Ask the children of Fatima to intercede for the coronavirus
Two young saints who died during the 1918 flu epidemic are among the ideal intercessors for us as we fight the coronavirus today. There is a prayer for their help.
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The great flu epidemic of 1918 extended to the following year, bringing very hard times for hundreds of millions of people around the world.
Two of his victims, a brother and sister, became the two youngest non-martyred saints in the Catholic Church - San Francisco Marto and Santa Jacinta Marto. Of course we know them as two of the three visionaries of Fatima. Both suffered from the flu and died of it and (in Jacinta's case) its complications.
Because they were also so close to our Blessed Mother after seeing her in Fatima and then being so dedicated to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, that pair of intercessors will be for us, with her and with the "hidden Jesus", as Francisco loves to call our Lord Eucharistic in the tabernacle!
On May 13, 2000, in Fatima, during the homily that beatified them, Saint John Paul II called Jacinta and Francisco "two candles that God lit to illuminate humanity in his dark and anxious hours".
Now they can be intercessor candles for us.
With this in mind, the Children of the Eucharist were inspired to promote this prayer for the intercession of these two holy children specifically for this pandemic period, and also to create their beautiful image with the Immaculate Heart that appears on the prayer.
Father Joseph Wolfe of the Franciscan Missionaries of the Eternal Word not only reviewed the prayer, but used it together with the photo he already loves a few times on EWTN, including Monday 27 April, with our Rosary for the end of COVID-19.
In short, before we get to the prayer just made for this holy team to intercede for us, let us recall some important background. Both children knew what would happen to them to some extent because the Blessed Mother told them that she would soon take them to heaven.
After Francisco got the flu, he suffered at home and died there. On the other hand, her sister Jacinta, by the grace of God far beyond her years in her holy disposition, suffering avidly already for the conversion of sinners, was asked by our Blessed Mother if she wanted to suffer a little more for the conversion of even more sinners. She gladly accepted this.
Jacinta did it in two hospitals, even though she knew that she would die alone, without her parents, her cousin and seeing Lucia with her.
Before her cousin was taken to the second hospital in Lisbon, Lucia asked Jacinta what she would do in paradise.
Jacinta replied: “I will love Jesus very much, and also the Immaculate Heart of Mary. I will pray a lot for you, for sinners, for the Holy Father, for my parents, my brothers and sisters and for all the people who asked me to pray for them ... "
This last part includes us today.
Already here on earth the prayers of the young Jacinta were powerful. Here is what Lucia recorded at once:
A poor woman suffering from a terrible disease met us one day. Crying, he knelt in front of Jacinta and asked her to ask the Madonna to cure her. Jacinta was distressed to see a woman kneeling before her, and grabbed her with trembling hands to lift her. But seeing that this was beyond her strength, she also knelt down and said three Hail Marys with the woman. He then asked her to get up and assured her that the Madonna would cure her. Subsequently, she continued to pray every day for that woman, until she returned some time later to thank Our Lady for her care.
Father John de Marchi described in his book how during the world flu epidemic of 1918 many made a pilgrimage to Fatima because they were already sick or frightened of catching the deadly flu. People elaborated with images of the Madonna del Rosario and favorite saints. Maria, the woman who was the custodian of the Fatima chapel, said that the priest who gave the first sermon at the Cova "underlined that the important thing to pursue was" the modification of life "". Although she was very ill, Jacinta was there. Maria remembered well: “[People] were crying sadly about this epidemic. Our Lady listened to the prayers they offered because since that day we have no longer had cases of flu in our district. "
During the homily of Fatima, St. John Paul II said: “Francisco endured without complaining about the great sufferings caused by the illness with which he died. It all seemed so little to console Jesus: he died with a smile on his lips. Little Francisco had a great desire to atone for the offenses of sinners by endeavoring to be good and offering his sacrifices and prayers. The life of Jacinta, her younger sister of almost two years, was motivated by these same feelings. "
John Paul II repeated the words of Jesus from the Gospels, linking them to these young saints when he added: “Father, I offer you praise for what you have hidden from the learned and clever ones that you have revealed to your dearest children. "
While praying to St. Jacinta and San Francisco for their intercession during this period, take a look also at this 2020 World Rosary, so important for our times and our world, also guided by the Sons of the Eucharist.
Prayer to SS. Jacinta and Francisco Marto for this time
Saints Jacinta and Francisco Marto, dear shepherds of Fatima, have been chosen from Heaven to see our Blessed Mother and to transmit her message of conversion in a world that had moved away from God.
You who have suffered so much and died from the Spanish flu, the pandemic of your time, pray for us who suffer in the pandemic of our times, so that God may have mercy on us.
Pray for the children of the world.
Pray for our protection and the end of what afflicts us physically, mentally and spiritually.
Pray for our world, our countries, the Church and for the most vulnerable people who suffer and need treatment.
Little shepherds of Fatima, help us to come to the refuge of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, so to receive the graces we need at this moment and to come to the beauty of the life to come.
We trust, as you did, in the words of our Blessed Mother who taught you to "pray the rosary every day in honor of Our Lady of the Rosary, because only she can help you." Amen.