Your Faith Journey with EWTN
As we deepen our relationship with the Eternal Word, Jesus Christ, we grow in grace and are transformed by His love and mercy.
St. Francisco: June 11, 1908–April 4, 1919 St. Jacinta: March 5, 1910–February 20, 1920
Patron Saints of sick people, captives, prisoners, people ridiculed for piety, Portuguese children
Sts. Francisco and Jacinta Marto were two of the three shepherd children of Fátima, Portugal. The young visionaries saw apparitions of the Blessed Virgin Mary in 1917. Along with their cousin, Lucia dos Santos, they received Our Lady’s message of prayer, penance, and conversion—an invitation they embraced heroically with innocence and generosity.
Born into a humble farming family, Sts. Francisco and Jacinta grew up tending sheep in the hills around Fátima. On May 13, 1917, while pasturing their flock, they saw a “Lady brighter than the sun,” who revealed herself as the Mother of God. Over the course of six months, Mary appeared to them several times, urging them to pray the Rosary daily, to offer sacrifices for sinners, and to trust in God’s mercy. The children responded with deep faith, even as many adults doubted their testimony.
St. Francisco was gentle and contemplative by nature. After the apparitions, he devoted himself to long hours of silent prayer, especially before the Blessed Sacrament. His great desire, he said, was “to console Jesus.” St. Jacinta, lively and affectionate, embraced Our Lady’s call with remarkable courage, offering small sacrifices, caring for the poor, and praying fervently for the conversion of sinners.
Both children fell ill during the 1918 influenza pandemic. St. Francisco died on April 4, 1919, at age 10, after receiving his First Communion. St. Jacinta suffered longer, offering her pain for the salvation of souls. She died on February 20, 1920, at age 9. Their witness of purity, prayer, and sacrificial love touched the world.
Pope Francis canonized Sts. Francisco and Jacinta in 2017, making them the youngest non-martyred saints in Church history. Their lives remind us that holiness is possible at any age and that childlike trust in God can speak powerfully to a world in need of hope.
Our Lady of Fatima’s main message to the shepherd children—Lucia dos Santos, Jacinta Marto, and Francisco Marto—was a call to prayer, penance, and conversion of heart. She gave direct instructions to pray the Rosary every day to bring peace to the world and end wars, and she made a plea for people to change their lives, repent of sins, and turn back to God. The apparition at Fatima was a call to holiness through a deeper spiritual life to receive God’s mercy and bring peace to a world deeply troubled by war and sin. The Blessed Virgin called for the people to do penance and sacrifice for the conversion of sinners and reparation for sins, to avert severe consequences if humanity didn’t amend its ways.
Sts. Francisco and Jacinta Marto endured both spiritual and physical sufferings. After seeing a terrifying vision of Hell, they felt a fervent desire to do penance to help sinners turn back to God and to make reparation for their offenses against Him. They underwent self-imposed mortifications like fasting and wearing rough ropes against their skin. Emotionally, they faced slander, insults, persecution, and even imprisonment from officials who demanded they deny the apparitions. They endured severe illness during the Spanish Flu epidemic and underwent painful surgeries without anesthesia. Their profound faith sustained them during these hardships, and they offered all their sufferings for the salvation of souls. St. Francisco passed away first in 1919 at the age of 10. St. Jacinta said she would stay and suffer more for sinners. She joined her brother in Heaven a few months later at the age of 9.
The Miracle of the Sun occurred at Fátima, Portugal, on October 13, 1917, to fulfill a promise. During previous apparitions, the Blessed Virgin Mary promised the three shepherd children a sign to prove her apparitions were real and validate her message for the world. After a heavy rain that day, Our Lady reflected the sun in her hands and ascended. The sun appeared to spin, change colors, and fall towards the earth, a phenomenon witnessed by a crowd of 70,000+. When the sun returned to normal, the people’s clothes and the muddy ground were miraculously dried and cleansed, convincing thousands of the divine authenticity of the children’s claims and of the Blessed Virgin Mary’s message of prayer and conversion.
The Holy Rosary is an amazing prayer, encouraged by popes, loved by saints, and prayed by the faithful. At its heart, the Rosary is a meditation on Sacred Scripture, on the lives of Jesus and Mary.
Through this Scriptural Rosary, we hope that you will be able to better meditate on each Hail Mary and deepen your understanding of Sacred Scripture. Use the form below to get your free copy of The Scriptural Rosary.
After arriving to find crowds of the faithful waiting at the Cova da Iria for the promised miracle, Jacinta and Francisco Marto and Lucia dos Santos witnessed Our Lady’s sixth apparition and heard her request for a chapel.
A condensed version of the EWTN series documenting the astounding miracles at Fatima, where Lucia dos Santos and her cousins, Francisco and Jacinta, were visited by the Blessed Mother in a series of apparitions.
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As we deepen our relationship with the Eternal Word, Jesus Christ, we grow in grace and are transformed by His love and mercy.
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