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Have you heard
about the extraordinary happenings at Fatima in Portugal?
What occured was witnessed by over 70,000 people including
representatives of the media, reporters from all the principal daily
newspapers in Lisbon. It was a very wet morning on 13th October, 1917.
It had been raining all night. At noon: "Suddenly the rain stopped.
The clouds were wrenched apart and the sun appeared in all its
splendour. Then it began to revolve on its axis like the most
magnificient firewheel that could be imagined, taking all the colours
of the rainbow and sending forth multi-coloured flashes of light
producing the most astounding effect." (Dr.
Formigao, Professor at Santarem, Portugal.)
According to the newspaper Seculo, "the sun trembled, made sudden
incredible movements outside all cosmic law - the sun danced." Dr.
Almeida Garrett of Coimbra stated: "The sun, whirling wildly seemed
to loosen itself from the firmament and advance threateningly upon the
earth as if to crush us with its huge and fiery weight. The sensation
was terrible." The incident was repeated three times lasted eight
to ten minutes. It has since come to be known as the Miracle of the
Sun. There can be no doubt that this actually happened as it was well
documented by reliable sources. It was not of natural origin as it was
not recorded by any astronomical observatory. Neither was it a case of
collective hallucionation as it was seen up to 30 kilometres away by
people going about their normal duties unconcious of what was happening
at Fatima.
How and why did this phenonomen occur ?
Well, the day and the hour had been foretold three months earlier by
three little shepherds, who claimed that a Lady from heaven was
appearing to them. They had got a lot of hassle from friends and
neighbours and had asked the Lady to give a sign so that everyone would
believe. She promised to give a sign at noon on October 13th, 1917.This
was why over 70,000 people, including newspaper reporters, had
gathered there on the eventful day. It is now clear that Our Lady's
intervention was very timely because the 20th century turned out to be
an age of disbelief. There was nothing new in what Our Lady had to say
in Fatima but the Miracle of the Sun was used to draw attention once
again to the truths of the Christian religion - our faith in the
blessed Trinity--the God who rewards and punishes, while His mercy is
infinite - the reality of Heaven, Hell and Purgatory and the Real
Presence of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament. She allowed the children,
Jacinta, Francisco and Lucia, even though they were only aged seven to
ten years old to see a horrifying vision of Hell. Our Lady foretold the
end of World War One but warned that if people did not repent, a worse
war would break out and Russia would spread her errors throughout the
world causing wars and persecutions. (This warning was given before
the Bolshevic Revolution took place.) She appealed for prayer and
sacrifice for the conversion of sinners and said that in the end her
Immaculate Heart would triumph. It would be easy to discount all of
this except for the extraordinary Miracle of the Sun which gave
the proof not only of Our Lady's appearances but more importantly for
the the messages she gave. The validity of the appritions has been
approved by the Church and Jacinta and Francisco were beatified in May,
2000. Lucia was born in 1907 and died in 2005.
On February 13, 2008, the third anniversary of her death, Pope Benedict XVI announced that in the case of Sr. Lúcia he would waive the five year waiting period established ecclesiastical law before opening a cause for beatification; this rule was also dispensed in the causes for Mother Teresa and Pope John Paul II.
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