Blessed Jacinta Marto of Fatima

Joseph A. Cirrincione

• Publisher: TAN Books
• Year: 1992
• eBook ISBN: 9781505108286
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Christian Denominations

Dead at only 10, Bl. Jacinta, after the Fatima apparitions, had dedicated her life to perpetual reparation for the conversion of sinners and thus gained great sanctity. Here is her remarkable story!

Part I

THE THREE CHILDREN OF FATIMA

I first learned of the happenings at Fatima in 1947, when someone gave me a copy of a paperback edition of a book written by Finbar Ryan, then the Dominican Archbishop of Port-au-Prince, Haiti. It made a tremendous impression on me, and it amazed me that such extraordinary events could have occurred in 1917 and I was just then hearing of them, thirty years later. World War II had ended only two years before, and now I was reading that Our Lady had predicted it to three little children at Fatima, Portugal in 1917. This was something that I felt should be shouted from the housetops. I looked for other books on the subject and came across and read The Crusade of Fatima by Father John De Marchi, I.M.C. Next I obtained and read a copy of William Thomas Walsh's Our Lady of Fatima, as well as a book written by Barthas-Fonseca, entitled Our Lady of Light.

Equipped with this source material, I looked for an opportunity to share The Story of Fatima with a larger audience. The opportunity came when I discussed with a parishioner, who was program director of a local radio station, the possibility of doing just that by being given free air time. I succeeded in being given a half-hour every Sunday evening at 6:30 to tell The Story of Fatima, using the source material I had then compiled on Fatima. I began the series of talks on Sunday, January 11, 1948.

This is the story I told. There was in Portugal a small village or hamlet called Aljustrel. It was situated among the hills of a mountain range known as the Serra da Aire.

Here lived the three main characters of our story: Lucia dos Santos, who was born on March 22, 1907, the youngest of seven children of Antonio dos Santos and his wife, Maria Rosa; and Francisco and Jacinta Marto, Lucia's first cousins and the children of Manuel and Olimpia Marto. Olimpia was the sister of Lucia's father. Francisco was born June 11, 1908, and Jacinta on March 11, 1910. The two families were very close and lived on either side of a lane, for there were no streets as such in Aljustrel. Lucia's father owned a few parcels of land a short distance away that were used to graze the few sheep they owned and to grow vegetables for their table.

When the story of Fatima begins, Lucia's daily chore was each day to take the sheep out to graze. So strong was the attachment of Jacinta to her cousin, however, that she begged her mother to be able to go along with her, and therefore she was given a few sheep of her own to tend so that she and her brother could accompany their cousin to the hills.

Thus, the daily routine for the children was to get up early each morning, and after a breakfast of bread and soup, and packing a small lunch for midday, the three would release their sheep from the pens and lead them out to the pastureland nearby.

One of Lucia's earlier companions recalled that "Lucia was a lot of fun, and we loved to be with her because she was always so pleasant. We did whatever she told us to do. She could sing and dance very well, and we could spend our whole day singing and dancing."

One day, probably in 1915, before her cousins began to join her, Lucia was accompanied by three other girls. As they recited the Rosary after lunch, all noticed the sudden appearance of a cloud in a form like that of a man, hovering above the foliage of the valley. Lucia describes what she saw as "like a cloud whiter than snow, slightly transparent, with a human outline." The impression this made on them remained for a while, but eventually it was forgotten.

About a year later, Lucia and her cousins, now her regular companions, went to a section of her father's land that lies at the foot of what is known as the Cabeco. About midmorning, it began to drizzle, and the children, seeking shelter, climbed the slope and entered a protected area. After the rain stopped and the sun had come out, and after their lunch and Rosary, they started to play "jacks.

Lucia recalls: "We played only a short while, when a strong wind shook the trees and made us raise our eyes to see what was happening, for the day was serene. There above the trees, toward the East, we began to see a light, whiter than snow. It was in the form of a young man, transparent, more brilliant than is crystal when pierced by the rays of the sun. We were so surprised, we could not utter one word. He came near us and said: 'Fear not! I am the Angel of Peace. Pray with me.'"

The Angel knelt on the ground and bowed very low. By some inspiration, the children imitated him and repeated the words they heard him pronounce: "My God, I believe, I adore, I hope and I love You. I beg pardon for those who do not believe, do not hope and do not love You." He repeated this prayer three times. Then he arose and said: "Pray this way. The Hearts of Jesus and Mary are attentive to the voice of your supplications."

After the Angel disappeared, they remained for some time in the same position in which he had left them, repeating the same prayer over and over again.

The prayerful mood that the children were in eventually dissipated, and they were soon back to their daily routine of playing, singing and dancing.

As the summer heat became more intense, the three sought the shade of the fig, almond and olive trees at noontime, near a well in Lucia's yard.

Suddenly, one day, the Angel appeared a second time, saying: "What are you doing? Pray! Pray a good deal. The Hearts of Jesus and Mary have designs of mercy for you. Offer unceasingly to the Most High prayers and sacrifices!"

"But how are we to sacrifice ourselves?" Lucia said.

"Offer up everything in your power as a sacrifice to the Lord, as an act of reparation for the sins by which He is offended and of supplication for the conversion of sinners. Thus invoke peace upon our country. I am her Guardian Angel, the Angel of Portugal. Above all, accept and bear with submission the sufferings the Lord may send you."

Only Lucia and Jacinta heard the Angel's words. Francisco saw the Angel and knew he was speaking to the girls. Bursting with curiosity, he wanted to know what the Angel had said. "I will tell you tomorrow," Jacinta replied. "I am not able to speak to you now."

The next day, as soon as they got up, Francisco asked Jacinta, "Could you sleep last night? I was thinking of the Angel all night long, trying to guess what he said to you."

Lucia told him all the Angel had said. Jacinta added: "Take care, we must not speak of these matters."

In later years, Lucia revealed: "The words of the Angel were like a light that made us realize who God was, and He loved us and wanted to be loved; the value of sacrifice and to what degree it pleased Him, and how it was rewarded with the conversion of sinners. From that moment, we began to offer to the Lord everything that mortified us, without trying to find any other ways of mortification or penance." Later, "they passed hour after hour, bowed to the ground," repeating the prayer the Angel had taught them.

Along in late September, while the children were again tending their sheep, he appeared once more, beautiful, resplendent, dazzling, hovering in the air before them. This time, he held in one hand a chalice and in the other, over it, a Host. Leaving these suspended in the air, he prostrated himself on the ground and said: "Most Holy Trinity, Father, Son, Holy Spirit, I adore Thee profoundly and offer Thee the most precious Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ, present in all the tabernacles of the earth, in reparation for the outrages, sacrileges and indifference with which He Himself is offended. And through the infinite merits of His most Sacred Heart and of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, I beg of Thee the conversion of poor sinners."

He spoke these words three times. Then, rising up, he took the chalice and the Host, and kneeling on the flat rock, held them before him, saying:

"Take and drink the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ, horribly insulted by ungrateful men. Make reparation for their crimes and console your God."

They could see drops of Blood falling from the Host into the chalice. He placed the Host on Lucia's tongue. To Jacinta and Francisco, he presented the chalice, and they drank of it. Then, he prostrated himself once more on the ground and said the same prayer three times. The children repeated it with him. And then he was gone. As previously, Francisco had not heard the Angel speak, and he was anxious to learn everything.

"Lucia," he said, "I know that the Angel gave you Holy Communion. But what did he give me and Jacinta?"

"The same," Jacinta replied with joy. "Did you not see it was the Blood that dropped from the Host?"

"I felt that God was within me," he agreed, "but I did not know how."

The three remained kneeling on the ground for a long time, repeating over and over again the prayer of the Angel.

The month of May saw nature on the Serra revive after its long winter sleep. Spring flowers appeared like jewels to adorn the earth.

On Sunday, May 13, while World War I was raging like a fire over Europe, Lucia and her little companions met as usual after Mass, accompanied by the sheep, which, this day, they led to a deep hollow known as the Cova da Iria.

Leaving their sheep to graze about, when they heard the church bells ring in the distance, knowing it was time for the last Mass, they said the Rosary and chased up the hill to play.

It was a bright, cloudless day, and when they saw what seemed like a flash of lightning they became frightened and started down the hill. They were passing a tall oak tree when another shaft of light split the air. They stopped, turned to the right and there, standing over the foliage of the holmoak, they saw a beautiful Lady, all dressed in white. "Fear not," the Lady said. "I sh...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• CONTENTS
• Introduction
• Part I. The Three Children of Fatima
• Part II. The Story of Jacinta
• Part III. Epilogue—A Trip to Fatima