Our Lady of Fatima

and

The Miracle of the Sun

Fatima may well be the most important event in the 20th century. It is a treasure chest full of God’s graces, yet an event largely ignored outside Catholic circles. God in his eternal love never ceases speaking to us. We just have to listen. If you had been in Fatima, Portugal in 1917 you would have known with 100% certainty that Mary was in heaven, thereby conclusively confirming the biblical narrative that Jesus had lived among us, was crucified, died, and rose from the dead.

It’s time to visit 1917 Fatima, Portugal.

Fatima background

Fatima is a small Portuguese village located about 80 miles north of Lisbon. In 1917 three peasant children, ages 7, 8 and 10 (Lucia, Francisco, and Jacinta) claimed they saw and spoke with a beautiful lady from heaven who came to be known as Our Lady of the Rosary or Our Lady of Fatima. October 13, 1917 was her final appearance, and it was then that the Miracle of the Sun occurred, precisely when and where the children said it would. The predicted event can only be described as miraculous and was so described in the secular atheistic press at that time.

The children said a beautiful Lady from heaven appeared to them six times (May 13, June 13, July 13, August 19, September 13, and October 13, 1917). Beginning directly after the first appearance on May 13th, the children reported these apparitions. They were generally greeted with disbelief and skepticism, and often with scorn and hate. During these visitations, she gave them messages and beginning in July promised to perform a miracle on October 13, 1917 so that everyone could believe. On September 13th a preliminary miracle occurred, and the Lady promised that the October 13th miracle would take place at noon. The children were quite unequivocal. They were confident something spectacular was going to take place and the word spread throughout the region.

Fatima – 1917

We know beyond a shadow of a doubt that the Miracle of the Sun and other miracles occurred. There were thousands upon thousands of witnesses to the events on that day as well as contemporaneous reporting by a hostile secular press. The most authentic and comprehensive study is given us by Father John di Marchi who devoted 3½ years in Fatima researching the events which, at the time of his investigation, had occurred less than 30 years earlier. He spoke with a number of witnesses, including family members of the three children and in 1947 his book exhaustively chronicling the Fatima appearances was published. Over 3 million copies of his book, The True Story of Fatima, have been printed. All quotations and page references which follow are to Father di Marchi’s book. I would also encourage you to visit the official Fatima website for a much more detailed account of the 1917 events, as well as the earlier 1916 visitations and the subsequent appearances to Lucy.

Before we proceed, it is important to know that all of Catholicism and Christianity were under severe attack in 1917 Portugal. It had reached the point when in 1911 the Portuguese Head of State approved a law for the total separation of church and state with the following declaration: “Thanks to this law, Portugal, within two generations, will have succeeded in completely eliminating Catholicism.” Schoolchildren were obliged to march through the streets, carrying banners inscribed with the words: “Neither God, nor Religion.”

The Miracle of the Sun

Despite the official opposition and even persecution, on October 13, 1917 70,000 faithful, unfaithful, skeptics and press gathered at the site where the little children said a noon miracle was to occur. The entire area was a muddy bog because it had rained continuously the night before and throughout the morning of October 13th. Of the thousands that gathered, many were there simply to gloat when the promised miracle failed to materialize. They were certain that the whole episode would be revealed as a Catholic fraud.

The rain continued throughout the morning and into early afternoon, beyond the time the Lady had promised the miracle. The fraud was beginning to be apparent. What the crowd failed to realize was that Our Lady speaks in celestial time, not the artificial time increments created by man. The sun didn’t reach its zenith until after one o ‘clock, local time.

By one o’clock the entire area had become a muddy bog. It was then that the rain stopped.

There are numerous contemporary accounts as to what happened next. Some of these accounts are quoted in Father de Marchi’s book. The Lisbon newspaper, O Seculo, a major Portuguese anti-clerical newspaper, reported in great detail the Miracle of the Sun (page 57):

 “From the height of the road where the people parked their carriages and where many hundreds stood, afraid to brave the muddy soil, we saw the immense multitude turn towards the sun at its highest, free of all clouds. The sun called to mind a plate of dull silver. It could be stared at without the least effort. It did not burn or blind. It seemed that an eclipse was taking place. All of a sudden a tremendous shout burst forth, ‘Miracle, miracle! Marvel, marvel!’

“Before the astonished eyes of the people, whose attitude carried us back to biblical times, and who, white with terror, heads uncovered, gazed at the blue sky, the sun trembled and made some brusque unheard-of-movements beyond all cosmic laws; the sun danced, is the typical expression of the peasants.”

*****

“Immediately afterwards the people asked each other if they saw anything and what they had seen. The greatest number avowed that they saw the sun trembling and dancing; others declared that they saw the smiling face of the Blessed Virgin Herself; they swore that the sun turned around on itself as if it were a wheel of fireworks and had fallen almost to the point of burning the earth with its rays. Some said they saw it change colors successively.”

Another eyewitness (Dr. Almeida Garrett, professor at the University of Coimbra) gave his account of the events, which took place at “two o’clock wartime or about noon, sun time.” His testimony reads, in part (pages 57-59):

“The sun had broken jubilantly through the thick layer of clouds just a few moments before. It was shining clearly and intensely. . . .It looked to me as a luminous and brilliant disc, with a bright, well-defined rim. It did not hurt the eyes. The comparison (which I heard while still at Fatima) with a disc of dull silver, did not seem right to me. The color was brighter, far more active and richer than dull silver, with the tinted luster of the orient of a pearl.

 “Nor did it resemble the moon on a clear night. Everyone saw and felt that it was a body with life. It was not spheric like the moon, neither did it have an equal tonality of color. It looked like a small, brightly polished wheel of iridescent mother-of-pearl. It could not be taken for the sun as though seen through fog. There was no fog at that time (The rain and fog had stopped). The sun was not opaque, veiled or diffused. It gave light and heat and was brightly outlined by a beveled rim. The sky was banked with light clouds, patched with blue here and there. Sometimes the sun stood out alone in rifts of clear sky. The clouds scuttled along from west to east without dimming the sun. They gave the impression of passing behind it, while the white puffs gliding in front of the sun seemed to take on the color of rose or a delicate blue.

“It was a wonder that all this time it was possible for us to look at the sun, a blaze of light and burning heat, without any pain to the eyes or blinding of the retina. This phenomenon must have lasted about ten minutes, except for two interruptions when the sun darted forth its more refulgent, lightning-like rays that forced us to look away.

“The sun had an eccentricity of movement. It was not the scintillation of a celestial body at its highest power. It was rotating upon itself with exceedingly great speed. Suddenly, the people broke out with a cry of extreme anguish. The sun, still rotating, had unloosened itself from the skies and came hurtling towards the earth. This huge fiery millstone threatened to crush us with its weight. It was a dreadful sensation.

“During this solar occurrence, the air took on successively different colors. While looking at the sun, I noticed that everything around me darkened. I looked at what was nearby and cast my eyes away towards the horizon. Everything had the color of an amethyst: the sky, the air, everything and everybody. A little oak nearby was casting a heavy purple shadow on the ground.”

These are just samples of numerous contemporaneous testimonies. Karl Keating tells how a priest describes the Miracle of the Sun as he saw it as a boy from his home in the Azores (a group of Islands in the Atlantic Ocean about 700 miles west of Portugal). Keating tells us, “None of his relations believed him when he explained what he witnessed in the sky. They presumed it was a childish fantasy. Weeks later the accounts from Fatima filtered in, and only then did his family understand that he had been granted a special privilege.” (Keating, Karl, Catholicism and Fundamentalism (San Francisco, Ignatius Press, 1988) page 262.)

The Holy Family

As further reported in Father John de Marchi’s account (pages 55-56):

“As Our Lady took leave of the children, She opened Her hands which emitted a flood of light. While She was rising, She pointed towards the sun and the light gleaming from Her hands brightened the sun itself.

*****

“The sun was now pale as the moon. To the left of the sun, Saint Joseph appeared holding in his left arm the Child Jesus. Saint Joseph emerged from the bright clouds only to his chest, sufficient to allow him to raise his right hand and make, together with the Child Jesus, the Sign of the Cross three times over the world. As Saint Joseph did this, Our Lady stood in all Her brilliancy to the right of the sun, dressed in the blue and white robes of Our Lady of the Rosary.

“Meanwhile, Francisco and Jacinta were bathed in the marvelous colors and signs of the sun, and Lucia was privileged to gaze upon Our Lord dressed in red as the Divine Redeemer, blessing the world, as Our Lady had foretold. Like Saint Joseph, He was seen only from His chest up. Beside Him stood Our Lady, dressed now in the purple robes of Our Lady of Sorrows, but without the sword. Finally, the Blessed Virgin appeared again to Lucia in all Her ethereal brightness clothed in the simple brown robes of Mount Carmel.”

Confirmation

Then came the “follow-up miracle” (page 60).

 “As the miracle came to its end and the people arose from the muddy ground, another surprise awaited them. A few minutes before, they had been standing in the pouring rain, soaked to the skin. Now they noticed that their clothes were perfectly dry.”

After long study and careful interrogations of many witnesses, the Bishop of Leiria wrote (page 60):

 “The children long before set the day and hour at which it was to take place. The news spread quickly over the whole of Portugal and although the day was chilly and pouring rain, many thousands of people gathered. . . .They saw the different manifestations of the sun paying homage to the Queen of Heaven and Earth, who is more radiant than the sun in all its splendor. This phenomenon, which no astronomical observatory registered, was not natural. It was seen by people of all classes, members of the Church and non-Catholics. It was seen by reporters of the principal newspapers and by people many miles away.”

 Everyone was asking for a sign and they got it.

The Fatima appearances and the contemporaneous records have been merely summarized here and in other pages (Our Lady of Fatima 1917: The First Four Appearances; Our Lady of Fatima: The September 13th Miracle; Our Lady of Fatima: The Effects of her Appearances; Fatima and Islam; Our Lady of Fatima: The Floundering Skeptic) only to introduce the reader to Fatima and help him understand how this whole phenomenon developed and that it could not have been fabricated to trick the gullible. Please be sure to access The True Story of Fatima; The Whole Truth about Fatima and 100 Years of Fatima for much more detailed accounts of Our Lady of Fatima. The Miracle of the Sun and related events were freely given by God so that we may believe. Everyone was asking for a sign and they got it. The events and miracles were intensely real. God had messages to deliver (Fatima’s Messages of Love) and he did so, along with signs to allow those with grace to believe.

Salvation history is rich with examples of God’s continuing grace to us all, and Fatima is but one example. Fatima tells us that Mary, the mother of Jesus, lives, and since she lives and interacts with us it can only be at the direction of Jesus. There can be no other conclusion. Without the resurrected Jesus of the Bible, there could have been no Fatima. Fatima provides unequivocal evidence of the Risen Lord. We just need to open our hearts.

Some websites and references

Footnotes and Attributions

The picture of the three children of Fatima is accessible at numerous websites.

Last modified September 8, 2019