Sts. Francisco and Jacinta Marto
Born: June 11, 1908 (Francisco), and March 11, 1910 (Jacinta)
Died: April 4, 1919 (Francisco), and February 20, 1920 (Jacinta)
Feast day: February 20
Patron saint of: bodily ills, Portuguese children, captives, people ridiculed for their piety, prisoners, sick people
My first memory of our Fatima pilgrimage is the rows of muddied, once colorful shacks in the mountaintop villages that flew by our bus windows as we travelled along the highway to where the Angel of Fatima first appeared to Lucia and her two cousins, Jacinta and Francisco, one year before Mary appeared to them at Cova da Iria. Standing on the outskirts of the rocky terrain, we recited the Angel of Fatima prayer: “My God, I believe, I adore, I hope, and I love you. I ask pardon of you for those who do not believe, do not adore, do not hope, and do not love you.” Instead of focusing on the prayer, I gave my attention to the giant boulders surrounding the statues of the three children and the angel. I was obsessively interested in the children themselves because I wanted to be like them, worthy of a visit from Mary. How did they manage to bring their sheep across all those rocks, I wondered. Did they take turns leaping from rock to rock, calling to the sheep and guiding them toward even footing? Were they scared when the angel appeared?
More about Sts. Francisco and Jacinta:
A 7-year-old’s pilgrimage to Fatima
Whether I admitted it or not, I treated my pilgrimage to Fatima as an investigation into how to become a child saint.
Image: Wikimedia Commons
