| Francisco
Francisco was born 11 June 1908, the
sixth of seven children of Manuel and Olimpia Marto. He was a handsome
boy, with light hair and dark eyes. He loved games and other children,
yet without the spirit of competition. He would not complain when
treated unfairly, and gave up a treasured possession (a handkerchief
stamped with the image of Our Lady) rather than contend for it. He was
a peacemaker, but courageous, as his conduct under questioning by the
Mayor would later show. He also had a mischievous turn. He was known
to drop strange and inedible objects in his sleeping brother’s
mouth. He had a love for nature, and animals in particular. He played
with lizards and snakes, and would bring them home, to his mother’s
chagrin. Once he gave a penny, all the money he had, to a friend for a
captured bird, only to set the bird free. He played a reed pipe, to
which Lucia and his sister Jacinta would sing and dance. In short, he
was a kind, gentle boy, not yet a Saint, but one predisposed by God
for the graces soon bestowed on him.
 Alone
among the three, Francisco never heard the Lady’s words, although he
saw her and felt her presence. After the first apparition, Lucia
conveyed the Lady’s message to him, that he would go to heaven if he
prayed many Rosaries. In the second apparition, Lucia asked to be
taken to heaven, and the Lady replied that Francisco and Jacinta would
be taken soon, but Lucia would have to wait for a time. (She is still
alive.)
In the third apparition, the children
were given a secret, including a vision of hell, which so changed them
that they became more like adults than children. At this time the
Mayor of the district, Artur de Oliveira Santos, a Freemason, devised
a scheme to discredit the apparitions by terrorizing the children. He
tried to bully them into admitting they lied, threatened to boil them
in oil if they withheld the Lady’s “Secret” (Francisco showed
extravagant courage in anticipation of going to heaven), and jailed
them to keep them from their appointment with the Lady on the day of
the fourth apparition (August 13). They kept their appointment two
days later.
For the fifth apparition, tens of
thousands attended, having been alerted by the press to the Mayor’s
controversy with the children. Among the curious was a seminary
professor from Santarem, Dr. Manuel Formigao, who questioned the
children afterward and became convinced of their veracity.
When the public learned of a miracle
promised for the next appointed day, many resolved to be there, and on
October 13 perhaps 70 thousand people were present for the miracle of
the sun.
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."
In August 1918, when World War I 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. He was buried the next day in a little cemetery in
Fatima, across from the parish church, and later translated to the
Sanctuary at Cova da Iria.
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