The relics of siblings Blessed Jacinta and Blessed Francisco Marto, two of the three child shepherds who told of the famed 1917 Marian apparition in Fatima, Portugal, will be available for public veneration at the Our Lady of Veritas Chapel in Quezon City starting today until May 13.
Fr. Anton Pascual, president of the Church-run Radio Veritas, said the second-class relics were from the clothing of Jacinta and Francisco, with a piece of the Holm Oak tree where Our Lady of Fatima appeared to the children.
Blessed Jacinta and Francisco will be canonized on May 13, which also happens to be the start of the centennial celebration of the Fatima apparitions.
“I am inviting you all to visit their relics and Our Lady’s image … may our prayers for God’s forgiveness and compassion be heard through their intercession,” Pascual said in statement.
Visiting hours
Devotees may visit the image and relics from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Radio Veritas Chapel located on the second floor of Veritas Tower, 162 West Ave. corner Edsa in Quezon City.
Francisco and his sister Jacinta, together with their cousin Lúcia Santos, were children from Aljustrel near Fátima, Portugal, who were said to have witnessed six apparitions of the Blessed Virgin Mary from May 13 to Oct. 13, 1917.
Fátima has since become a major center of world Christian pilgrimage.
In the apparitions, the Blessed Virgin was said to have emphasized the need to pray the Rosary daily, as well as the performance of acts of devotion, reparation and sacrifice.
Succumbing to the flu epidemic, Francisco died on April 4, 1919, at the age of 10 and Jacinta died at the age of 9 on Feb. 20, 1920. Their mother, Olímpia Marto, said her children had happily predicted their own deaths in front of her and curious pilgrims.
The children were beatified by Pope John Paul II on May 13, 2000.
On April 17, Pope Francis announced that the siblings would be elevated to sainthood.