Miguel Augusto
This Sunday, February 20, the saints Jacinta and Francisco Marto will be celebrated on the date of the death of Saint Jacinta. The beatification of the little shepherds of Fatima, who died as victims of the Spanish Flu, took place on 13 May 2000, officiated by John Paul II. The two young siblings were canonized by Pope Francis on 13 May 2017, in the centenary year of the apparitions of Our Lady in Fatima.
About the seers, the Shrine of Fatima records that they were born in Aljustrel, a small place in the Parish of Fatima, having grown up in a modest family environment, in a harsh, peaceful and isolated land. An informative pamphlet in the shrine says, “They could neither read nor write, and knew little of the geography, history or thought of the world that lay beyond their mountain range.” The pamphlet also recalls that they “received a very simple Christian education, as one would expect in the mountain environment in which they lived.”
From the monthly series held by the Shrine of Fatima to present the temporary exhibition “The Faces of Fatima – Faces of a Spiritual Landscape,” Sister Ângela de Fátima Coelho said: “I can see them with the light in their eyes, looking at history, which was given to them to live and to the people, with the same gaze with which Jesus looked at the crowds, filling himself with compassion because they were like sheep without a shepherd.”
In her reflection, Sister Ângela spoke of the experience of Light that the three seers had – “Francisco and Jacinta are stimulated to put themselves at the service of this light [the light of God that radiated from Our Lady] that they put in their gaze, but which they want to transmit. A light of hope, a light of trust, and they offer themselves in prayer, offering their lives as a gift. And Lúcia, this seer who remains with us until she is 97 and whose name contains this light, becomes a witness to a hope, a witness to a promise” – that the Immaculate Heart of Mary would always be her refuge and the way that would lead her to God. For Sister Ângela “Lúcia becomes this witness of a hope for herself, but above all for humanity.”
“Today, more than ever, in the context in which we live, we have this certainty. On hearing from Our Lady’s lips – ‘I will never leave you. My Immaculate Heart will be your refuge and the way that will lead you to God’ – this will comfort her forever and in Carmel, where she is until the end of her life; this certainty always accompanies her and she becomes its witness, launching the challenge to each one of us, in fidelity to the vocation that God is giving us, to be bearers of a word of peace… yes, the peace that radiates from the message of Fatima, the peace that radiates from this Cova da Iria: to be bearers of a word of hope no matter how dense the darkness and difficulties that surround our time may be,” concluded Sister Ângela in her testimony for the official website of the Shrine of Fatim.
Beatification of Sister Lúcia
On the verge of the celebration of the shepherd saints Jacinta and Francisco Marto, we recall that the process of beatification of their cousin Lúcia de Jesus has been going on since 2008.
Sister Ângela Coelho is Vice-postulator of the cause of beatification and former postulator of the cause of canonization of Saints Francisco and Jacinta Marto. The current Postulator General for the cause of beatification of Sister Lúcia is Father Marco Chiesa, of the Province of Genoa.
Sister Lúcia, after several decades spent in the Carmel of Saint Teresa in Coimbra, died in her cell in this city on 13 February 2005 at the age of 97.
The ECCLESIA agency reported in February 2021 that the beatification process has been “slowed down” because of the pandemic, and that the Vice-postulator of the cause said: “I can’t go to Rome and we have another rhythm” in this “long” work that requires “patience” and “rigor.”
The news article also states that, according to sister Ângela, as regards the positio, the report on the heroic living out of the virtues of faith, work was going on “at the normal pace.” The article stresses that “the recognition of the ‘heroic virtues’ is a central step in the process that leads to the proclamation of a Catholic faithful as blessed, the penultimate step towards the declaration of sanctity; for beatification, the recognition of a miracle attributed to the intercession of the venerable is required.
In statements to ECCLESIA, the Vice-postulator spoke of the seer of Fatima as “an incredible woman, with many facets, with an enormous depth of life… She is a lady to whom the world enters,” stressing that despite the cloistered nature of the Coimbra Carmel, countless correspondence (tens of thousands of letters) and several visits were recorded, including those of forty-eight cardinals.
Sister Ângela of Fatima, has affirmed that the whole process cannot be done lightly, but with great responsibility, respect, affection and understanding. Remembering that we are talking about a life that is almost one hundred years old, very connected to the history of the twentieth century, not only worldwide but also of the Church. From her long study and knowledge, Ângela has affirmed that ‘Sister Lúcia is a woman of extraordinary holiness and that we must learn one day how much we are indebted to this woman.”
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