Manuel Pedro Marto
On the thirteenth of August he went to the field to fetch maize, intending to go to the place at the proper hour, and learned, when he was already on the threshing floor, from Florinda3, that the administrator had meanwhile arrived at his house. It was not yet ten o'clock. He went straight back home and found the administrator and a priest4 whom he did not know. The administrator asked: “Well, Mr Marto, do you know why I've come here today? I want to go up there to the Cova da Iria, to the Miracle, I want to go and see. I'm like Saint Thomas: seeing is believing”. Manuel Marto said: “You do well, Mr Administrator”. The latter declared that he would take the children in his carriage. They were still out with the cattle. Marto asked his wife to call them, because it was time. She did not get to call them, but they came with the cattle. Lúcia, learning that the administrator was at her uncle and aunt's house, went there at once, and he, as soon as he saw her, told her that he would take them in the carriage, to which she replied that they would not go by carriage. The little girl went back home and then came with her father. On that occasion there was talk of a secret. As the road had not been built, the carriage waited at a crossroads. The administrator said that in that case he would wait for them at Fátima to ask them some questions at the house of the parish priest.
The parents of the three children went to the parish priest's house, the administrator not yet being there; he arrived shortly afterwards. They all stayed on the veranda. Only Lúcia was called inside to be questioned by the parish priest in the presence of the administrator.
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After the interrogation, the administrator invited the children to come down the steps of the veranda and get into the trap in which he had come, drove round the church and fled to Vila Nova de Ourém. Jacinta's father then went on to the Cova da Iria, astonished at the administrator's departure. At the Cova da Iria, after talking with various people, he clearly heard a loud bang followed by dust and mist. The people fled. Almost everyone took off their hats, cried out to Our Lady and were very happy, saying that they had stolen the children, it was true, but that Our Lady had manifested herself. He also saw a sort of luminous globe turning in the clouds. There seemed to be a haze around the holm-oak shrub after the bang. The people complained not only about the administrator but also about the parish priest, saying that he too was to blame. Lúcia's uncle, António da Silva5, wanted that afternoon to go and demand an explanation from the parish priest, believing him guilty, but he did not turn up. Jacinta's father went to see the parish priest, supposing that he knew something about the children. He then went back home with his brother-in-law. The people went on talking against the parish priest, asserting that it was he who was to blame for the abduction of the children. The administrator brought the little ones back on Wednesday the 15th, after Mass, at about eleven o'clock. On Saturday the eleventh, the parents of Lúcia and of Jacinta had been summoned to Ourém, only the fathers and Lúcia going. First they called Lúcia and the parents. Then they called Jacinta's father. The father answered that he had not brought her, because, being so small, she could not go on foot, nor could she ride a donkey. The administrator retorted: “So you're disobeying?!” “No, because here I am,” Manuel Marto stressed. Later, when he came to bring them back to Fátima, he told him that he had already intended to arrest the children on that day. As soon as he arrived he took the children to the parish priest's house. He declared that people were accusing the regedor and the parish priest of the abduction of the children, but that he alone was to blame, that they could ask the children whether they had been ill-treated, and that he no longer wanted anything to do with it, that they could go to the place as often as they liked. What is certain, however, is that on the way back from Ourém he had already told the children that he would arrest them again if they went to the Cova da Iria once more.
Em treze de agosto, foi à fazenda buscar milho com a ideia de lá ir ao local à hora própria, sabendo, quando já estava na eira, pela Florinda3, que o administrador tinha chegado entretanto a sua casa. Ainda não eram dez horas. Voltou logo para casa e encontrou o administrador e um padre4 que não conhecia. O administrador perguntou: “Então, senhor Marto, sabe porque cá venho hoje? Quero lá ir acima à Cova da Iria, ao Milagre, quero ir ver. Sou como S. Tomé, ver e crer”. Manuel Marto disse: “Faz bem, senhor administrador”. Este declarou que levava as crianças no seu carro. Elas ainda andavam com o gado. Marto pediu a sua mulher que as chamasse, porque eram horas. Não chegou a chamá-las, mas elas vieram com o gado. A Lúcia sabendo que o administrador estava em casa dos tios, dirigiu-se logo para lá, e ele, assim que a viu, disse-lhe que as levava de carro, ao que ela retorquiou que não iam de carro. A pequena voltou a casa e depois veio com o pai. Ouviu-se nessa ocasião falar num segredo. Como a estrada não estava feita, o carro ficou à espera numa encruzilhada. O administrador disse que então os esperava na Fátima para lhes fazer umas perguntas em casa do Senhor Prior.
Dirigiram-se os pais das três crianças a casa do Senhor Prior, não estando ainda lá o administrador, que chegou pouco depois. Ficaram todos na varanda. Só a Lúcia foi chamada lá dentro para ser interrogada pelo senhor Prior em presença do administrador.
Depois do interrogatório, o administrador convidou as crianças a descer as escadas da varanda e a subir para a charrete em que tinha vindo, deu uma volta à igreja e fugiu para Vila Nova de Ourém. O pai da Jacinta seguiu então para a Cova da Iria tendo ficado admirado da partida do administrador. Na Cova da Iria, depois de falar com várias pessoas, ouviu perfeitamente um estrondo seguido de poeira e nevoeiro. O povo fugiu. Quase todas as pessoas tiraram os chapéus, gritaram por Nossa Senhora e ficaram muito contentes, dizendo que tinham roubado as crianças, é verdade, mas que Nossa Senhora se tinha manifestado. Viu também uma espécie de globo luminoso girando nas nuvens. Parecia haver uma névoa em volta da carrasqueira, depois do estrondo. O povo queixava-se não só do administrador, como do senhor Prior, dizendo que ele também tinha culpa. O tio da Lúcia, António da Silva5, nesse dia à tarde, queria ir pedir satisfações ao senhor Prior, julgando-o culpado, mas não apareceu. O pai da Jacinta procurou o senhor Prior, supondo que ele sabia alguma coisa a respeito das crianças. Voltou depois com o cunhado para casa. O povo continuava a falar contra o senhor Prior, afirmando que ele é que tinha a culpa do roubo das crianças. O administrador trouxe os pequenos na quarta-feira, dia 15, depois da Missa, cerca das onze horas. No sábado, onze, tinham sido chamados a Ourém os pais de Lúcia e de Jacinta, indo só os pais e a Lúcia. Primeiro chamaram a Lúcia e os pais. Depois chamaram o pai da Jacinta. O pai respondeu que a não trouxera, porque ela, sendo tão pequena, não podia ir a pé, nem sabia ir de burra. Replicou o administrador: “Então desobedece?!”. “Não, porque aqui estou”, acentuou Manuel Marto. Mais tarde, quando as veio trazer a Fátima, disse-lhe que já nesse dia tinha tido tenção de prender as crianças. Logo que chegou levou as crianças a casa do senhor Prior. Declarou que acusavam o regedor e o senhor Prior do rapto das crianças, mas que só ele tinha a culpa, que podiam perguntar às crianças, se as tinham tratado mal, e que já não queria saber de nada, que elas podiam ir ao local, quantas vezes quisessem. O que é certo porém, é que pelo caminho, no regresso de Ourém, já tinha dito às crianças que tornaria a prendê-las se fossem outra vez à Cova da Iria.
Editor's notes (3)
3 Florinda de Jesus, sister of Francisco and Jacinta. Born on 3 August 1902, she died on 20 May 1920, a victim of the pneumonic influenza.
4 Fr. Manuel Carreira Poças.
5 He was married first to Teresa de Jesus, sister of António dos Santos, Lúcia's father.
3 Florinda de Jesus, irmã de Francisco e Jacinta. Nasceu 3 de agosto de 1902 e faleceu a 20 de maio de 1920, vítima da pneumónica.
4 Pe. Manuel Carreira Poças.
5 Foi casado em primeiras núpcias, com Teresa de Jesus, irmã de António dos Santos, pai de Lúcia.
