When the Lady opened her hands, light from it penetrated the earth. Lucia de Jesus dos Santos and her cousins, Jacinta and Francisco Marto, saw a sea of fire.
Devils and souls with human forms emerged; “transparent black or bronze embers floating in the fire”…“amidst wailing and cries of pain and despair that horrified and shook the children with terror.” The Lady explained: “You have seen Hell—where souls of poor sinners go.”
The vision of hell changed playful Jacinta into a prayerful child. She made a resolve to save as many souls from going to hell by living a life pleasing to God, acts of sufferings and mortifications.
Lovable child
Jacinta walked on the holy grounds of Cova da Iria. She saw and spoke to the Angel of Peace thrice in the fields of Casa Velha, and with the Blessed Virgin Mary six times in the holm tree of Cova da Iria. She witnessed the miracle of the Sun in Fatima on October 13, 1917.
The youngest among the seven children of Manuel Pedro Ti Marto and Olympia Jesus dos Santos, Jacinta was born on March 11, 1910, in the village of Aljustrel near Fatima in Portugal.
She was pretty with a round face, bright clear eyes, small mouth, thin lips and smooth skin. Playful and energetic, she had a sweet singing voice. When her brother Francisco started to play the flute, she added to the joyful moments by dancing.
Despite her happy disposition, so determined was she to save souls from the fires of hell. She seized all opportunities to suffer and redeem souls.
She would go thirsty under the burning heat of the sun, drink foul water, offer her share of luscious grapes to poor children, skip meals and go hungry, give up her desire for figs, tie sheep ropes around her arm, encircle her waist tightly with ropes at night and pray rosaries with Francisco and Lucia.
The thought of hell and many souls going there puzzled her, and she would often ask Lucia for reasons. Since many people ask the children many questions, Jacinta would keep quiet to “avoid lying because it is a sin.”
She never got tired saying: “My God I love you, and Sweet Heart of Mary be my salvation, because it seems that I have fire in my heart,” she explained in a conversation about prayers with a saintly old priest, Fr. Cruz.
Victim of love
While many people believed the apparition about the Lady, others ridiculed the children. The chief magistrate of Qurem, Arthur Oliveira Santos, had them kidnapped, incarcerated and threatened to be thrown in boiling oil. They were set free although they refused to share the secrets.
Jacinta’s sufferings intensified after the entire Marto family was stricken with influenza in October 1918.
The Blessed Mother told Jacinta she would take Francisco soon. He died on April 4, 1919, and Jacinta was too sick to attend his funeral.
When asked by the Lady if she was willing to suffer more, she said yes. Since then, she never allowed “one moment of suffering go to waste. One twinge of pain was of more value to her than all the gold in the world,” wrote John de Marchi, IMC, in the True Story of Fatima.
In June, she was brought in Qurem, a distant hospital from home, and alone among strangers. She had pneumonia, tuberculosis, pleurisy, a large open wound on her chest and fever all the time.
Her condition was not improving, so the doctors sent her home in August. Back home, she prevailed upon the family that she attended daily Masses, despite her illnesses.
Jacinta knew she would again be confined in Lisbon, suffer more and die alone. The Lady said so.
So loved by the Lady
In January 1920, Fr. Formigao with Dr. Enrico Lisboa and his wife, who wanted to be informed about the events in Fatima, visited Jacinta. The doctor’s decision prevailed. She was accompanied by her mother on February 2 to Lisbon.
She stayed in the Orphanage of Our Lady of Miracles. Jacinta spent every possible time in the chapel, and shared many revelations with the superior, Mother Maria de Purificacion Godinho.
Mother Godinho attested that she would see her radiantly beautiful but was requested to leave because Jacinta is expecting a visitor. The superior would sometimes see a globe of light.
In the hospital, two ribs of Jacinta were removed. She suffered intensely because of the open fist-sized wound on her breast. But she never complained.
Once, only a moan was heard, and she whispered: “Now you can convert many sinners, for I suffer a great deal my Jesus.”
On February 20, she requested for Extreme Unction, had her confession and requested, too, for the Eucharist. But the priest was not alarmed and came the next day to give her communion. However, Jacinta expired that evening.
In 1920, a law was still reinforced in Lisbon not to ring bell towers, so they were locked. But the bells in the Church of Angels, when she was brought home, rang on their own.
On the 24th, her body was accompanied by Mother Godinho, which enabled her to visit Fatima as Jacinta has predicted. Jacinta was buried in quicklime to avoid the spread of influenza and hasten decomposition of the body.
On September 12, 1935, the bishop of Leiria commanded that the body be transferred to the cemetery to be placed together with her brother Francisco. Jacinta’s body was found uncorrupted.
On May 13, 2017, the first Centennial celebration of the Miracle in Fatima, she was canonized by Pope Francis.
Her feast day is February 20.
****
Damo-Santiago is a former regional director of the Department of Education National Capital Region. She is currently a faculty member of Mater Redemptoris Collegium in Calauan, Laguna, and of Mater Redemptoris College in San Jose City, Nueva Ecija.
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