Saint Who?
Saints Who Promoted the Rosary
Saint Francisco Marto
Young layman († 1919)Feast: February 20
Francisco Marto was eight years old when an angel appeared to prepare him, his sister Saint Jacinta, and their cousin Lucia for an important mission. About a year later, the Blessed Mother appeared to them as they tended the family flocks. She told them she was from heaven, later revealing herself as “the lady of the rosary.”
Francisco, however, was not able to see her immediately. Lucia informed him that he needed to pray the rosary first. He began at once and was soon rewarded. Though Francisco never heard the Lady speak, he humbly accepted her communications through his cousin Lucia. “He will have to pray many rosaries,” Our Lady told Lucia. “Oh, Our Lady,” Francisco responded, “I will say all the rosaries you wish!”
Mary asked the children for acts of reparation for sin to console God. For Francisco, this became an all-consuming desire. His rosaries went from hasty and abbreviated to slow, reverent, and frequent. He began to spend hours before the Blessed Sacrament, even skipping school to do so. At age ten, he contracted the Spanish influenza then raging. As Francisco’s death approached, his cousin Lucia gave him a number of intentions to take with him to heaven: “You better ask Jacinta,” he replied, “because I’m afraid of forgetting. When I see Jesus, I’m just going to want to comfort him.”
Tender Father, through the intercession of
Saint Francisco, may we console the Eucharistic
heart of Jesus through devout recitation of the rosary.
