Tuesday, October 12, 2010

October 13, 1917: The Miracle of the Sun

All of Satan's fallen host seemed to have burst its bonds during the month of October, 1917.  The Battle of Passchendaele had raged since the end of July.  Only the day before the children were to keep their final appointment with the Lady of the Rosary, the Allies alone suffered 13,000 casualties trying to break the German defenses outside the rural Belgian village.  By November, upwards of three quarters of a million lives on both sides would be consumed; out of the wrack and ruin of Passchendaele, where he served in a Bavarian division, would emerge a young Austrian named Adolf Hitler.  Only a few days after the last apparition, the Bolshevik Revolution began.  How apt was the nickname of "Red October" that the Communists gave to this fateful month, when the fury of hell lashed the world as mercilessly as the torrential rain that fell on the Cova da Iria on the 12th and 13th.
Perhaps that rain, and the mud that went with it, were part of hell's wrath.  But if it was a campaign to keep people away from the Cova, it was a colossal failure.  Believers and skeptics alike defied the awful weather, choking the Cova and its approaches; Fr. Di Marchi quotes as the most widely accepted figure as 70,000 souls.  Lucia relates in her Fourth Memoir:
We left home quite early, expecting that we would be delayed along the way.  Masses of people thronged the roads.  The rain fell in torrents.  My mother, her heart torn with uncertainty as to what was going to happen, and fearing it would be the last day of my life, wanted to accompany me.

On the way, the scenes of the previous month, still more numerous and moving, were repeated.  Not even the muddy roads could prevent these people from kneeling in the  most humble and suppliant of attitudes.  We reached the holmoak in the Cova da Iria.  Once there, moved by an interior impulse, I asked the people to shut their umbrellas and say the Rosary.  A little later, we saw the flash of light, and then Our Lady appeared on the homoak.

"What do you want of me?"
Now the Lady was to keep her oft-repeated promise to tell the children who she was and what she wanted.
"I want to tell you that a chapel is to be built here in my honor.  I am the Lady of the Rosary.  Continue always to pray the Rosary every day.  The war is going to end, and the soldiers will soon return to their homes."

"I have many things to ask you: the cure of some sick persons, the conversion of sinners, and other things..."

"Some yes, but not others.  They must amend their lives and ask forgiveness for their sins."

Looking very sad, Our Lady said:

"Do not offend the Lord our God any more, because He is already so much offended."

Then, opening her hands, she made them reflect on the sun, and as she ascended, the reflection of her own light continued to be projected on the sun itself.
Now the Lady would keep the other promise: to perform a miracle for all to see and believe.  How often does it happen that a miracle on a huge scale is promised for a particular date -- and then it happens?  Herewith the eyewitness account of Dr. Joseph Garrett, professor of natural sciences at Coimbra University, written in December, 1917 and quoted in Francis Johnston's book, Fatima: The Great Sign:
I am going to relate to you in a brief and concise manner, without any statements which would conceal the truth, what I saw in Fatima on 13 October 1917...I arrived at midday. The rain which had fallen persistently all morning, combined with a blustery wind, continued fretfully, as if threatening to drown everyone. The dull and heavy sky, its dark-grey clouds water-laden, predicted abundant rain for a long time to come.

I remained on the road in the shelter of the hood of my car, looking rather disdainfully toward the place where they said the apparition would be seen, not daring to step on the sodden and muddy earth of the freshly-ploughed field. I was a little more than a hundred metres from the high wooden posts mounted by a rough cross, seeing distinctly the wide circle of people who, with their umbrellas open, seemed like a vast arena of mushrooms. A little after one o'clock [footnote omitted], the children to whom Our Lady, as they declare, appeared and appointed the place, day and hour of the apparition, arrived at the site. Hymns were intoned and sung by the people who gathered around them. At a certain moment, this immense mass of people, so varied and compact, closed their umbrellas and uncoered their heads in a gesture that could have been one of humility or respect, but which left me surprised and bewildered, because now the rain, with a blind persistency, poured down on their heads and drenched them through.

Later, I was told that this crowd, who finished up by kneeling in the mud, had obeyed the voice of a child. It must have been about half past one when there rose up, on the precise spot where the children were, a pillar of smoke, a delicate, slender, bluish column that went straight up about two metres, perhaps above their heads and hten evaporated. The phenomenon lasted for some seconds and was perfectly visible to the naked eye...It was repeated yet a second and third time. On these three occasions, and especially on the last one, the slender posts sstood out distinctly in the dull grey atmosphere.

While I continued looking at the place of the apparitions in a serene, if cold expectation of something happening, and with diminishing curiosity, because a long time had passed without anything to excite my attention, I heard a shout from thousands of voices, and saw the multitude which straggled out at my feet, here and there concentrated in small groups round the trees, suddenly turn its back on the point toward which, up to now, it had directed its attention, and turn to look at the sky on the opposite side...The sun, a few moments before, had broken through the thick layer of clouds that hid it and shone clearly and intensely. I veered toward the magnet which seemed to be drawing all eyes, and saw it as a disc with clear-cut rim, luminous and shining, but which did not hurt the eyes...

It looked like a glazed circular piece cut from a mother-of-pearl shell...It could not be confused, either, with the sun seen through fog (for there was no fog at the time), because it was not opaque, diffused or veiled...The sky was mottled with light cirrus clouds, the blue coming through here and there, but sometimes the sun stood out in patches of clear sky...It was a remarkable fact that one could fix one's eyes on this brazier of heat and light without any pain in the eyes or blinding of the retina...

The sun's disc did not remain immobile. This was not the sparkling of a heavenly body, for it spun round on itself in a mad whirl, when suddenly a clamour was heard from all the people. The sun, whirling, seemed to loosen itself from the firmament and advance threateningly upon the earth as if to crush us with its huge fiery weight. The sensation during these moments was terrible.

During the solar phenomenon, which I have just described in detail, there were changes of color in the atmosphere...Looking at the sun, I noticed that everything around was becoming darkened. I looked first at the nearest objects and then extended my glance further afield as far as the horizon. I saw everything in an amethyst color. Objects around me, the sky and the atmosphere, were of the same colour. An oak tree nearby threw a shadow of this colour on the ground. Fearing that I was suffering from an affection of the retina...I turned away and shut my eyes, keeping my hands over them to intercept the light. With my back still turned, I opened my eyes and saw that the landscape was the same purple colour as before...Soon after, I heard a peasant who was near me shout out in tones of astonishment: "Look, that lady is all yellow!" In fact, everything both near and far, had changed, taking on the colour of old yellow damask. People looked as if they were suffering from jaundice, and I recall my amusement at seeing them look so ugly and unattractive. Laughter was heard. My own hand was of the same yellow colour...

All these phenomena which I have described, were observed by me in a calm and serene state of mind and without any emotional disturbance. It is for others to interpret and explain them.
Francis Johnson records that the solar miracle was seen over an area of 600 square miles.  He relates some eyewitness accounts:
In the town of Leiria, eighteen miles away to the north-west, the miracle was seen as a great red flash due to the restricting contours of the land.  Rev. Joaquim Lourenco, a canon lawyer of the diocese of Leiria in 1960, witnessed the miracle in the village of Alburitel, some nine miles distant.  He was a schoolboy at the time, and in 1960 he told John Haffert:

"I feel incapable of describing what I saw.  I looked fixedly at the sun, which seemed pale and did not hurt my eyes.  Looking like a ball of snow, revolving on itself, it suddenly seemed to come down in a zig-zag, menacing the earth.  Terrified, I ran and hit  myself among the people, who were weeping and expecting the end of the world at any moment.  It was a crowd which had gathered outside our local village school, and we had all left classes and run into the streets because of the cries and surprised shouts of men and women who were in the street in front of the school when the miracle began.

"There was an unbeliever there who had spent the morning mocking the 'simpletons' who had gone off to Fatima just to see an ordinary girl.  He now seemed paralyzed, his eyes fixed on the sun.  He began to tremble from head to foot, and lifting up his arms, fell on his knees in the mud, crying out to God.  But meanwhile the people continued to cry out and to weep, asking God to pardon their sins.  We all ran to the two chapels in the village, which were soon filled to overflowing.  During those long moments of the solar prodigy, objects around us turned all colors of the rainbow..."

An American building contractor, Abano Barros, related to John Haffert in 1960 how he saw the miracle in a village near Minde, about eight miles from Fatima.  "I was watching sheep, as was my daily task, and suddenly, there in the direction of Fatima, I saw the sun fall from the sky.  I thought it was the end of the world."

At least one eyewitness, the poet Alfonso Lopes Viera, saw the miracle from a distance of 30 miles -- at the ocean town of San Pedro der Muel.  The author has also discovered at first hand that the miracle was seen in Pombal, some 32 miles to the north.  Investigations have proved that it was visible over an area of approximately 32 miles by 20.

As for the children themselves, Lucia relates simply and straightforwardly in her Fourth Memoir what they saw:
After Our Lady had disappeared into the immense distance of the firmament, we beheld Sst. Joseph with the Child Jesus and Our Lady robed in white with a blue mantle, beside the sun.  St. Joseph and the Child Jesus appeared to bless the world, for they traced the Sign of the Cross with their hands.  When, a little later, this apparition disappeared, I saw Our Lord and Our Lady; it seemed to me that it was Our Lady of Dolours.  Our Lord appeared to bless the world in the same manner as St. Joseph had done.  This apparition also vanished, and I saw Our Lady once more, this time resembling Our Lady of Carmel.

So ended this dramatic heavenly intervention in human affairs, at the height of the fratricidal fury that swept away the old order of things, and ushered in a new era of slaughter and destruction previously unknown.  But the message behind the drama is quite simple: repent and convert.


When will we start?

11 comments:

  1. Great post, Anita. I really like how, at the beginning, you interrelate the concurring events of World War I.

    Note that Dr. Almeida Garrett mentioned that it was "half past one" when the action commenced. This was a reference to Military Time, used during the War, and there was a 1.5 hour difference between Military Time and Mean Lisbon Time, thus noontime (i.e. 12 pm local time). Now also note that that the event did occur not right at 12 pm Mean Lisbon Time, but some minutes afterward. However, the difference between the man-designated Mean Lisbon Time and Solar Time was about 13 minutes at the particular latitude/longitude of the Cova. Thus, in actuality - in a physical sense - the miracle did indeed occur right at noon, or more specifically solar noon, when the solar disc was at its zenith (i.e. highest point in the sky) for that latitude/longitude.

    My calculations show (confirmed with a US Naval Observatory program I used) that the sun at the time would normally have been about 41 degrees above the apparent horizon. But the photograph (which you embedded at the outset), shows that the solar disc is quite low, proximate to the horizon, less than 41 or degrees. This is one piece of evidence for the "dancing sun" observation. Though, like Fr. Jaki, I believe that the dancing sun effect was meteorological in origin, hence it was seen locally for 30 or so square miles, as you noted (this does not, of course, negate the fact that the miracle occurrence/time was perfectly foretold by the children - it WAS a miracle).

    Thank you for you effort in preparing this series. Top notch.

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  2. Thanks, TH2! I'm glad you enjoyed this series.

    Now, as a non-meteorologist (and I confess to not having read any of Fr. Jaki's books), my questions for you on the solar miracle would be these:

    What is the theory on the meteorological causes of the solar miracle? Does this theory account for the apparent movement of the sun as well as the colors?

    Have similar phenomena been seen on other occasions?

    Is it true that no meteorological instruments picked up the solar miracle?

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  3. What is the theory on the meteorological causes of the solar miracle? Does this theory account for the apparent movement of the sun as well as the colors?

    According to Fr. Jaki (and remember we're talking about a genius here, who also had a doctorate in physics) the colorations and apparent movement of the sun were due to the refraction of light by ice crystals in the atmosphere. He references (also) a famous textbook in the atmospheric sciences which name now escapes me. This is in his book God and the Sun at Fatima .

    Have similar phenomena been seen on other occasions?

    Yes. Two examples (note the dates of these articles):

    (1) S. Alexander, "Remarkable Optical Phenomenon", American Meteorological Journal, vol. III, no. 10, 1887, p. 486

    (2) J. Mintern, "A Kaleidoscopic Sun", Meteorological Magazine, vol. 58, no. 685, 1923, pp. 10–11.

    An extract from the latter: "A very remarkable coronal (?) display was seen here on January 9th, about 1:30 pm local mean time. During the entire forenoon an almost clear sky and sunshine prevailed and up to 1 pm, when a slight snow-shower fell, clearing again a little later. A friend shouting to me to hurry out, I saw the sun behaving in a most unusual fashion; now surrounded by bright red, flashing rays in all directions, then changing to yellow in which the body of the sun, though more clearly visible, appeared to dance and shift about here and there in a radius of about 5 degrees; again changing to green, the rays flashing as in the red..."

    [CONTINUED IN NEXT COMMENT BLOCK]

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  4. Is it true that no meteorological instruments picked up the solar miracle?

    This appears to be the case, for the time being, pending further data examination. The closest observatory was at Coimbra. I have already mentioned that I have some original 1917 data publications therefrom, but not the "raw" handwritten stuff. This requires further investigation. This is an ongoing project of mine but my procrastination always gets in the way.

    Note that the meteorological explanation of the sun does not negate the miracle as such. Indeed, it just goes to demonstrate that there is no inconsistency between religion and science, faith and reason - an issue which B16 is working diligently on. I presented this matter in a comment at the Creative Minority Report blog one year ago, after they posted what I deemed to be a post on the miracle that neglected reason/scientific aspects. I got a one-liner, smart ass response. Though other commenters were open enough to engage, and you can read the exchange
    here

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  5. Thanks, TH2. I have to agree that knowing how the miracle happened (or at least being able to formulate a theory on how it happened) does not mean the miracle is not a miracle. The fact that we know which tools God used to make something happen does not mean that it was not He Who made it happen. And those who try to scrub the supernatural out of it still have to cope with the fact that the children foretold the day and hour of this occurrence. "Coincidence" doesn't cut it.

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  6. That was a good read Anita. I haven't read that version of events before. I never tire of Fatima. Hey, do you think it is a coincidence that the 33 miners were brought to the surface today?

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  7. Thank you, PG! Re los 33: if it was a coincidence, it was a happy one!

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  8. The miracle of the sun was an ufo phenomenon, you accept or not. It's the only explanation acceptable by now. The mass hypnosis don't exist. It's foolish. And the religisous explanaction is not acceptable by science. Some jornalistic testimonies that have seen the phenomenon in 1917 talked in "silver disc".

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  9. Yes, I suppose it was only a question of time before we heard from the UFO people, who wouldn't recognize science if it beat them over the head with a two-by-four.

    Jose, for your information, St. Albert the Great, Dominican Bishop and Doctor of the Church of the 13th century, was highly learned and immensely gifted in the natural sciences. Nicholas Copernicus, the famous 16th-century astronomer who formulated the heliocentric planetary theory, came from a family of Third Order Dominicans and may have even been a priest. And Gregor Mendel, the 19th-century scientist who came up with the laws of genetics, was an Augustinian monk. The greatest scientists (as opposed to merely the most famous scientists) have been informed by faith.

    Bottom line: it is atheism that is not acceptable to science.

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