In the room that I shared with my sister while we were growing up, we had a small, glow-in-the-dark statue of Our Lady of Fatima with three little children kneeling in front of her. I only ever really noticed Our Lady and did not think much of the little children. Once, after visiting the National Shrine of Our Lady of Fatima, which is in my home state of New Jersey, my mom came home with a book for me as a gift. It retold the story of Fatima and had a special focus on the children of Fatima and what our Lord revealed to them, as well as on how they responded. I became swept up by the devotion of these little children. What love they had for our Lord and for souls!
Who Were They?
Francisco and Jacinta were born to Manuel Marto and Olimpia de Jesus, bringing their grand total of children up to nine. Francisco was born on June 11th, 1908, and Jacinta was born on March 11th, two years later. Although they were siblings, Lucia, their cousin and the third visionary of Fatima, noted that the two were quite opposites. Francisco was a more quiet and docile type, happy to contemplate nature and walk about in silence or play his flute. Jacinta was lively and energetic, as well as a sensitive soul. Lucia admits that her cousin Jacinta was a little spoiled, as the youngest child of a big family, and that Francisco did not always love to pray (source).
And yet, we see that the hearts of these two young people were transformed as they received the message of Our Lady and the call to pray and do penance for the world. Francisco died at the young age of eleven and Jacinta, one year later—shortly before her tenth birthday. They were canonized by Pope Francis in 2017. Through their lives, lived out as an offering of love to console the Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary, Jacinta and Francisco became an example of 1 Timothy 4:12:
“Let no one despise your youth, but set the believers an example in speech and conduct, in love, in faith, in purity.”
Our Lady’s Message
Before Our Lady began appearing to the three in 1917, Jacinta, Francisco, and their older cousin Lucia were first approached by an angel. This angel taught them beautiful prayers of affection to Our Lord, to console His Heart and prepared them for the visions and messages they would later receive from Mother Mary. During these occasions of divine visitation, the angel would recite the prayers with the children while prostrate, a position which the children would later adopt while praying in private, adoring the Lord and begging graces for those in need.
Our Lady’s visits to the children began in May of 1917 and culminated on October 13th of the same year with the renowned Miracle of the Sun, wherein the crowds present saw the sun as though dancing and then coming down towards them as though falling from the sky. During that time, the ground and the people, once drenched from the rain, became immediately dry and many among them received physical healing from their ailments. Throughout these apparitions to the three children, the messages which prevailed from Our Lady were a call to conversion, to pray the Rosary, to make sacrifices and prayers for sinners, and to console the Heart of Our Lord, so deeply offended. Our Lady prophesied the early death of Francisco and Jacinta, while promising the anxious heart of Lucia, “Do not lose heart, I will never forsake you! My Immaculate Heart will be your refuge and the way that will lead you to God.” (source).
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Responding to the Call
Perhaps one of the most powerful moments of the apparitions was the vision of Hell granted to the young children. This sobering moment marked the children deeply, and their resolution, fervor, and devotion grew immensely from then on. For Francisco, the main focus of his mission was to console the Heart of Our Lord, Whom he saw so saddened in that vision by the loss of souls and their many offenses. Lucia once asked Francisco if he preferred to save souls or to console Our Lord. Francisco replied,“I’d rather console Our Lord . . . I want to console Our Lord first and then convert the sinners so that they won’t offend anymore.” During his final days he reassured Lucia, who had asked about his sufferings, that he offered all “for the love of Our Lady and Our Lord” (source). Such devotion and love from a heart so young!
Jacinta’s mission had a twofold emphasis: devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary and offering sacrifices for the conversion of sinners. Jacinta told Lucia as she was being taken away to the hospital in Lisbon, “Tell everyone that God grants us graces through the Immaculate Heart of Mary, that people should go to her . . . ...O, if only I could put into everyone’s hearts the fire that burns here inside of mine, making me love the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Heart of Mary so much!” Although granted an extraordinary grace of being chosen by Our Lord to see Our Lady and receive her messages, Jacinta and Francisco had a choice to respond to this invitation or not. They responded with a wholehearted yes, allowing the many graces bestowed on them to bring to fruition the holiness to which we all aspire as Christians: union with God.
Inspiration for Us
One of the lessons taught to the little children by the angel was to offer everything to the Lord, including small sacrifices, as these could be offered to console the Heart of Christ and make reparation for the offenses made against Him (source). In the illness that took the lives of Francisco and Jacinta, in 1919 and 1920 respectively, the young Saints made the offering of their little lives complete. They suffered the pain of influenza and the discomfort of the treatments, as well as having to offer the deep desire to pray prostrate and continue with bodily mortifications that were no longer possible in their state. Jacinta was asked by Our Lady if she would be willing to remain on earth longer to suffer on behalf of sinners—to which she gave her consent (source). She was taken away from her family in Fatima and brought to Lisbon, where she also underwent the pain of solitude in her suffering.
At such young ages, Francisco and Jacinta were docile to the graces they had received at Baptism, which underwent further flourishing through the guidance of the angel and Our Lady. They were determined to love on Our Lord, to console His heart so greatly pained, and to save even just one person, bring back one sinner to the merciful arms of the Father. The vision the three were granted of Hell remained so deeply ingrained in their memories that to offer penances and physical mortification seemed as nothing compared to the pain they saw souls undergo. They were given a zeal for souls, to bring them to Jesus, to offer their own lives and daily inconveniences and suffering that others might come to know and love the Lord and change their lives. Sister, how much are you and I aware of the need to save souls—not by our own merits, of course, but through the unification of our sufferings with that of Christ, holding nothing back from the altar of sacrifice? Are we willing, then, to look upon these two young lambs of holiness and see there an icon for us, an invitation, a challenge? To place all that we are each and every day into the hands of a loving Lord who takes what we give and makes it powerful—a source of redemption and restoration for others?
Sister, how will you pray and what will you offer this week for the intention of the salvation of souls and to console the Hearts of Jesus and Mary?
Rocio Hermes is a Dominican-born, US-raised, stay-at-home mom who is excited about building community, baking desserts, and writing poetry. She holds a Master’s degree in Theology and has lived in Ethiopia as a missionary. Rocio now lives in Israel with her German husband and their son. She is a contributing author to Blessed Conversations: Dwell. You can read more from her at graceandmercyblog.com.
Rocío Hermes es una mama de casa nacida en República Dominicana y criada en Estados Unidos, a quien le entusiasma construir una comunidad, hornear postres y escribir poesía. Tiene una maestría en Teología y ha vivido en Etiopía como misionera. Rocío ahora vive en Israel con su marido alemán y su hijo. Es autora colaboradora de Blessed Conversations: Dwell. Puede leer más sobre ella en Graceandmercyblog.com.
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