St. Francisco Marto was an ordinary 10-year-old boy, often pulling pranks on his siblings and even refusing to pray when his father asked him.
Then everything changed when a beautiful Lady appeared to his sister and cousin.
At first, St. Francisco could not see Our Lady of Fatima.
Only after he began to pray the Rosary did he finally see her with his eyes.
Yet, he still never heard Our Lady and relied on St. Jacinta and Lucia to know what Our Lady said to him.
Conversion of heart
At one point Lucia asked if St. Francisco would go to heaven. Our Lady said to Lucia, "Yes, but first he must say many Rosaries." When he heard this from Lucia, Francisco cried, "Oh, Our Lady, I will say all the Rosaries you wish!"
St. Francisco was a changed boy after the apparitions of Our Lady of Fatima.
In addition to the apparitions, St. Francisco also heard Jesus speak to him while at home.
St. John Paul II explained what happened in his homily for Francisco's beatification in 2000:
What most impressed and entirely absorbed Bl. Francisco was God in that immense light which penetrated the inmost depths of the three children. But God told only Francisco "how sad" he was, as he said. One night his father heard him sobbing and asked him why he was crying; his son answered: "I was thinking of Jesus who is so sad because of the sins that are committed against him". He was motivated by one desire - so expressive of how children think - "to console Jesus and make him happy".
For the rest of his short life, St. Francisco sought to make Jesus happy.
St. John Paul II described how this formed the remaining time he spent on earth:
A transformation takes place in his life, one we could call radical: a transformation certainly uncommon for children of his age. He devotes himself to an intense spiritual life, expressed in assiduous and fervent prayer, and attains a true form of mystical union with the Lord. This spurs him to a progressive purification of the spirit through the renunciation of his own pleasures and even of innocent childhood games.
Francisco bore without complaining the great sufferings caused by the illness from which he died. It all seemed to him so little to console Jesus: he died with a smile on his lips.
His short life reminds us that we all have time to change the trajectory of our lives, however old or young we are.
There is still time to let Our Lady change us and to console Jesus before our death.
