The words of the Angel, “Console your God”, impressed Francisco very deeply and guided his life. He wanted to be the ‘Consoler of Jesus’ primarily by praying the Rosary and adoring the Hidden Jesus in the Tabernacle of the Parish Church. Francisco was born on the 11th of June 1908, in Aljustrel, in his parish of Fatima, and was baptized on June 20th. Peaceable by nature, he loved games and spent hours playing his flute. He was a born lover of nature. Francisco was the brother of Jacinta and cousin of Lucia. During the apparitions of the Angel of Peace and of Our Lady, he could see everything but could hear nothing. Lucia and Jacinta told him, what the Angel and Our Lady had said.

Blessed Francisco always desired to keep Jesus company in his parish Church. He would always
say you go ahead; I am going to keep the ‘hidden Jesus’ company. He understood that sin is the
cause of God’s sadness. “I love God so much!” he said, over and over again. But He is so sad
because of so many sins. We must never commit any,”

Francisco fell sick in October 1918. His family who assured him that he would soon get better, he would promptly reply: “It is no use. Our Lady wants me in heaven with her!” When he was no longer able to pray he asked his cousin Lucia and his sister Jacinta to pray the Rosary aloud, so that he could accompany them in his heart. On the last morning of his life, he once again asked pardon of his family for all his faults. Then he said to his mother: “Look mother, do you see that beautiful light over there by the door.” It was the 4th of April 1919. At ten o’clock in the morning, as the sun shone brightly into his small and humble room, Francisco departed for heaven to be forever with “Our Lady” whose beauty had so won his heart.

From the homily of Pope John Paul II of May 13, 2000:

“What most impressed and absorbed Blessed Francisco was God in that immense light which penetrated the heart of the three shepherds. However only to him God revealed Himself “so sad”, as he used to say.
One night his father heard him moaning and asked him why he was crying. The child replied:
“I was thinking about Jesus Who is so sad because of the sins committed against Him.”
He lived motivated by only one desire – so revealing of the way children think –
of “consoling and cheering up Jesus.”

In Fatima, on 13th May, in the Jubilee Year 2000, Pope John Paul II inscribed his name among the Blessed.

Blessed Francisco’s feast day is February 20th!
May the children and youth of the world ‘follow the way’ of this Blessed Shepherd of Fatima.