Our Lady of Fatima
In the Spring of 1916 in Fatima, Portugal three shepherd children named Lúcia dos Santos, Francisco and Jacinta Marto were out herding their livestock when they saw a bright apparition of a angel. What the children saw and the events that followed will go down as one of the most well documented and unexplainable paranormal events in history.
After their first experience with the brightly shining woman the children continued to see her often as they went about their shepherding duties. They didn't tell anyone about their encounters until the 13 May 1917. On this day they described seeing a woman "brighter than the sun, shedding rays of light clearer and stronger than a crystal goblet filled with the most sparkling water and pierced by the burning rays of the sun." The children described the woman as wearing a white garment with gold trim and held rosary beads in her hand. The apparition told the children to pray the Rosary every day and to pray for peace for the world and an end to the war. The lady also said that on October 13th later that year that she would return and reveal her true identity and perform a great miracle so that all may believe. Lucia wanted to keep their experiences to themselves but Jacinta couldn't keep the secret and told her mother. Jacinta's other thought it was just childhood fantasy and told her neighbours about it as a joke. Within a day the whole village had heard the children's story.
The children said the woman told them to meet her again at the same location on the 13 June. Lúcia's mother wasn't sure if this was a good idea so she consulted her parish priest, Father Ferreira. He suggested she let the children go to meet the apparition and that she bring Lucia to him afterwards so that he could question her about what she saw. The children went ahead with the encounter.
Lucia later reported that on this occasion the lady told her that Francisco and Jacinta would be taken to heave soon but he would be left to spread her message and encourage devotion to Mary. On the same visit the lady also reportedly showed the children a vision of hell and divulged a secret to them. Lucia was told to learn how to read by the next visit so that she could receive the next message.
On the 13th of each month the children returned to the location and were met by the apparition and were told to keep praying for the end of the war. Each month more and more people followed the children to the location in hopes of catching a glimpse of the lady. The children's story was deeply controversial and drew criticism from both secular and religious authorities in the region. One local leader took the children into custody for a brief time believing that their visions were politically motivated and were seeking to destabilise the region. Because of this the children missed their meeting with the apparition on the 13th of August but claimed to have seen her in a different location on the 19th.
On the 13th of October a huge crowd of between 10,000 and 30,000 people followed the children to the location of their meeting with the lady expecting to see the great miracle she had predicted. Accounts vary as to what exactly happened during the event. The three children claimed to see many visions during the event including Jesus, Mary and Saint Joseph. According to some accounts, after a period of heavy rain, the sun broke through the clouds and appeared as a spinning disk in the sky that was darker than usual and projected multi-coloured lights into the sky and onto the people gathered. The Sun was then said to have catapulted itself towards the earth before zig-zagging around the sky then returning to its normal place and brightness. Witnesses claimed that their previously sodden clothes were suddenly bone dry as was the muddy ground they were standing on. Not all witnesses claimed to see these events with some people present saying they saw nothing unusual at all.
Skeptics believe the miracle of the sun was an example of a shared delusion or simply a natural reaction to bright light from the sun appearing from behind the clouds. Others believe that the apparition was extra-terrestrial in origin and that it was an alien spacecraft impersonating the sun. Whatever it was that truly happened in Fatima may forever be a mystery.
