FEBRUARY 20 - SAINTS FRANCISCO AND JACINTA MARTO
APOSTLES OF OUR LADY OF FATIMA
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Francisco Marto (June 11, 1908 - April 4, 1919) and his sister Jacinta Marto (March 11, 1910 - February 20, 1920), together with their cousin, Lucia dos Santos, were children from Aljustrel, near Fatima, Portugal. They witnessed three apparitions of an angel in 1916 and several apparitions of the Blessed Virgin Mary in 1917. Their reported visions were politically controversial, but gave rise to a major center of world Christian pilgrimage.
The youngest children of Manuel and Olimpia Marto, Francisco and Jacinta were typical of Portuguese village children at the time. They were illiterate, but had a rich oral tradition. They worked with their cousin Lucia taking care of the family's sheep. According to Lucia's memoirs, Francisco had a placid disposition, was somewhat musically inclined and liked to be by himself to think. Jacinta was affectionate if a bit spoiled and emotionally labile. She had a sweet singing voice and a gift for dancing. All three children gave up singing and dancing after the visions began: believing those could lead to occasions of sin and that God preferred prayer.
Once the apparitions were brought to public notice, they were afterward witnessed by thousands of others. Some in attendance could not explain or discern what their eyes had seen: perhaps from the weakness of their spirit to see the Holy Mother of God. Others reported dazzling visions, but all agreed that something beyond the world had transpired. The Blessed Virgin warned of the Second World War and the ensuing persecution of the Church, but Her secrets were kept hidden until revealed over the course of time.
Following their experiences, the children's fundamental personalities remained the same. Francisco preferred to pray alone: as he said, "to console Jesus for the sins of the world." Jacinta was deeply affected by a terrifying vision of Hell reportedly shown to the children at the third apparition. She became deeply convinced of the need to save sinners through penance and self-denial as the Virgin had reportedly instructed the children to do. All three children, but particularly Francisco and Jacinta, practiced stringent self-mortifications to this end.