Blessed Jacinta Marto of Fatima was ahead of her time.  

Whenever she heard someone saying something derogatory or critical of a priest she would hide and cry, and if someone asked her why, she explained that we should never speak ill of a priest of God, but rather we should pray for him.

She spent the rest of her short life performing HEROIC SACRIFICES for the Holy Father, without ever mentioning his name, and it is believed that for her the Pope is the Pope and it matters not which Pope, for she sacrificed and did heroic penance for the Holy Father, regardless of his particular name, especially when he would have the most problems or suffering. She had nothing but compassion for the Holy Father.

We can hardly help but wonder what she would have to say to us today.  

But we shouldn't have to wonder, because her words are timeless.


In this age of child pornography and sins of the flesh (for which more souls are damned than for any other), Bl. Jacinta is a model of purity and sacrifice.

She grew accustomed to looking for new ways to suffer for sinners, and whenever she found one, she seemed to act as if she had discovered a great diamond, because to her the means of doing penance was as a precious Jєωel.

When she chose to go to Lisbon for medical treatment (she had the option of being taken to heaven by Our Lady early, but she chose instead to suffer additionally for the salvation of souls and the conversion of sinners) she received the attention of the best specialist available at that time.  His name was Dr. Castro Freire, whose diagnosis was purulent pleurisy with fistula, osteitis of the 7th and 8th ribs of the same side. This is an extremely painful condition, which this little girl suffered without complaint.  Every breath was a screaming fury of pain, for the pleura, the cavity surrounding her lungs, was infected and raw with soreness.

She fully understood the level of pain she was about to endure entering surgery, but she wasn't afraid of that.  There was only one thing that struck fear into the soul of this great victim soul -- she was afraid that the exposure of her body would become the occasion of sin for the hospital workers who would see her that way.

The anaesthesia they offered her was ineffective, and she was too weak to take gas for general. She endured the surgery for REMOVAL of her two ribs while conscious. The dressing of the wound, which was open the size of a fist ("fistula") was very painful every time it was cleaned.

The doctors who attended her operation testified that the only words she uttered in reaction to all this intense pain was saying, "Oh, dear Lord, now you can save many sinners because I suffer a great deal."

The undertaker who cared for her remains was astonished to find the penetrating aroma of a bouquet of flowers emanating from her body even many days after her demise.  Her cheeks and lips remained rosy and fresh, and he said he had never seen anything like this in all his years of doing this work.