Quest 15

Quest 15 - Latest Edition

The heroic virtue of Blessed Jacinta and Francisco
by Plinio Maria Solimeo - 26 June 2007

In beatifying the youngest saints in history (excluding martyrs) the Church acknowledges they practiced virtue to a heroic degree. Plinio M. Solimeo traces their spiritual development from earliest childhood

THE beatifications of Blessed Jacinta and Blessed Francisco Marto by His Holiness John Paul II in the year 2000 was the final stamp of approval by the Church on the apparitions of Fatima. It is in a long line of official Church approvals. It was also the beatification of the youngest non-martyrs in the history of the Church. Jacinta died at ten years of age and Francisco at eleven.

Francisco and JacintaThey were not beatified because Our Lady appeared to them, in itself a sign of extraordinary predilection, but because they practiced virtue 'to a heroic degree', to use the theological expression.

The amazing thing is how two such small children could in so short a time have come to practice the theological virtues (faith, hope and charity) and cardinal virtues (prudence, justice, temperance and fortitude) to a heroic degree. This was no doubt due to the intense action of grace in their souls before, during and after the apparitions.

Indeed, it seems as if Divine Providence had favoured them to be fit human material for sanctity. They came from a people profoundly steeped in the influence of the Catholic religion. This was the common folk of the Serra de Aire uplands in Portugal. A simple, hardy, honest and generous people. The sort who knew how to see the goodness of God in the simple joys and pleasures of life as well as in its sorrows and crosses.

A typical representative was Jacinta and Francisco's father, Manuel Pedro Marto, or Ti Marto, as he was affectionately known in family circles. This honest son of the people tells of his children in the years before the apparitions. He testifies that even in their tenderest years they were already virtuous and predisposed to benefit from the graces Our Lady would give them.

"Francisco was robust", recalls Ti Marto. "He was a healthy lad, strong and resolute. He was braver and less easily scared than his little sister. He used to go out on dark nights alone into the Serra completely unafraid. He would play with lizards and snakes getting them to drink sheep's milk from cracks in the rocks."

He was very docile and obedient, always pleasant and ready to agree with others. He would play with anyone. But sometimes he withdrew from the games without any sign of ill-humour and saying nothing. When asked what was wrong he would reply: "Because you are saying things that are not good." Sister Lucy recalls: "His excessive pacivity sometimes quite got on my nerves! Then I grabbed him by the arm and made him sit on a rock and ordered him to be quiet. He obeyed me like I was some great authority. After, if I repented having done this, I'd go and fetch him. I would take him by the hand and bring him back, and he as though nothing at all had been done to him."

He threw himself into games with zeal, and easily won, so other children didn't want to play against him. But just as easily he conceded victory to them. If they took something from him he would say "What does it matter, really".

Francisco was very upright. Once his mother suggested he take advantage of a neighbour who was absent to graze the Marto's sheep on the other's plot. He refused. On getting a sound slap he turned with great dignity to his mother saying: "So then, it's my own mother who is teaching me to be a robber."

This was Francisco before the apparitions: an upright, innocent and thoughtful boy. If he had a fault it was his tendency to be overly calm, even a bit indolent.

Jacinta and Francisco couldn't have been more different
Jacinta was as vivacious as Francisco was languid. She was easily moved and tender hearted. "Hearing of Our Lord's sufferings when she was five years old" says Sr Lucy, "she would weep. 'Poor Our Lord', she would murmur. 'I never want to do any sin. I don't want Jesus to suffer any more.' "

She would flee as from the plague from those who used bad words, "because this saddens Our Lord."

She had a horror of lying. Recalls Ti Marto: "Once, my wife told her we went to some place and instead went elsewhere. She remonstrated. 'So my mother lied? She said she went here but went there. Lying is bad!' "

Like her brother, maybe even more so, she was tender, affectionate and refined. A fault she would lose was the tendency to be a bit poutish if things were not her way. So vivacious was she that she would dance the dances of the Serra with such vigour that she was left completely exhausted.

Both she and her brother had a passion for natural beauties. They easily saw supernatural realities reflected in natural things. She loved the moon, a symbol of Our Lady's gentle light. He preferred the brilliant sun, a symbol of Our Lord.

A programme of sanctity proposed by an angel
The carefree days of the three children came to an end in Spring 1916, when an angel appeared to them. It was the Angel of Peace. He asked if they wanted to offer prayers and sacrifices constantly to God. "Offer everything you can to the Lord in reparation for the sins with which He is offended, and as supplication for the conversion of sinners. Above all, accept with submission the suffering the Lord will send you."

This sort of proposal is made by God only to His most intimate friends. The three children, still just six, eight and nine years old, accepted the proposal with enthusiasm. Without neither hesitation nor self-pity they sought every occasion to offer sacrifices and suffer for sinners.

A year later Our Lady appeared to them. She didn't come with smiles nor with an attitude of having fun, but, says Sr Lucy, "With an air of gentle rebuke". Our Lady reaffirmed that they would "have much to suffer. But the grace of God will be your comfort."

Prayer and suffering in reparation to the Immaculate Heart of Mary and the Sacred Heart of Jesus, so offended by the terrible apostasy of humanity, was what Our Lady asked of them. The full implications of this request would only become apparent to them little by little with the special help of divine grace.

The marvellous effects of grace in the childrens' souls
After seeing Our Lady the children had only two desires. First to pray and sacrifice themselves for sinners and in reparation for sin. Second, to go to Heaven. Francisco heard that he would have to pray many rosaries before Our Lady could bring him to Heaven. "Then my Lady" he exclaimed, "As many as you want!"

Francisco became ever more dedicated to praying and took to disappearing for very long periods to pray alone. Often his sister and cousin would find him totally absorbed in contemplation of Our Lord's sufferings and sorrows. For him this became an overwhelming reality. And according to experts in spiritual life who examined his cause it indicates that alone and guided solely by the Holy Ghost he became adept at the highest form of prayer, namely, mental prayer. Jacinta also advanced in a very short time to a high level of mysticism. She evidenced mystical graces including the gift of prophecy.

Both children became profoundly serious. Sr Lucia recalls that Jacinta was: "Always with a serious but pleasant expression. Modest and kind, reflecting the presence of God in all her acts. This in a way normally proper to people much more advanced in years and in spiritual progress."

Reparatory victims
The efforts of the children to offer up their sufferings without complaint would already seem enough to ask from any child. But it was not enough for them! All the creative energy they once put into inventing new games now went into inventing new sacrifices. Not content with giving away their lunches they took to eating bitter herbs and competed in finding even more bitter ones. Endless hours prostrated on the hot ground in prayer was now a delight. They tied a piece of rough rope around their waists which hurt so much they could not sleep, so Our Lady advised they take it off at night. Later, when Francisco gave his piece of rope to Lucy in his last illness lest his mother find it, Lucy says he had made knots in it and that it was red with blood.

At the end of 1918 Jacinta and Francisco caught the influenza that ravaged Europe in the wake of the First World War. It was the illness that consumed them both with suffering in the final act of self-surrender as they passed from the sorrows of this life to perfect joy without end.

"Francisco suffered with a heroic patience" notes Lucy. "Without ever letting escape from his lips one groan, not even the least. 'Do you suffer much, Francisco?' I asked one day. 'Yes, I do. But it's for love of Our Lord and Our Lady'". He went to Heaven in April 1919.

Jacinta suffered on until 1920. Taken to a hospital in Lisbon, far from friends and family, she had two ribs removed in an operation without anaesthetic, never complaining once. Her thoughts were elsewhere: "Oh! if only I could put in the heart of everyone the fire that I have here in my breast burning me and making me love so much the Hearts of Jesus and Mary!"
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