding school in Oporto run by the Dorothen Sisters. In 1925 she entered their Novitiate in Spain as there were no schools of formation in Portugal at the time following an era of religious persecution. She made her final profession in 1928 and remained in Spain until 1946 when she returned to Portugal.
Although professed a Dorothean Sister, in 1948, through the intervention of Pope Pius Xll, Lucia transferred to the discalced Carmelites in Coimbra.
Whist in Spain, she received apparitions of Our Lady, in 1925 in the convent of Pontevedra and in 1929 at Tuy. I think that's right. Someone will set me straight if it's not.
Hope this helps.
thank you marshmallow