October 13 we remember the miracle of the Sun in Fatima

Sixth apparition of the Virgin: 13 October 1917
«I am Our Lady of the Rosary»

After this apparition the three children were visited by several people who, driven by devotion or curiosity, wanted to see them, recommend themselves to their prayers, know from them something more about what they had seen and heard.

Among these visitors should be mentioned Dr. Manuel Formigao, sent by the Patriarchate of Lisbon with the mission of reporting on the events of Fatima, of which he was later the first historian under the pseudonym of "Viscount of Montelo". He was already present at Cova da Iria on September 13, where he had only been able to see the phenomenon of the decrease in sunlight which he, however, a little skeptic, attributed to natural causes. The simplicity and innocence of the three children made the most impression on him, and it was precisely to get to know them better that on 27 September he returned to Fatima to interrogate them.

With great gentleness but also with great perspicacity he questioned them separately on the events of the past five months, taking note of all the answers he received.

He returned to Fatima on 11 October to interrogate the children and their acquaintances again, staying overnight in Montelo with the Gonzales family where he collected other valuable information, so as to leave us a precious account of the facts, the children and his ... conversion.

This led to the eve of October 13, 1917: the wait for the great prodigy promised by the "Lady" was spasmodic.

Already on the morning of the 12th the Cova da Iria was invaded by people from all over Portugal (more than 30.000 people were estimated) who was preparing to spend the cold night outdoors, under a cloud-covered sky.

At around 11 in the morning it started to rain: the crowd (which at that time touched 70.000 people) remained stoically on the spot, with their feet in the mud, with their clothes drenched, waiting for the arrival of the three shepherd children.

«Having foreseen a delay on the street, - Lucia wrote - we left the house earlier. Despite the torrential rain, people flocked to the street. My mother, fearing that this was the last day of my life and worried by the uncertainty of what could happen, wanted to accompany me. Along the way the scenes of the previous month were repeated, but more numerous and more moving. The fanatical streets did not prevent people from kneeling on the ground in front of us in the most humble and appealing attitude.

When I reached the holm oak plant, in the Cova da Iria, moved by an inner impulse, I told people to close the umbrellas to recite the Rosary.

Everyone obeyed, and the Rosary was recited.

«Immediately afterwards we saw the light and the Lady appeared on the holm oak.

"What do you want from me? "

“I want to tell you that I want a chapel to be erected here in my honor, because I am Our Lady of the Rosary. Continue to recite the Rosary every day. The war will soon end and the soldiers will return to their homes "

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

“Some will fulfill them, some won't. It is necessary that they amend, that they ask for forgiveness of their sins ".

Then with a sad expression he said: "Do not offend God, Our Lord anymore, because He is already too offended!"

These were the last words that the Virgin uttered at Cova da Iria.

«At this point, Our Lady, opening her hands, made them reflect on the sun and, as she ascended, the reflection of her person was projected onto the sun itself.

This is the reason why I shouted loudly: "Look at the sun". My intention was not to draw people's attention to the sun, because I was not aware of their presence. I was guided to do this by an inner impulse.

When Our Lady disappeared in the vast distances of the firmament, in addition to the sun we saw St. Joseph with the Child Jesus and Our Lady dressed in white with a blue cloak. St. Joseph with the Child Jesus seemed to bless the world:

in fact they made the Sign of the Cross with their hands.

Shortly thereafter, this vision disappeared and I saw Our Lord and the Virgin under the appearances of Our Lady of Sorrows. Our Lord did the act of blessing the world, as St. Joseph had done.

This apparition disappeared and I saw Our Lady again, this time under the appearances of Our Lady of Carmel ». But what did the crowds present at that hour at Cova da Iria see?

At first they saw a small cloud, like incense, which rose three times from the place where the shepherds were staying.

But to Lucia's cry: "Look at the sun! All instinctively looked up to the sky. And here the clouds break open, the rain stops and the sun appears: its color is silvery, and it is possible to stare at it without being dazzled by it.

Suddenly the sun starts to whirl around on itself, emitting blue, red, yellow lights in every direction, which color the sky and the astonished crowd in a fantastic way.

Three times this show is repeated, until everyone has the impression that the sun is falling on them. A cry of terror erupts from the multitude! There are those who invoke: «My God, mercy! », Who exclaims:« Ave Maria », who shouts:« My God I believe in You! », Those who publicly confess their sins and those who kneel in the mud, recite the act of repentance.

The solar prodigy lasts about ten minutes and is simultaneously seen by seventy thousand people, by simple farmers and cultured men, by believers and unbelievers, by people who come to see the prodigy announced by the shepherd children and people who come to mock them!

Everyone will witness the same events that occurred at the same time!

The prodigy is also seen by people who were outside the "Cova", which definitively rules out being a collective illusion. the case reported by the boy Joaquin Laureno, who saw the same phenomena while he was in Alburitel, a town about 20 kilometers from Fatima. Let's re-read the handwritten testimony:

«I was then just nine years old and I attended the elementary school of my country, which is 18 or 19 km away from Fàtima. It was around noon, when we were surprised by the shouts and exclamations of some men and women who passed the street in front of the school. The teacher, woman Delfina Pereira Lopez, a very good and pious lady, but easily emotional and excessively shy, was the first to run on the road without being able to prevent us boys from running after her. In the street the people wept and shouted, pointing to the sun, without answering the questions that our teacher asked them. It was the miracle, the great miracle that could be seen distinctly from the top of the mountain where my country is located. It was the miracle of the sun with all its extraordinary phenomena. I feel unable to describe it as I saw it and felt it then. I stared at the sun and it seemed pale so as not to blind me: it was like a snow globe turning over itself. Then suddenly he seemed to zigzag, threatening to fall to the ground. Frightened, I ran among the people. Everyone was crying, waiting for the end of the world at any moment.

An unbeliever stood nearby, who had spent the morning laughing at the gullible who made that whole trip to Fatima to see a girl. I looked at it. He was as if paralyzed, absorbed, frightened, with his eyes fixed on the sun. Then I saw him tremble from head to toe and, raising his hands to the sky, fall to his knees in the mud shouting: - Our Lady! Our Lady ».

Another fact is testified by all those present: while before the solar prodigy the crowd had their clothes literally drenched in rain, ten minutes later they found themselves in completely dry clothes! And clothes can't go hallucinating!

But the great witness of the prodigy of Fàtima is the crowd itself, unanimous, precise, in agreement in affirming what it has seen.

Many people who have witnessed the prodigy still live in Portugal today, and from whom the authors of this booklet had a personal account of the facts.

But we would like to report two unsuspecting testimonies here: the first by a doctor, the second by an incredulous journalist.

The doctor is Dr. Josè Proèna de Almeida Garret, professor at the University of Coimbra who, at the request of Dr. Formigao, issued this declaration:

". . . The hours that I will indicate are the legal ones, because the government had unified our time with that of the other belligerents. "

«I arrived therefore around noon (corresponding approximately at 10,30 am of the solar time: NdA). The rain had fallen since dawn, thin and persistent. The sky, low and dark, promised an even more abundant rain ».

«... I stayed on the road under the" top "of the car, a little above the place where the apparitions were said to have occurred; in fact I dared not venture into the muddy quagmire of that freshly plowed field ».

«... After about an hour, the children to whom the Virgin (as they said at least) had indicated the place, the day and time of the apparition, arrived. Chants were heard to be sung by the crowd around them. "

«At a certain moment this confused and compact mass closes the umbrellas, also discovering the head with a gesture that must have been of humility and respect, and which aroused amazement and admiration. In reality the rain continued to fall stubbornly, wetting heads and flooding the ground. They told me later that all these people, kneeling in the mud, had obeyed the voice of a little girl! ».

«It must have been about one and a half (almost half a day of the solar hour: NdA) when, from the place where they were, the children rose a column of light, thin and blue smoke. It rose vertically up to about two meters above the heads and, at this height, it dissipated.

This phenomenon perfectly visible to the naked eye lasted a few seconds. Having not been able to record the exact time of its duration, I cannot say if it lasted more or less than a minute. The smoke dissipated abruptly and, after some time, the phenomenon reproduced a second, and then a third time.

". . .I pointed my binoculars over there because I was convinced that it came from an incense burner in which incense was burned. Later, people worthy of faith told me that the same phenomenon had already occurred on the 13th of the previous month without anything being burned, nor any fire lit. "

"While I continued to look at the place of the apparitions in a serene and cold expectation, and while my curiosity was diminishing because time passed without anything new attracting my attention, I suddenly heard the clamor of a thousand voices, and I saw that multitude, scattered in the vast field ... turn your back on the point towards which desires and anxieties had been directed for some time, and look at the sky from the opposite side. It was almost two o'clock. '

«A few moments before the sun had broken the thick curtain of clouds that hid it, to shine clearly and intensely. I also turned to that magnet that attracted all eyes, and I could see it similar to a disc with a sharp edge and a lively section, but which did not offend the sight.

“The comparison, which I heard at Fatima, of an opaque silver disc, did not seem correct. It was of a lighter, active, rich and changeable color, accepted as a crystal ... It was not, like the moon, spherical; it did not have the same hue and the same spots ... Nor did it melt with the sun veiled by the fog (which, moreover, was not there at that hour) because it was not obscured, nor widespread, nor veiled ... wonderful that for a long time along the crowd he could stare at the star shining with light and burning with heat, without pain in the eyes and without glare and clouding of the retina ».

"This phenomenon had to last about ten minutes, with two short breaks in which the sun threw brighter and more shining rays, which forced us to lower our gaze."

«This pearly disc was dizzy with the movement. It was not only the sparkle of a star in full life, but it also turned on itself with an impressive speed ».

"Again a clamor was heard rising from the crowd, like a cry of anguish: while maintaining the prodigious rotation on itself, the sun was detaching itself from the firmament and, having become red as blood, it rushed to the earth, threatening to crush us under the weight of its immense fiery mass. Those were moments of terror ... "

«During the solar phenomenon that I described in detail, various colors alternated in the atmosphere ... Around me everything, up to the horizon, had taken on the violet color of the amethyst: the objects, the sky, the clouds all had the same color . A large oak, all violet, cast its shadow on the earth ».

«Doubting a disturbance in my retina, which is unlikely because in this case I would not have had to see the purple-colored things, I closed my eyes resting on my fingers to prevent the passage of light.

«Ria lost my eyes, but I saw, as before, the landscape and the air always in the same violet color.

“The impression he had was not that of an eclipse. I witnessed a total eclipse of sun in Viseu: the more the moon advances in front of the solar disk the more the light decreases, until everything becomes dark and then black ... In Fatima the atmosphere, although violet, remained transparent up to the edges of the horizon ... "

«Continuing to look at the sun, I realized that the atmosphere had become clearer. At this point I heard a farmer who stood beside me exclaim in fear: "But ma'am, you are all yellow! ».

«In fact, everything had changed and had taken on the reflections of the old yellow damasks. Everyone looked sick with jaundice. My own hand appeared to me illuminated with yellow…. »

"All these phenomena that I have enumerated and described, I have observed them in a calm and peaceful state of mind, without emotions or anxieties."

"It is now up to others to explain and interpret them."

But the most probable testimony on the reality of the events that took place at the "Cova da Iria", is provided by a then famous journalist Mr. M. Avelino de Almeida, Chief Editor of the anticlerical newspaper of Lisbon "O Seculo".