20 February

BLESSED FRANCISCO MARTO

AND BLESSED JACINTA MARTO

The Little Shepherds of Fatima

Francisco Marto (June 11, 1908–April 4, 1919) and his sister Jacinta Marto (March 11, 1910–February 20, 1920), together with their cousin, Lúcia dos Santos (1907–2005) were the shepherd children from Aljustrel near Fátima, Portugal who reported to have witnessed three apparitions of an angel in 1916 and several apparitions of the Blessed Virgin Mary in 1917.

Following the Marian apparitions, while their fundamental personalities remained the same, there was a very drastic transformation in the lives with regards to their faith and piety. Heeding the call of the Virgin for atonement and reparation for sins, they began to spend time in prayer, and make penances and stringent self –mortification for the conversion of sinners “to console Jesus for the sins of the world”.

The siblings fell victims of the great influenza epidemic (known in history as the “Spanish Flu”) which swept through Europe in 1918. Both lingered for many months. Francisco declined hospital treatment and died peacefully at home on April 4, 1919. Meanwhile Jacinta had to endure greater suffering as her health worsened and developed complications which she bore with the most heroic of patience and courage. She died alone as she had prophesized, in far away Lisboa. Both siblings were beatified by Blessed John Paul II on 13 May, 2000 which coincided with the publication of the “third Secret” of Fatima. The liturgical memory is fixed on the date of the glorious passage of Bl. Jacinta to the next life.

From the Common of Saints, except the following.

THE OFFICE OF READINGS

Second Reading

The Homily of Blessed John Paul II on the occasion of the beatification of Francisco and Jacinto Marto, (Fátima, 13 May, 2000. Nn. 1-4)

They see a light shining from her maternal hands which penetrates them inwardly,

so that they feel immersed in God.

“Father, … to you I offer praise; for what you have hidden from the learned and the clever you have revealed to the merest children” (Mt 11: 25). With these words, dear brothers and sisters, Jesus praises the heavenly Father for his designs; he knows that no one can come to him unless he is drawn by the Father (cf. Jn 6: 44); therefore he praises him for his plan and embraces it as a son: “Yes, Father, for such was your gracious will” (Mt 11: 26). You were pleased to reveal the kingdom to the merest children.

Later Francisco, one of the three privileged children, exclaimed: “We were burning in that light which is God and we were not consumed. What is God like? It is impossible to say. In fact we will never be able to tell people”. God: a light that burns without consuming. Moses had the same experience when he saw God in the burning bush; he heard God say that he was concerned about the slavery of his people and had decided to deliver them through him: “I will be with you” (cf. Ex 3: 2-12). Those who welcome this presence become the dwelling-place and, consequently, a “burning bush” of the Most High.

What most impressed and entirely absorbed Blessed Francisco was God in that immense light which penetrated the inmost depths of the three children. But God told only Francisco “how sad” he was, as he said. One night his father heard him sobbing and asked him why he was crying; his son answered: “I was thinking of Jesus who is so sad because of the sins that are committed against him”. He was motivated by one desire – so expressive of how children think – “to console Jesus and make him happy”.

A transformation takes place in his life, one we could call radical: a transformation certainly uncommon for children of his age. He devotes himself to an intense spiritual life, expressed in assiduous and fervent prayer, and attains a true form of mystical union with the Lord. This spurs him to a progressive purification of the spirit through the renunciation of his own pleasures and even of innocent childhood games.

Francisco bore without complaining the great sufferings caused by the illness from which he died. It all seemed to him so little to console Jesus: he died with a smile on his lips. Little Francisco had a great desire to atone for the offences of sinners by striving to be good and by offering his sacrifices and prayers.

The life of Jacinta, his younger sister by almost two years, was motivated by these same sentiments. Little Jacinta felt and personally experienced Our Lady’s anguish, offering herself heroically as a victim for sinners. One day, when she and Francisco had already contracted the illness that forced them to bed, the Virgin Mary came to visit them at home, as the little one recounts: “Our Lady came to see us and said that soon she would come and take Francisco to heaven. And she asked me if I still wanted to convert more sinners. I told her yes”. And when the time came for Francisco to leave, the little girl tells him: “Give my greetings to Our Lord and to Our Lady and tell them that I am enduring everything they want for the conversion of sinners”. Jacinta had been so deeply moved by the vision of hell during the apparition of 13 July that no mortification or penance seemed too great to save sinners.

“Father, to you I offer praise, for you have revealed these things to the merest children”. Today the Church wishes to put on the candelabrum these two candles which God lit to illumine humanity in its dark and anxious hours. May they shine on the path of this immense multitude of pilgrims… may Francisco and Jacinta be a friendly light that illumines all Portugal.

Responsory 1 Cor 7: 29, 30; 2: 12.

R. Our time is growing shot. Those who enjoy life should live as though there were nothing to enjoy, and those who deal with worldly things should not become engrossed in them. * I say this because the world as we know it is passing away.

V. It is not the spirit of the world which we have received.

R. * I say this because the world as we know it is passing away.

Concluding Prayer

O God who granted to Blessed Francisco and Blessed Jacinta the two little Shepherds the grace to become little burning bushes on fire with love for God and the Church; Grant that we, too, may burn with the same love and, with them, all meet together again in Heaven around Our Lady in adoration of the Blessed Trinity. (We make our prayer) through our Lord. (Through Christ our Lord.)

By Fr. Jarvis Sy.