THE YOUNGEST NON-MARTYRED CHILD
Jacinta added three Hail Mary’s to each of her Rosaries for the Pope. She asked, “Why doesn’t the Pope come to Fatima? Everybody else does.” After her death, the Pope would come to Fatima repeatedly, even to beatify her on May 13, 2000 AD. When I gave Pope John Paul II a large portrait of Jacinta on July 25, 1979, and we discussed the portrait, I asked him to give me one sentence to guide me in my Apostolic work for Fatima. The Pope looked up and then placing his hands on me said: “You must make your work in the spirit of the sermon on the Mount.”
I was expecting that this Marian Pope would say something about consecrating oneself to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Then a very holy soul told me that essentially what devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary means is living the eight beatitudes.
if i should remember when, shortly after the Second Vatican Council, liberal educators were saying that the Christian religion is an adult religion. Therefore they concluded we should not try to teach much of it to children until they are at least adolescents. The life of Jacinta defies that false theory. Her spirituality reached higher than many adults do who live to an advanced age. It was after the vision of hell that the three little shepherds began to make great spiritual progress. Years ago, Sister Lucia wrote of this saying that some people hold that we ought not to teach children about hell, yet our Blessed other did not hesitate to show the terrible vision of hell to three little children, Jacinta scarcely more than six years old at the time. The vision of hell impressed Jacinta most for it was the consequence of sin that led souls there.
Jacinta often separated from the others and alone by herself would fall to her knees to pray for sinners. Then calling Lucia and Francisco she would ask: “Are you praying with me? It is necessary to pray much to save souls from hell!… How sorry I am for sinners! If I could only show them hell!” Even after she was taken sick, which eventually led to her death, she would get out of bed to bow her head to the floor, and pray as the Angel had taught for the glory of God, Jesus in the tabernacles of the world, in reparation for the outrages, sacrileges and indifference by which God is offended and to beg for the conversion of poor sinners. A priest finally had to tell her, as she would fall over at times doing this, that she should say the prayer in bed. No one can lead until one first learns how to follow. The three little shepherds of Fatima teach us how to follow the ways of Jesus and Mary. In doing so, they teach, lead us and show us, the way to lead others more by example than word, to the Hearts of Jesus and Mary. The account of our Blessed Mother appearing to Jacinta in the Fatima Church to teach her how to pray the Rosary properly, by showing her 15 tableau's representing the 15 mysteries of the Rosary, reminds us that children at a very young age are indeed capable of practicing the faith with some depth. They can understand it more profoundly than the modern world is usually willing to challenge youth and lead them.
When Francisco died, Jacinta was deeply grieved. She would sit on her bed in long hours of sadness. When asked by Lucia why she was so said, she would answer: “I am thinking of Francisco and of how I would like to see him.” But then she would add that it was more than the thought of Francisco’s death that saddened her. “I am thinking of the war which will come. So many people will die…So many houses will be destroyed and priests killed. Listen, I am going to heaven soon, but when you see that light that our Lady told us of, you must go there too.” However, she accepted it when Lucia reminded her that she must remain many years to spread devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
Jacinta’s body was first exhumed on September 12, 1935. Seeing her incorruptible body, her father, Senghor Marto was asked what he thought now. He said that the children now belonged to the world and stated that viewing Jacinta’s body “was somewhat like looking at a person grown old, whom one had known young.” An eyewitness account of the second exhumation of Jacinta’s body, which took place in 1951, was carried in the papers of the time as follows:
“The expression on Jacinta’s face was that of great peace, and all who saw her could not help feeling that they were greatly privileged to have been granted such a favor.
The fact that Jacinta’s face appeared much older than she was at the time of her death cause different reactions. Perhaps one explanation is that her body reflected her spiritual maturity at the time of her death, which came when Jacinta was not quite ten years old. Artists seem to have a difficult time capturing her features while retaining an appearance of a little girl. They always seem to depict her older, whether in statues or paintings.
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| jacinta marto |
Jacinta added three Hail Mary’s to each of her Rosaries for the Pope. She asked, “Why doesn’t the Pope come to Fatima? Everybody else does.” After her death, the Pope would come to Fatima repeatedly, even to beatify her on May 13, 2000 AD. When I gave Pope John Paul II a large portrait of Jacinta on July 25, 1979, and we discussed the portrait, I asked him to give me one sentence to guide me in my Apostolic work for Fatima. The Pope looked up and then placing his hands on me said: “You must make your work in the spirit of the sermon on the Mount.”
I was expecting that this Marian Pope would say something about consecrating oneself to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Then a very holy soul told me that essentially what devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary means is living the eight beatitudes.
if i should remember when, shortly after the Second Vatican Council, liberal educators were saying that the Christian religion is an adult religion. Therefore they concluded we should not try to teach much of it to children until they are at least adolescents. The life of Jacinta defies that false theory. Her spirituality reached higher than many adults do who live to an advanced age. It was after the vision of hell that the three little shepherds began to make great spiritual progress. Years ago, Sister Lucia wrote of this saying that some people hold that we ought not to teach children about hell, yet our Blessed other did not hesitate to show the terrible vision of hell to three little children, Jacinta scarcely more than six years old at the time. The vision of hell impressed Jacinta most for it was the consequence of sin that led souls there.
Jacinta often separated from the others and alone by herself would fall to her knees to pray for sinners. Then calling Lucia and Francisco she would ask: “Are you praying with me? It is necessary to pray much to save souls from hell!… How sorry I am for sinners! If I could only show them hell!” Even after she was taken sick, which eventually led to her death, she would get out of bed to bow her head to the floor, and pray as the Angel had taught for the glory of God, Jesus in the tabernacles of the world, in reparation for the outrages, sacrileges and indifference by which God is offended and to beg for the conversion of poor sinners. A priest finally had to tell her, as she would fall over at times doing this, that she should say the prayer in bed. No one can lead until one first learns how to follow. The three little shepherds of Fatima teach us how to follow the ways of Jesus and Mary. In doing so, they teach, lead us and show us, the way to lead others more by example than word, to the Hearts of Jesus and Mary. The account of our Blessed Mother appearing to Jacinta in the Fatima Church to teach her how to pray the Rosary properly, by showing her 15 tableau's representing the 15 mysteries of the Rosary, reminds us that children at a very young age are indeed capable of practicing the faith with some depth. They can understand it more profoundly than the modern world is usually willing to challenge youth and lead them.
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| francisco marto |
When Francisco died, Jacinta was deeply grieved. She would sit on her bed in long hours of sadness. When asked by Lucia why she was so said, she would answer: “I am thinking of Francisco and of how I would like to see him.” But then she would add that it was more than the thought of Francisco’s death that saddened her. “I am thinking of the war which will come. So many people will die…So many houses will be destroyed and priests killed. Listen, I am going to heaven soon, but when you see that light that our Lady told us of, you must go there too.” However, she accepted it when Lucia reminded her that she must remain many years to spread devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
Jacinta’s body was first exhumed on September 12, 1935. Seeing her incorruptible body, her father, Senghor Marto was asked what he thought now. He said that the children now belonged to the world and stated that viewing Jacinta’s body “was somewhat like looking at a person grown old, whom one had known young.” An eyewitness account of the second exhumation of Jacinta’s body, which took place in 1951, was carried in the papers of the time as follows:
“The expression on Jacinta’s face was that of great peace, and all who saw her could not help feeling that they were greatly privileged to have been granted such a favor.
The fact that Jacinta’s face appeared much older than she was at the time of her death cause different reactions. Perhaps one explanation is that her body reflected her spiritual maturity at the time of her death, which came when Jacinta was not quite ten years old. Artists seem to have a difficult time capturing her features while retaining an appearance of a little girl. They always seem to depict her older, whether in statues or paintings.