Jacinta and Francisco Marto

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Francisco Marto (1908-1919) and his sister Jacinta Marto (1910-1920), also known as Blessed Francisco Marto and Blessed Jacinta Marto, together with their cousin, Lúcia dos Santos (1907-2005) were the children from Aljustrel near Fátima, Portugal who reported witnessing three apparitions of an angel in 1916 and several apparitions of the Blessed Virgin Mary in 1917.

The youngest children of Manuel and Olimpia Marto, Francisco and Jacinta 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.

[edit] Illness and death

All three children, but particularly Francisco and Jacinta, 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 hospital treatment 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 that 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.

[edit] Beatification

The cause for the siblings' canonization began during 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) in a decree from the Congregation for the Causes of Saints in Rome, approved by Pope John Paul II on 13 May 1989.

John Paul made a pilgrimage to Fátima on 13 May 2000 to declare them "blessed". Their feast day is 20th February. Jacinta is the youngest non-martyred child ever to be beatified.

During the homily, the pope 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 questioned 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 whom she saw being killed, Cardinal Ratzinger (now Pope Benedict XVI) 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 believed that his assassination was prevented by the prayers of people like Jacinta and coming as it did on May 13, 1981, the anniversary of the first apparition at Fatima, also that this was a sign of the special protection of Mary on that fateful day.

[edit] External links

• The Beatification Coverage of the procedures by which Francisco and Jacinta will be declared Blesseds.