The heroic holiness of Fátima's young saints

The heroic holiness of Fátima's young saints

Sts. Francisco and Jacinta Marto Feast day: Feb. 20 In 1917, the Blessed Mother appeared to three shepherd children in Fátima, Portugal: Francisco and Jacinta Marto, who were siblings, and their cousin Lucia dos Santos. On May 13 of that year, while tending sheep, they received the first of six visions of Mary. Lucia was 10 years old at the time, Francisco was 9 and Jacinta was 7. A year before seeing the Blessed Mother, the three children had b…

Saints Jacinta and Francisco Marto

Between May 13 and October 13, 1917, in the midst of World War I and national political upheaval following the overthrow of Portugal’s monarchy in 1910, three young shepherds from Aljustrel, a small village near Fatima, approximately 110 miles north of Lisbon, witnessed a series of extraordinary events. They reported apparitions of the Virgin Mary at Cova da Iria, who entrusted them with messages of peace and prayer during a time of great global…

Blessed Jacinta and Francisco Marto - The Youngest Canonized Saints, but Not the Least « Catholic Insight

On this day in 1920, February 20th, the ‘Spanish’ influenza took the life of nine-year old Jacinta Marto, as she lay alone in a hospital bed. She had suffered for weeks, including a vain attempt to alleviate her symptoms by removing two of her ribs, without proper anesthetic. The same illness had claimed her ten-year old brother, Francisco, in April of the preceding year. Both had received numerous visitations from the Blessed Virgin, along with…