As in Lourdes, (also) in Fatima the Virgin chose children, Francisco, Jacinta and Lucia, as recipients of her message. They welcomed it so faithfully that they merited not only to be recognized as credible witnesses of the apparitions, but also to become themselves an example of evangelical life.
Who were the three children who saw the Virgin Mary?
Our Lady of Fátima appeared to three shepherd children. Lucia dos Santos (age nine) and her cousins Francisco and Jacinta Marto (ages eight and six, respectively) were tending sheep in central Portugal when they had a vision of a woman surrounded by light who identified herself as the Lady of the Rosary.
Sr. Lucia's cousins, Francisco and Jacinta, were canonized in Fatima in 2017, while her own cause for canonization is still pending. On May 13, 2017, Pope Francis canonized Francisco and Jacinta Marto, two of the three visionaries who witnessed the apparitions of Our Lady of Fatima in 1917. However, their cousin, Sr.
Three small and humble shepherds lived and witnessed the apparitions of the Angel of Portugal and of Our Lady in the Cova da Iria, Fatima, in 1916 and 1917. Lucia de Jesus, Francisco Marto and Jacinta Marto became known worldwide as the "Three Shepherds" or the "Seers of Fatima”.
Saint Monica had three children, two boys and a girl – Augustine, Navigius and Perpetua. Augustine, the eldest, was born at Tagaste on November 13th, 354. In spite of every difficulty, Monica brought up her children in faith and piety.
The London-born Italian teenager Carlo Acutis is likely to become the first “millennial saint” after two miracles attributed to him were recognised by Pope Francis.
Francisco and Jacinta Marto died in the global flu pandemic that began in 1918 and swept the world for two years. Francisco Marto died at home on 4 April 1919, at the age of ten. Jacinta died at the age of nine in Queen Stephanie's Children's Hospital in Lisbon on 20 February 1920.
Sister Lucia didn't want to share the third secret but was asked to write it down by the Bishop of Leiria and this document remained sealed until 2000. The Third Secret of Fatima was finally disclosed in 2000, on the day of the beatification of Francisco and Jacinta Marto.
The Angel of Peace appeared in 1916 to the three children at Fatima to prepare the way for Our Lady of Fatima to come to them in 1917 with a message and mission for the world. These little saints took to heart the mission to pray and sacrifice for the conversion of sinners.
Lucia was not considered credible by the Vatican and so the consecration wasn't carried out. Years later, when the apparitions of Fatima were recognised, Lucia's request was perhaps re-examined, but still not carried out. Theologians didn't consider it to be justifiable.
The youngest saints canonized in modern times, Francisco and Jacinta Marto, became the two youngest non-martyred Catholic saints in 2017. The next-youngest modern saint, Maria Goretti, died in 1902 at age eleven and was canonized in 1950 as a virgin and martyr. Efforts to canonize Meo began soon after her death.
How old was Mary Magdalene when she gave birth to Jesus?
While many of the pictures that we see today of Mary holding baby Jesus depict her as a young woman who was probably in her early 20's, a majority of scholars and historians believe she was most likely between the ages of 12-16 years old when she had Jesus.
Not until the 16th century did various Protestant groups start interpreting these passages to mean biological brothers and sisters. Even some of the Protestant reformers such as: Martin Luther, Huldrych Zwingli and John Wesley believed that Mary remained a virgin her whole life.
A careful look at the New Testament shows that Mary kept her vow of virginity and never had any children other than Jesus. When Jesus was found in the Temple at age twelve, the context suggests that he was the only son of Mary and Joseph.
In the end, my Immaculate Heart will triumph. The Holy Father will consecrate Russia to me, and she shall be converted, and a period of peace will be granted to the world.
If my requests are heeded, Russia will be converted, and there will be peace; if not, she will spread errors throughout the world, causing wars and persecutions of the Church. The good will be martyred, the Holy Father will have much to suffer, various nations will be annihilated.
Third: Our Lady of Fatima warns that war is a punishment for sin. “This war will end,” Our Lady of Fatima told the children in July, “but if men do not refrain from offending God, another and more terrible war will begin.” She thus predicted both the end of World War I and the beginning of World War II.
Following the visit, the children told their families; the Marto parents were the first believers of Fatima, but Lucia's parents would prove more difficult. Her mother believed her to be lying, while her father was not religious at all and was indifferent.
The two Marto children were solemnly canonized by Pope Francis at the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Fátima, in Portugal, on 13 May 2017, the centennial of the first Apparition of Our Lady of Fátima. They are the youngest Catholic saints, with Jacinta being the youngest saint who did not die a martyr.
Sister Lucia spent her whole live devoted to the message she had received in Fatima. At first she entered the college of the Dorothean Sisters in Vilar; later she became a Carmelite in Coimbra, where she died on 13 February 2005.
Dominic Savio (Italian: Domenico Savio; 2 April 1842 – 9 March 1857) was an Italian student of John Bosco who became a Catholic saint. He was studying to be a priest when he became ill and died at the age of 14, possibly from pleurisy.
Only 15 years old when he died of leukemia, his beatification and his interest in using digital communication to teach others led to Acutis being popularly dubbed “the patron saint of the Internet” and “the first millennial saint.”
