TV, Radio and Online
Coverage Schedules
Tuesday, May 11
Mass in Lisbon 1 p.m. ET
Wednesday, May 12
Meeting with the world of culture 5 a.m. ET
Arrival in Fatima & Vespers 12:30 p.m. ET
Blessing of the Candles and Rosary 4:30 p.m. ET
Thursday, May 13
Mass in Fatima 5 a.m. ET
Friday, May 14
Mass in Porto 5 a.m. ET
Upcoming Papal Visits
Papal Visit to Cyprus
June 4 - June 6, 2010
Papal Visit to Great Britian
September 16 - September 19, 2010
The Fátima Children: Jacinta
Two years younger than Francisco, Jacinta charmed all who
knew her. She was pretty and energetic, and had a natural grace of
movement. She loved to dance, and was sorry when their priest
condemned dancing in public. Sometimes willful, she would pout when
she did not get her way. She took a special delight in flowers,
gathering them by the armful and making garlands for Lucia. At a
First Communion, she was among the little “angels” spreading petals
before the Blessed Sacrament. She had a marked love for Our Lord,
and at the age of five she melted in tears on hearing the account of
His Passion, vowing that she would never sin or offend Him anymore.
She had many friends, but above all she loved her cousin Lucia, and
was jealous of her time and attention. When Lucia, at the age of
ten, became unavailable for play, being sent by her parents to
pasture their sheep, Jacinta moped in loneliness-until her mother
gave in and allowed her, with Francisco, to take a few sheep to
pasture with Lucia.
Her sheep too became her friends. She gave them names, held their
little ones on her lap, and tried to carry a lamb home on her
shoulders, as she had seen in pictures of the Good Shepherd.
Her days were playful and happy, delighting with her brother and
cousin in the things of nature around her. They called the sun “Our
Lady’s lamp,” and the stars “the Angels’ lanterns,” which they tried
to count as it grew dark. They called out to hear their voices echo
across the valley, and the name that returned most clearly was
“Maria.”
They said the Rosary every day after lunch, but to make more time
for play, they shortened it to the words “Our Father” at the
beginning of each decade, followed by “Hail Mary” ten times. This
frivolity would soon change.
In the spring of 1916, as the children watched their sheep, an Angel
appeared to them in an olive grove. He asked the children to pray
with him. He appeared again in midsummer at a well in Lucia’s
garden, urging them to offer sacrifice to God in reparation for
sinners. In a final appearance, at the end of the summer, the Angel
held a bleeding Host over a chalice, from which he communicated the
children. This experience separated them from their playmates and
prepared them for the apparitions to come.
As might be expected, the three were changed by the visitations of
the Queen of Heaven. Jacinta, talkative sometimes to a fault, became
quiet and withdrawn. After the first apparition, Lucia had sworn her
and her brother to secrecy. But Jacinta, bubbling over, had let slip
all they had seen to her family, who then told the village. The news
was received with skepticism by many, with mockery by some, and with
anger by Lucia’s mother. Jacinta was so contrite, she promised never
to reveal another secret.
Her reluctance to reveal anything more of their experiences was
increased by the vision of hell given the children in the third
apparition seems to have affected Jacinta the most. To rescue
sinners from hell, she was in the forefront of the three in
voluntary mortifications, whether it was in giving up their lunches
(sometimes to their sheep), refusing to drink in the heat of the
day, or wearing a knotted rope around their waists. Involuntary
penances included for her, as for her brother and cousin, the
constant mockery of unbelievers, badgering by skeptical clergy, and
wheedling by believers to reveal the Lady’s secret.
Following the miracle of the sun, Jacinta complied with many
requests for her intercessions. On one occasion she seems to have
bilocated, in order to help a wayward youth find his way home. Lost
in a stormy wood, he had knelt and prayed, and Jacinta appeared and
took him by the hand, while she was at home praying for him.
When she came down with influenza, she was removed from her family
to a hospital a few miles away. She did not complain, because the
Blessed Mother had forewarned her that she would go to two
hospitals, not to be cured, but to suffer for the love of God and
reparation for sinners. She stayed in the first hospital for two
months, undergoing painful treatments, and then was returned home.
She developed tuberculosis and was sent to Lisbon, first to a
Catholic orphanage. There she was able to attend Mass and see the
Tabernacle, and she was happy. But her stay there was short. She was
soon transferred to the second hospital prophesied by the Blessed
Mother, where Jacinta was to make her final offering in dying alone.
Her body came to rest in the Sanctuary built at the Cova da Iria,
where the Lady had appeared to her.
