To stop the pandemic, bring your prayers to Mary with Francisco and Jacinta of Fatima

Cardinal Antonio dos Santos Marto, Bishop of Leiria-Fatima, Portugal, recalled that Saints Francisco and Jacinta Marto, two of the three young shepherds who saw the Virgin Mary 1916 and 1917, were both taken by the terrible Spanish flu epidemic that killed between 20 and 50 million people.

Francisco died on April 4, 1919, at the age of 10 in the family home. Little Jacinta breathed her last on February 20, 1920, at the age of 9, alone, in the Dona Estefania Hospital in Lisbon, the capital of Portugal, where she had been hospitalized since the beginning of that month.

Cardinal Marto prayed that the two young saints would intercede for "so many sick people who, nowadays and in a profound way, experience the loneliness and isolation to which they are subjected."

So far, the coronavirus pandemic has caused tens of thousands of deaths worldwide, and more than a third of the world's 7.8 billion people are forced to remain confined to their homes.

Adapted from : Vatican News

Adelaide Patrignani - Vatican City