Joseph A. Cirrincione - Blessed Jacinta Marto of Fatima

Blessed Jacinta
Marto Of Fatima

by
Msgr. Joseph A.
Cirrincione

Copyright 1992 by TAN Books and Publishers, Inc.

This booklet was originally published (in 1992) as Ven. Jacinta Marto of Fatima.

ISBN 0-89555-782-7

Except for brief excerpts, this booklet may not be reproduced in whole or in part, by any method of reproduction, mechanical or electronic, without the written permission of the Publisher.

TAN Books

Charlotte, North Carolina

www.TANBooks.com

2005

"Suffer the little children to come to me, and forbid them not; for of such is the kingdom of God."

Mark 10:14

"Amen I say to you, whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, shall not enter into it."

Mark 10:15

OTHER BOOKLETS

BY THE SAME AUTHOR

The Rosary and the Crisis of Faith

The Forgotten Secret of Fatima

St. Joseph, Fatima and Fatherhood

Fatima's Message for Our Times

I Wait For You (Editor)

"At that hour the disciples came to Jesus, saying: Who thinkest thou is the greater in the kingdom of heaven? And Jesus calling unto him a little child, set him in the midst of them, and said: Amen I say to you, unless you be converted, and become as little children, you shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, he is the greater in the kingdom of heaven."

Matthew 18:1-4

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

I have written this booklet for two reasons: The first is in thanksgiving to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, who through the intercession of Jacinta and Francisco Marto, vouchsafed to restore me to health in 1990 when I was at death's door.

For many years, I had been praying for the beatification of Jacinta and Francisco Marto, having been spurred on by a quarterly newsletter from Father Luis Kondor, S.V.D., Vice Postulator for the Cause of their beatification.

Thus, when on July 8, 1990 I awakened during the night, suffering from chest pains that presaged a heart attack, I commended myself to their intercession. Taken to St. Mary's Hospital in Rochester, New York, I had to spend a week in the coronary intensive care unit. The doctors sought to correct the problem with medication. But, after a week, they informed me that open heart surgery was the only solution, which, they advised, was quite risky at my agethen 80 years old.

Since that type of operation is not performed at St. Marys, I was transferred by ambulance to the Rochester General Hospital. Upon arrival, an angiogram was performed which revealed that an artery was 95% occluded. The doctors decided upon immediate surgery. Again, as I was prepared for the operation, I commended myself to the Immaculate Heart of Mary and to Jacinta and Francisco Marto.

I survived the operation, but two days later I suffered a cardiac arrest that damaged my heart and has since left me short of breath when I speak. Nonetheless, I was discharged from the hospital within a few days and was sent home.

However, within a week, I suffered a stroke and had to return to St. Mary's Hospital. Quite miraculously, it is my opinion, I suffered no permanent effects from the strokeno paralysis and no brain damage. My prayers had been answered.

And this brings me to the second reason for writing this booklet; I want to encourage readers to join me in praying for the beatification of these two holy children, who were among the three visionaries at Fatima. (See Publisher's Note on p. 3.)

For I have another special grace for which to be thankful: On February 15, 1991, during a routine checkup by my doctor, an X-Ray of my chest was taken, which revealed a lesion in my lungs. Further surgery so soon after my heart surgery was likely to be fatal. So again, I turned to Jacinta and Francisco and prayed for their intercession on my behalf. The doctor offered me two options, surgery or prayer. I chose prayer.

On April 18, 1991, another X-Ray of my lungs was taken. And wonderful to relate, the lesion was completely gone!

Therefore, in July of 1991, I went on a pilgrimage of thanksgiving to Fatima, taking with me the X-Rays of my lungsbefore and after the lesion disappeared along with a letter from the radiologist, explaining that there were no signs of the lesion or disease in my lungs.

In presenting the documentation to Father Kondor, I was told that April 18 was two years to the day since Jacinta and Francisco had been declared Venerable, though the public announcement was not made until the following May 13.

On April 15, 1992, another chest X-Ray of my lungs was taken; it still showed no signs of a nodule of any sort in my lungs. Providentially, friends of mine were going to Fatima in May, 1992, and they graciously consented to take the latest documentation to Father Kondor, together with the new X-Ray.

Msgr. Joseph A. Cirrincione

June 29, 1992

Feast of Sts. Peter and Paul

PUBLISHER'S NOTE

Jacinta and Francisco were beatifieddeclared Blessedby Pope John Paul II in 2000.

Part I

THE THREE CHILDREN OF FATIMA

I first learned of the happenings at Fatima in 1947, when someone gave me a copy of a paperback edition of a book written by Finbar Ryan, then the Dominican Archbishop of Port-au-Prince, Haiti. It made a tremendous impression on me, and it amazed me that such extraordinary events could have occurred in 1917 and I was just then hearing of them, thirty years later. World War II had ended only two years before, and now I was reading that Our Lady had predicted it to three little children at Fatima, Portugal in 1917. This was something that I felt should be shouted from the housetops. I looked for other books on the subject and came across and read The Crusade of Fatima by Father John De Marchi, I.M.C. Next I obtained and read a copy of William Thomas Walsh's Our Lady of Fatima, as well as a book written by Barthas-Fonseca, entitled Our Lady of Light.

Equipped with this source material, I looked for an opportunity to share The Story of Fatima with a larger audience. The opportunity came when I discussed with a parishioner, who was program director of a local radio station, the possibility of doing just that by being given free air time. I succeeded in being given a half-hour every Sunday evening at 6:30 to tell The Story of Fatima, using the source material I had then compiled on Fatima. I began the series of talks on Sunday, January 11, 1948.

This is the story I told. There was in Portugal a small village or hamlet called Aljustrel. It was situated among the hills of a mountain range known as the Serra da Aire.

Here lived the three main characters of our story: Lucia dos Santos, who was born on March 22, 1907, the youngest of seven children of Antonio dos Santos and his wife, Maria Rosa; and Francisco and Jacinta Marto, Lucia's first cousins and the children of Manuel and Olimpia Marto. Olimpia was the sister of Lucia's father. Francisco was born June 11, 1908, and Jacinta on March 11, 1910. The two families were very close and lived on either side of a lane, for there were no streets as such in Aljustrel. Lucia's father owned a few parcels of land a short distance away that were used to graze the few sheep they owned and to grow vegetables for their table.

When the story of Fatima begins, Lucia's daily chore was each day to take the sheep out to graze. So strong was the attachment of Jacinta to her cousin, however, that she begged her mother to be able to go along with her, and therefore she was given a few sheep of her own to tend so that she and her brother could accompany their cousin to the hills.