The Miracle of the Sun

Pepe Alas

Oct 13

Enough with Friday the 13th conspiracy theories. Because there was a supernatural occurrence —a divine one— which occurred in Fátima, Portugal exactly 106 years ago today, on 13 October 1917. And it's far more important to discuss. It was a prophesied miracle that was witnessed by thousands upon thousands, including skeptics and atheists, many of whom converted to Catholicism upon witnessing the miracle.

It was actually a prophesied miracle, was in fact part of a series of Marian apparitions which began five months prior, on 13 May 1917. To cut a long story short, the Virgin Mary appeared to three shepherd children on the said date in Fátima and began communicating with them on a monthly basis. The children reported the apparitions to their family members and parish priest. Soon, news spread out about the apparitions. Politicians and the media started to become involved. It became controversial especially when some politicians suspected that the children's revelations might be against the anti-clerical First Portuguese Republic. In the end, the children revealed that on October 13 of that year, the Virgin Mary would finally reveal herself to the world and perform a miracle "so that all may believe."

Portuguese newspapers reported the scheduled prophecy so that on October 13, a huge crowd numbering between 40,000 to 100,000 gathered in Fátima to witness if indeed a miracle would happen.

And it DID happen. It first rained, soaking the crowd and the ground. Afterwards, the Sun appeared through the dark clouds as an opaque, spinning disc in the sky. Witnesses reported that it was significantly duller than normal, and that it cast multicolored lights across the landscape, the people, and the surrounding clouds. The climax of all this was when the Sun careened toward the earth before it zig-zagged its way back to the sky. There were witnesses who also claimed that their wet clothes, including the wet and muddy ground, became completely dry!

The Catholic Church immediately made several investigations on the veracity of the miracle. Even scientists made their own conclusions, with the skeptics among them claiming that what had happened in Fátima was "mass hysteria". Be that as it may, there were some atheistic scientists who also witnessed the miracle of the Sun, compelling them to convert to the Catholic faith afterwards.

In 1930, or thirteen years after the divine events at Fátima, the Catholic Church finally declared that the "Miracle of the Sun" was of supernatural character.