The supernatural maturity of Francisco Marto, “contemplative consoler of God”

On 4 April 1919, a promise made by the Blessed Virgin Mary to the young Francisco Marto - that she would take him to Heaven very soon - was fulfilled. This promise had made him very happy, because when curious people asked him if he wanted to become a soldier, a doctor or a priest, he would reply: "I want to be nothing and die so that I can go to Heaven". Like his younger sister Jacinta, and his cousin Lucia, Francisco saw the Blessed Virgin six times in the course of 1917, near the Portuguese village of Fatima. And even though, unlike the two girls, he never heard a word Our Lady said to them, he knew that she promised to take him and his sister to heaven very soon, "on condition that he said a lot of rosaries". Francisco followed  this advice scrupulously, not to secure heaven for himself but to console his "God who is too offended", and whose sadness, ever since it was revealed to him, caused the boy continual grief.

Les raisons d'y croire :

• Francisco was a happy and playful child, but like his sister Jacinta, he was prone to mood changes that made him sullen and moody, a trait that annoyed their first cousin, Lucia dos Santos, when she looked after the family flock with the Marto children. However, after the first apparitions of the Angel of Portugal in the spring of 1916, Francisco spontaneously corrected this defect in a very short time.

• Before the first apparitions, Francisco liked to sing and play the fife; it was even his favourite pastime while he was looking after the flock, as he had no schooling. He gave it up overnight, and, when adults showed some surprised, he replied gravely: "I can't be happy now that I've seen how sad God is".

• Like many young shepherds in Catholic countries, Lucia, Francisco and Jacinta made a point of reciting the rosary when they were out in the fields, which helped measuring time (saying a rosary takes twenty minutes; a whole rosary, a good hour).

• But they often opted for an abbreviated version, saying only the first and last words of the prayers, to have more time to play. They changed this habit after the angel said to them: "What are you doing? Pray, pray much [...] Offer prayers and sacrifices to the Most High without ceasing." From then on, and for the rest of their short lives, the Marto children would never again concern themselves with their former amusements, for which "they no longer felt strong inclinations".

• We cannot imagine that these illiterate children invented the purported words of the Angel, because the phrasing was too sophisticated for them.

• During the apparitions of Our Lady, Francisco could always see her very well, but could not hear a word she said to the girls, who had to repeat to him what concerned him. Francisco seemed to understand that he was not worthy of hearing Our Lady and accepted this as penance for his childish sins, never asking for the grace to hear Our Lady speak. This was another surprising sign of spiritual maturity in a boy of nine.

• On 13 June, children were given to briefly contemplate the Holy Trinity and see themselves in it. Francisco summed up this ineffable experience in terms that would not be denied by the great mystics, and which could not be those of an ignorant, illiterate child: "It was as if we were on fire in this light that is God, and we weren't burning. He is so beautiful, so good that we cannot say it! But how sad that he should be so sad! If only I could console him!"

• This reflection, this meditation on the sadness of God - who is otherwise impassive before the sins of men, their rejection of his love, his mercy, and their deliberate choice to rush into hell despite the sacrifice of the Cross - is of a theological scope and depth that go far beyond the intellectual capacity of a child of his age.

• It is even more astonishing that this meditation became the little boy's only preoccupation and that it filled his life for the two years he had left to live. Few adults would be capable of such meritorious fidelity.

• It is even more remarkable that in the midst of the worst sufferings of the illness that took his life, endured without the slightest revolt, this thought of "consoling God " sustained him, driving him not only to offer his pains but to seek them out.

• After the vision of hell, Francisco received a vocation as a consoler, as he confided to Lucia, who asked him: "What do you like best? To console Our Lord or to convert sinners so that fewer souls fall into hell? - To console Our Lord [...]. I would like to console Our Lord and convert sinners so that they no longer offend him".

• Later, when asked what he thought about when he prayed during long hours of contemplation, even ecstasy, he said: "I think about God, who is so sad because of so many sins. Ah, if only I could please him!"Here again, it's hard to imagine that Francisco could have reached such heights in the spiritual life without a special grace from Heaven.

• Ever since the Blessed Virgin announced on 13 June 1917 that she would soon be taking Jacinta and Francisco to Heaven, the boy accepted this early death with joy and prepared himself for it, preferring to spend his days in prayer in church rather than going to school, as it would do him no good to know how to read. He recited at least three rosaries a day, fasted, mortifies himself and wore a cilice, all things that no adult, with the exception of a few saints, is capable of.