20 February: Saint Jacinta Marto
A child’s generous heart offered to God
Jacinta Marto was born in 1910 and from an early age showed an affectionate and outgoing temperament, although at times she could be capricious. She felt a special affection for her cousin Lucia dos Santos and possessed a keen sensitivity that made her deeply moved by the beauty of nature and by the suffering of the poor and the sick.
The apparitions of the Angel and of Our Lady profoundly marked her life.
In the course of 1916, the Angel, the protector of Portugal, appeared to her and spiritually prepared Jacinta, her brother Francisco, and her cousin Lucia for the subsequent encounter with the Virgin Mary. Through his interventions, the Angel educated them in the value of adoration, prayer, and self-offering as acts of reparation for the offenses committed against the Triune God, with particular attention to the profanations and the cold indifference with which Christ is neglected in the Sacrament of the Eucharist.
Although the three children already showed a deep devotion to the Eucharist—Lucia, in a quite singular way, had received Holy Communion at a very early age, while Francisco and Jacinta ardently longed to receive Jesus in the Sacrament—it was above all the final angelic apparition that consolidated this inner inclination. On that occasion, the Angel, kneeling with them, distributed the Eucharist: he gave the consecrated Host to Lucia, while to the two cousins he gave the chalice to drink, inviting them to partake of the Body and Blood of Christ, wounded by human ingratitude. He exhorted them to offer reparation for these offenses and to bring consolation to the Lord.
Thus, Jacinta was gradually made aware of a vocation that directly involved her in the work of redemption: the salvific meaning of suffering accepted and offered was revealed to her. This teaching, shared with Francisco and Lucia, found decisive confirmation from their very first encounter with Our Lady on 13 May 1917. On that occasion, the Virgin assured the three children of Heaven, referred to the reality of Purgatory—mentioning an acquaintance of Lucia who was there—and asked whether they were willing to adhere to God’s plan by accepting the trials He would permit, as an act of reparation for the offenses committed against Him and for the conversion of sinners. To the Virgin’s request, the children responded with full and unanimous consent.
After these encounters with Heaven, her initially self-centered character gave way to a generous heart, ready to offer prayers, sacrifices, and works of charity for the good of others, especially for the conversion of sinners and for the mission of the Holy Father. Jacinta lived her faith as concrete compassion: she shared her meals with the poor and offered fasts as a gesture of total self-giving to God. As Lucia recounted, “to pray and to suffer for love was her ideal; it was what she spoke about.”
At the end of 1918, Jacinta fell ill with bronchopneumonia and was hospitalized at the Vila Nova de Ourém Hospital from 1 July to 31 August 1919, sustaining a persistent wound on the left side of her chest. In January 1920 she was taken to Lisbon for more appropriate treatment at the D. Estefania Hospital. Between 21 January and 2 February, she stayed at the Orphanage of Our Lady of Miracles, devoting herself to long hours of Eucharistic adoration.
On 2 February 1920, she was hospitalized with purulent pleurisy and osteitis of two ribs and, despite her opposition, underwent surgery on 10 February, with the removal of the two ribs and the persistence of the large wound on her left side. A few days later, on 20 February 1920, desiring to receive the sacraments, she died peacefully at 10:30 p.m., as Our Lady had foretold.
Jacinta was initially buried on 24 February in the cemetery of Ourém, in a tomb made available by the Barons of Alvaiazere. Her remains were transferred in 1935 to the cemetery of Fatima and later, on 1 May 1951, to the Basilica of Our Lady of the Rosary of Fatima.
Jacinta Marto, together with her brother Francisco, was beatified by Saint John Paul II on 13 May 2000 in Fatima. She was canonized on 13 May 2017 in Fatima by Pope Francis.