Sts. Francisco and Jacinta Marto
“You have hidden these things from the wise and the learned; you have revealed them to the childlike.”
The young shepherds of Fatima answered Mary’s reported apparitions with prayer, sacrifice, and peaceful trust during illness and early death.
The story
Francisco Marto was born on June 11, 1908, and his sister Jacinta on March 11, 1910, in Aljustrel, near Fatima in Portugal. Their parents, Manuel and Olímpia Marto, were farmers. The children tended sheep with their cousin Lúcia dos Santos. They grew up in a poor but firmly Catholic household and learned the prayers and duties common to rural Portuguese families.
Lúcia later testified that the three children experienced apparitions of an angel in 1916. From May 13 to October 13, 1917, they reported six apparitions of the Blessed Virgin Mary at the Cova da Iria. The message emphasized conversion, the Rosary, penance, and prayer for peace and for sinners. On October 13, a large crowd witnessed an unusual solar phenomenon, although reports differed about what was seen. After a formal investigation, the bishop of Leiria declared the apparitions worthy of belief in 1930. Fatima is an approved private revelation, not an addition to the deposit of faith, and Catholics are not required to accept it as they accept revealed dogma.
The children responded in distinct ways. Francisco became known for quiet prayer and a desire to console Jesus. Jacinta showed intense concern for sinners and offered the hardships of daily life for their conversion. In 1918, both became ill during the influenza pandemic. Francisco received his First Communion shortly before dying at home in Aljustrel on April 4, 1919. He was ten years old.
Jacinta endured worsening illness, including pneumonia and pleurisy. She was taken first to a hospital in Vila Nova de Ourém and later to Lisbon. After surgery, she died alone at Hospital Dona Estefânia on February 20, 1920, at the age of nine. The siblings were eventually buried at the Basilica of Our Lady of the Rosary in Fatima. Pope St. John Paul II beatified them there on May 13, 2000. Pope Francis canonized them at Fatima on May 13, 2017. They were the first non-martyred children to be canonized without having founded a religious community.
What Francisco teaches
Francisco and Jacinta show that holiness is not measured by age, education, or public influence. Their response to Fatima points back to the Gospel call to prayer and conversion. Private revelations may help Christians live the faith more fully, but they do not complete or correct Christ’s definitive revelation (CCC 67).
Patronage
children, sick children, Fatima pilgrims, prayer for sinners.
Prayer
God our Father, you gave Sts. Francisco and Jacinta courage to pray, suffer patiently, and seek the conversion of sinners. Through their intercession, make us faithful to the Rosary and attentive to Christ’s call to repentance. Protect children who are sick, frightened, or forgotten, and lead them into your peace. Amen.