Francisco and Jacinta Marto
Jacinta Marto (1910-1920) and her brother Francisco Marto (1908-1919), also known as Blessed Jacinta Marto and Blessed Francisco Marto, together with their cousin, Lúcia dos Santos (1907-2005) were the children from Aljustrel near Fátima in Portugal who reported witnessing two apparitions of an angel in 1916 and several apparitions of the Blessed Virgin Mary in 1917.
The youngest children of Olimpia and Manuel Marto, Jacinta and Francisco were typical of Portuguese village children of that time. They were illiterate but had a rich oral tradition to rely on, and they worked with their cousin Lucia, taking care of the family's sheep. According to Lucia's memoirs, Francisco had a placid disposition, was somewhat musically inclined, and liked to be by himself to think. Jacinta was affectionate if a bit spoiled, and emotionally labile. She had a sweet singing voice and a gift for dancing. All three children gave up music and dancing after the visions began, believing that these and other recreational activities led to occasions of sin.
Following their experiences, their fundamental personalities remained the same; Francisco preferred to pray alone, as he said "to console Jesus for the sins of the world". Jacinta was deeply affected by a terrifying vision of Hell reportedly shown to the children at the third apparition. She became almost morbidly obsessed with the notion of saving sinners through penance and sacrifice as the Virgin had reportedly instructed the children to do.
All three children, but particularly Jacinta and Francisco, practiced stringent self-mortifications. They may have debilitated themselves through constant self-denial, such as fasting and refusing water. In any case, the siblings were victims of the great influenza epidemic which swept through Europe in 1918. Both lingered for many months, insisting on walking to church to make Eucharistic devotions and prostrating themselves to pray for hours, kneeling with their heads on the ground as instructed by the angel who had first appeared to them.
Francisco declined and died peacefully at home, while Jacinta was dragged from one hospital to another in an attempt to save her life which she insisted was futile. She developed purulent pleurisy and endured an operation in which two of her ribs were removed. Because of the condition of her heart, she could not be anesthetized and suffered terrible pain, which she said would help to convert many sinners. On February 20, 1920, Jacinta asked the hospital chaplain who heard her confession to bring her Holy Communion and give her the Anointing of the Sick because she was going to die "this very night". He told her her condition was not that serious, and that he would return the next day. A few hours later Jacinta was dead. She had died, as she had often said she would, alone; not even a nurse was with her.
During her years of work with critically ill and dying children, Dr. Helen Caldicott observed that many such children are able to self-assess their condition as Jacinta did without benefit of supernatural abilities. She recommends that requests and predictions such as Jacinta made should be taken seriously.
The cause for the siblings' canonization was turned in in 1946. Exhumed in 1935 and again in 1951, Jacinta's body was found incorrupt. Francisco's had decomposed. They were declared "venerable" (two steps away from sainthood) by Pope John Paul II in a public ceremony at Fatima on 13 May1989.
John Paul returned there on 13 May 2000 to declare them "blessed". (See Canonization for more on that process). During the homily, he made reference to his assassination attempt in 1981. While always crediting the role of the Virgin Mary in saving his life, John Paul on this occasion also thanked Jacinta, "for her prayers and sacrifices for the Holy Father, who she saw suffering greatly." Supposedly Jacinta had received a number of visions referring to the future sufferings of a pope, which made her so concerned for his welfare.
This of course came more sharply into focus with the revelation of the Third Secret of Fatima the following month, indicating that the pope in fact would be assassinated. Sr Lucia when questoned about the Third Secret recalled that the three of them were very sad about the suffering of the Pope, and that Jacinta kept saying: “Coitadinho do Santo Padre, tenho muita pena dos pecadores!” (“Poor Holy Father, I am very sad for sinners!”). Sister Lucia continued: “We did not know the name of the Pope; Our Lady did not tell us the name of the Pope; we did not know whether it was Benedict XV or Pius XII or Paul VI or John Paul II; but it was the Pope who was suffering and that made us suffer too”.
Looking at this through the prism of Jacinta's prayers and sacrfices for the pope whome she saw being killed, Cardinal Ratzinger in interpreting the Third Secret said, "That here “a mother's hand” had deflected the fateful bullet only shows once more that there is no immutable destiny, that faith and prayer are forces which can influence history and that in the end prayer is more powerful than bullets and faith more powerful than armies."
John Paul believes the prayers of people like Jacinta prevented this, and the attempt on his life coming as it did on May 13, 1981, the anniversary of the first apparition at Fatima to be of great significance here, as a sign of the special protection of Mary on that fateful day.
Jacinta is the youngest non-martyred child ever to be beatified.
Beatification
Pope John Paul II beatified Jacinta Marto and Francisco Marto on 13th May 2000. Their feast day is 20th February.
External links
- The Beatification Coverage of the procedures by which Francisco and Jacinta will be declared Saints.
- The Fatima Center provides detailed analysis on the Fatima apparitions