The Children of Fatima

Lucia, Francisco, and Jacinta were born and raised in homes in Aljustrel near Fatima, Portugal, where the catechism was their daily bread, stories from the Bible their recreation, and the word of the village priest was law.

Lucia de Jesus Santos was born, the youngest of seven children, to Antonio and Maria Rosa Santos on 22 March 1907. She was a plain child with sparkling eyes and a magnetic personality, a natural leader to whom other children looked with confident affection. Blessed with an excellent memory, Lucia was able to learn the catechism, and make her First Communion and Confession, at age six. She herself became a catechist at nine. Lucia would be constant guide and companion to her first cousins, Francisco and Jacinta Marto, through the trials that accompanied the apparitions of the Blessed Mother.

After the apparitions ended Francisco was enrolled in school but played truant as often as possible. He preferred to spend time praying to the “Hidden Jesus” in the tabernacle. His great concern was to console his sorrowing Lord and the Heart of His Mother. When asked what he wanted to be when he grew up, Francisco answered, “I don’t want to be anything. I want to die and go to heaven.”

Jacinta had a marked love for Our Lord, and at the age of 5 she melted in tears on hearing the account of His Passion, vowing that she would never sin or offend Him anymore.

In August 1918, when World War II was nearing an end, Francisco and Jacinta both contracted influenza. They had short reprieves, but their decline was inevitable. In April of the following year, Francisco, knowing his time was short, asked to receive the Hidden Jesus for the first time in Holy Communion. The next morning, April 4th, at ten o’clock, he died with a glow on his shrunken face.

Jacinta was removed from her family to a hospital a few miles away. She did not complain, because the Blessed Mother had forewarned her that she would go to two hospitals, not to be cured, but to suffer for the love of God and reparation for sinners. She was soon transferred to the second hospital prophesied by the Blessed Mother, where Jacinta was to make her final offering by dying alone. (Source: www.ewtn.com)