Redeeming sorrow
Shortly after the fourth apparition, Jacinta found a rope. The children agreed to cut it in three and to tie it around their waists, over their skin, as an expression of sacrifice and mortification. This caused them great pain, as Lucia would tell many years later. The Virgin then consoled them by telling them that Jesus was very happy with their sacrifices, but that he did not want them to sleep with the ropes any longer. And so they removed them.
Jacinta was granted the vision of the sufferings of the Supreme Pontiff. “I saw him in a very large house, kneeling, with his face in his hands, and he was weeping. Outside there were many people; some were throwing stones, others were cursing and swearing,” she said.
The children kept the pope constantly in mind and offered three Hail Marys for him after each rosary. Their closeness to the Mother of God had immensely strengthened the intercessory power of their prayers. Many people — sometimes entire families — came to them to bring their intentions to Our Lady.
On one occasion, a mother asked Jacinta to pray for a son who had left home like a prodigal son. Days later, the young man returned, asked for forgiveness, and told his family that after having spent everything he had, stolen and been in jail, something inexplicable touched his heart and he decided to turn away from everything, running one night to the forest to think. Feeling lost at that moment, with his life ruined, he knelt down crying and prayed. At that moment, he had a vision: Jacinta was in front of him; she took him by the hand and led him to a path.
This was to be the beginning of the boy’s return home. The story would reach the ears of everyone in town, until someone dared to ask Jacinta if she had really met the boy, but she answered that she had not, and that she did not know him either. The girl admitted that she had been praying and praying to Our Lady for his return, just as that disconsolate mother had asked her to do.
Francisco: ‘I am going to Paradise’
On Dec. 23, 1918, Francisco and Jacinta fell seriously ill with bronchopneumonia. At that time an epidemic was ravaging many parts of Europe.
Francisco deteriorated little by little in the following weeks. He asked to receive his first Communion for which he prepared himself diligently. Still ill, he fasted diligently and prepared to go to confession. The peace he radiated on the day of his first confession affected everyone around him.
“I am going to Paradise; but from there I will pray much to Jesus and Our Lady to take you up there too soon,” Francisco told Lucia and Jacinta. The next day, on April 4, 1919, the child left for the Father’s house.
Jacinta: ‘Ask the Immaculate Heart for peace ’
(Story continues below)
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Jacinta suffered greatly at the death of her brother. In the meantime, her own illness was getting worse. The day came when she had to be taken to the hospital in Vila Nova. From there she would return home with a “sore in her chest.” Amid her pains, she confided to her cousin: “I suffer much, but I offer everything for the conversion of sinners and to make amends to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.”
When she did not improve, she was transferred to the hospital in Lisbon. Before leaving, she managed to tell her cousin Lucia: “It will be a short time before I go to heaven… Tell all the people that God grants us graces through the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Let them ask her for them, that the Heart of Jesus wants the Immaculate Heart of Mary to be venerated at his side, that they ask for peace from the Immaculate Heart, which God entrusted to her.“
Jacinta underwent a surgical procedure in which two ribs were removed from her left side. At that point she was left with a wide sore the size of a hand. The pain she felt was excruciating, but even so, she never ceased to invoke Our Lady and to offer her pain for the salvation of sinners.
On Feb. 20, 1920, Jacinta asked for the sacraments, went to confession, and begged to receive communion. Minutes later she died. Jacinta was just 10 years old.
Two holy children, treasures of the Church
The bodies of Francisco and Jacinta were transferred to the Shrine of Fatima, where their remains are buried. Years afterward, exhumations took place. When the tomb of Francisco was opened, it could be seen that the rosary that was placed on his chest on the day of his burial was entangled between the fingers of his hands. Jacinta’s body, exhumed 15 years after her death, was found incorrupt.
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