Francisco de Jesus Marto was born on June 11, 1908, in Aljustrel, a little hamlet belonging to the parish of Fatima, municipality of Ourém in Portugal. He was the youngest son of Manuel Pedro Marto and his wife, Olimpia de Jesus dos Santos.
He was the brother of Jacinta, who like her, did not exhibit the rustic characteristics of their cousin Lucia. He was a handsome and sturdy boy with an oval face, high cheekbones and a full lower lip like his sister’s. Unlike her, however, he was gentle and a pacifist, but not one with “peace of the soul”. On the contrary, he was energetic, strong, purposeful and robust.
Typical of most children at that age, Francisco liked to play; however, unlike his sister he was not a poor loser, to the point that it almost seemed that he did not want to win at games at all. In fact, when someone broke the rules at a game or stubbornly denied him his personal rights, he yielded without resisting by simply saying, “Do you think it was you who won? That’s alright! I don’t care!”
And whenever someone took advantage of his calm nature to rob him of something, he would say, “Let him keep it, I do not mind.” His calm temperament used to exasperate his cousin Lucia; she could order him to do anything and he would do it without questioning.
He was not at all a coward, however. He could go out at night all alone without any fear or otherwise. He used to play with lizards and snakes that he found, and would get them to roll themselves around a stick and make them drink the sheep’s milk that he poured into the holes in the rocks, . He was passionate about music which he played on a reed pipe during the quiet hours, and like Jacinta, he was also a lover of flowers and nature.
Morally he was irreproachable – One morning – Mrs. Olimpia tells us – as he was going out to pasture the flock, I said to him: -- “Go today to the little hill at your godmother Teresa’s place, she is not there today, she went to the village.” And right away he answered: -- “Ah, that’s what I will not do!” I gave him a slap on the face but he did not flinch. He turned to me and said in a very serious voice, “So, it is my mother who is teaching me to steal?”
Francisco and the Enneagram
It is commonly understood that there are three centers of intelligence – the brain, the heart and the body; we are therefore cerebral, emotional, or visceral i.e. instinctive. While we all register reality, and relate to it and to others from all three intelligence centers, we always have one that is, somehow, default or preferential to the other two.
In the Enneagram´s psychological theory, there are nine types of personality, three for each of the personality center mentioned above; each personality type is identified by a specific compulsion, drive or tendency of which the person is unaware but influences and even determines his or her behaviour.
Whether it is by coincidence or providence, these three centers are very well represented by the three little shepherds. Lucia is cerebral, Jacinta is emotional and Francisco is visceral or instinctive. Each one of them incarnates the message of Fatima in their own way according to their basic personality and intelligence center. Within his instinctive center, Francisco is definitely not an 8 whose compulsion is to be strong or a 1 whose compulsion is to be perfect but is very clearly a 9 whose compulsion is to seek out peace and harmony, avoiding conflicts at all cost.
The nines in the Enneagram tend to forget themselves by accommodating the agendas of others. Lucia in her memoirs noted this of Francisco that he obeyed without questioning almost as if like a robot. The nines are excellent “peacemakers” because they have learned to minimize conflicts which we also note in Francisco. In order to avoid conflict, he was even capable of depriving himself of something dear to him, as is recounted in the following:
On one occasion, Francisco was gifted with a lovely handkerchief on which was stamped the image of Our Lady of Nazareth, which he prized dearly and displayed it with pride among his friends. The handkerchief was passed from hand to hand, and in a few minutes it disappeared. – “He liked the handkerchief very much” – says his mother – “and spoke about it very often”. When, however, they told him that the handkerchief was in the possession of another boy who claimed it to be his, Francisco made no effort to get it back: -- “Let him have it! What does a handkerchief matter to me?”
The nines avoid conflicts at all cost and seek tranquility, peace and harmony (internal and external). Francisco lived detached from everything and everyone, a little in the stratosphere; there were very few things that truly mattered to him who was quiet and impartial to people and things, a self-absorbed contemplative.
Eucharistic and contemplative
“I loved seeing the Angel and I loved still more seeing Our Lady. But what I loved the most of all was to see Our Lord in that light from Our Lady which penetrated our hearts. I love God so much… But He is very sad because of so many sins… We must never commit even the smallest sin!...” (…) “In a little while Jesus will come for me to take me to Heaven with Him and then I will always be looking at Him and consoling Him. How wonderful! -- (Francisco)
-- We were burning, in that light that is God, and we were not scorched. – Francisco spent hours in adoration before the Blessed Sacrament which he called “the Hidden Jesus”. Penance and prayer summarize the message of Fatima; both Francisco and Jacinta did penance and prayer, but Francisco was more inclined to prayer while Jacinta to penance. While Jacinta in her penance was busy saving sinners, all Francisco wanted to do in his prayer was to console Jesus.
So just like Jesus did with the apostles, Francisco would from time to time without anyone realizing it leave the company of his sister and cousin and hide behind a wall or go to a deserted place and there he would pray alone. When Lucia and Jacinta found him, Lucia would ask, “Francisco, why don’t you tell me to pray with you, and Jacinta too?” – “I prefer praying by myself,” he answered, “so that I can think and console Our Lord who is so sad!”
Already after the apparitions, Lucia recalls that on their way to school, sometimes on reaching Fatima, he would say to her: -- Listen, you go to school, and I’ll stay here in the Church, close to the Hidden Jesus. It’s not worth my while learning to read, as I’ll be going to Heaven very soon. On your way home, come here and call me.
Despite the love for the Eucharist, for the Hidden Jesus, the parish priest of Fatima refused to give him Communion. But while the priest refused him, the angel in one of the earlier apparitions did not deny him the blessed sacrament, and upon receiving the Communion, Francisco exclaimed, “I felt that God was in me, but I didn’t know how.”
After the apparitions, the lives of the two siblings changed drastically. Jacinta never missed an opportunity to offer all the sacrifices to God for the conversion of sinners. Francisco, on the other hand, never missed an occasion to isolate himself from his sister, cousin and other children to spend long hours alone praying the Rosary and consoling Jesus. He said, “Do not come here; let me stay alone.” – But what are you doing here so long? – I am thinking about God who is so sad, because of so many sins! If only I was able to give Him joy!
I live without living in myself, and is so sublime the life I am hoping to live that I am hastening to die. (St. Teresa of Avila)
So deep was Francisco’s relationship with the “Hidden Jesus”, that he no longer thought or wanted anything else. All the time was yet not enough to be with Him, and to console Him. One day he was asked if he would like to become a carpenter, a soldier, a doctor, or even a priest and he responded that he would like to die instead and go to Heaven.
When Francisco and Jacinta were already very sick and confined to their rooms, oftentimes, Lucia was the one carrying messages between them. Since it was known to them that Francisco would die first, Jacinta sent words to remind him not to forget to pray for her and Lucia when he got to heaven. To which he responded that he was afraid he would forget when he saw Our Lord face to face. He was foreseeing that upon seeing Our Lord he would be so engrossed and absorbed by the vision of Him that everything would be completely erased from his mind.
And to Heaven in fact he did go on the 4th of April, 1919, two years after the apparitions and after some time of illness during which his parents were certain that they could save him. One day his godmother Teresa promised that if Our Lady would cure him she would offer Her his weight in flour; Francisco responded with an angelic smile, “Our Lady will not grant you this grace”. To any word of hope of improvement, he answered, “It is useless, Our Lady wants me with her in Heaven”; he would not say it with a sense of tragic resignation, but joyfully smiling, and in good spirits.
Fr. Jorge Amaro, IMC
No comments:
Post a Comment