The Apparitions of Fatima and the Miracle of the Sun

May–October 1917 Fatima, Portugal Reported in secular press

What is an 'apparition of the Virgin Mary'?

In Catholic usage, an apparition is a claimed supernatural appearance of a heavenly figure — in this case, the Virgin Mary, the mother of Jesus — to one or more people. Unlike physical miracles (which leave measurable evidence such as tissue, relics, or healed bodies), apparitions are primarily witnessed events: they are evaluated through the testimony of witnesses, their consistency under interrogation, and any accompanying physical phenomena that can be independently verified. The Catholic Church investigates apparition claims carefully and rarely grants formal approval; Fatima is one of the very few apparitions that has received full Vatican recognition. This category of event is evaluated differently from physical miracles precisely because its primary evidence is testimonial rather than material.

Apparition cycle

May 13 to October 13, 1917

The Shrine of Fatima preserves six 1917 Marian apparitions at Cova da Iria, with the August encounter moved to Valinhos after the children were detained.

Witnesses at the final day

50,000 to 70,000

The shrine chronology and the O Século report both preserve the very large public turnout on October 13, 1917.

Canonical judgment

October 13, 1930

The Diocese of Leiria concluded the local inquiry and authorized devotion to Our Lady of Fatima in 1930.

Continuing shrine record

Pilgrimage site since 1919

The Chapel of the Apparitions was built at the requested location and remains the center of the sanctuary record.

Source note Fatima’s public record starts with fixed dates and a public prediction

The shrine chronology preserves six dated 1917 apparitions and ties the October 13 crowd directly to the earlier promise of a visible sign.

Shrine of Fatima chronology Open source

Directly Documented What is directly documented here

• The shrine chronology preserves six dated 1917 apparition reports, including the delayed August event at Valinhos after the children were detained.
• Secular Portuguese newspapers published next-day eyewitness reporting on the October 13 crowd and the reported solar phenomenon.
• The Diocese of Leiria authorized devotion in 1930, creating a dated diocesan judgment in the public file.

Shrine chronology, O Século reporting, diocesan judgment Open source

Primary source excerpt Avelino de Almeida’s secular newspaper account

Before the astonished eyes of the crowd, whose aspect was Biblical as they stood bare-headed, eagerly searching the sky, the sun trembled, made sudden incredible movements outside all cosmic laws — the sun 'danced' according to the typical expression of the people.

This is the secular newspaper line most often reproduced in the public Fatima file because it comes from a journalist who did not travel to the site as a devotional supporter.

O Século report cited on the Fatima page Open source

Primary-source file

Official shrine chronology Shrine of Fatima: Narrative of the Apparitions

Official sanctuary narrative for the six 1917 Marian apparitions and the reported October sign.

fatima.pt Official shrine chronology Shrine of Fatima: Chronology of the Three Seers

Sanctuary timeline for the seers, the 1917 dates, and later shrine-linked milestones.

fatima.pt Vatican file The Message of Fatima

Official Vatican publication of the Fatima message and the text released in 2000.

vatican.va Official shrine record Shrine of Fatima: Places of the Apparitions

Sanctuary page on Cova da Iria, the Chapel of the Apparitions, and the built shrine record.

fatima.pt

The story

On October 13, 1917, approximately 70,000 people gathered in a muddy field outside Fatima, Portugal, to see what three shepherd children had predicted: a public sign visible to everyone present.^[6]

The crowd included atheists, journalists from secular anticlerical newspapers, government officials, university professors, and medical doctors.^[1] Many had come specifically to document the failure of the prediction.^[1]

What they witnessed was reported the following day in major secular newspapers.^{[1] [2]} The journalists’ accounts were not sympathetic — they were written by people who had not expected to see anything and did not want to admit that they had.^[1]

That is why Fatima keeps drawing people back. The story moves from private apparitions to a public day in front of an enormous crowd, and the surviving file preserves both the children’s testimony and the next-day accounts from people who were there.

The Shrine of Fatima’s image gallery preserves the Chapel of the Apparitions, the small structure built at Cova da Iria as the fixed memorial point of the 1917 events. Shrine of Fatima gallery

Source notes Reading the surviving sources on this page

What the sources show

• There is a fixed 1917 apparition chronology and a public prediction tied to October 13.
• A very large crowd really did gather at Fatima on the announced date.
• Secular Portuguese newspapers published eyewitness reporting immediately afterward.

Questions the sources leave open

• What exactly the crowd saw and whether all witnesses saw the same thing.
• How much weight to give later memoir development around the secrets and inner meanings.
• Whether the event is best explained as miracle, atmospheric effect, expectation, or some mix of factors.

What the current sources do not show

• Any modern instrument record of the October 13 phenomenon.
• A full neutral witness census with every account preserved side by side.
• A way to reconstruct the event with the precision of a modern filmed incident.

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The Witnesses

The Children

Lúcia dos Santos

Born March 22, 1907. Age 10 at the time of the apparitions.^[4]

Lúcia was the eldest of the three and the primary recipient of the messages. She later entered religious life as a Carmelite nun (Sister Lúcia of the Immaculate Heart) and lived until 2005, dying at the age of 97.^[4]

Throughout her long life, she was interviewed repeatedly by bishops, cardinals, and Vatican officials.^[4] Her account never changed in any material respect. She maintained until her death that she had seen the Virgin Mary and that the messages she received were authentic.^[4]

Francisco Marto

Born June 11, 1908. Age 8 at the time of the apparitions.^[4]

Francisco was Lúcia’s cousin. Unlike Lúcia and Jacinta, Francisco could not hear the apparition speak — he saw her but did not receive her words directly.^[4]

He died on April 4, 1919, at the age of 10, of influenza — as the apparition had predicted.^[4] He was beatified by Pope John Paul II in 2000 and canonized by Pope Francis in 2017.^[6]

Jacinta Marto

Born March 11, 1910. Age 7 at the time of the apparitions.^[4]

Jacinta was Francisco’s younger sister. She died on February 20, 1920, at the age of 9, of pleurisy — also as predicted.^[4] She was beatified alongside Francisco and canonized in 2017.^[6]

Jacinta’s young age is one of the features frequently noted in later discussions of the Fatima witnesses.^[6]

Witness context

The three children were:

• From an illiterate peasant family with no religious sophistication^[4]
• Subjected to repeated interrogation by priests, civil authorities, and eventually the Portuguese government (which was actively anticlerical at the time)^[5]
• Imprisoned by the Administrator of Ourem, Artur de Oliveira Santos, who threatened them with death to make them recant — they refused ^{[5] [6]}
• Interviewed independently and found to be consistent in every essential detail^[5]

Their testimony was given amid mockery, imprisonment, and social disruption, and the children did not recant.^[4]

Witness context

Each category of witness comes with its own historical context:

The children (Lúcia, Francisco, Jacinta): Aged 7–10, deeply Catholic, from a devoutly religious rural Portuguese family. Lúcia’s later written memoirs — produced over decades under direct episcopal instruction — show elaboration that is difficult to date or verify independently. Consistency under repeated questioning within a faith context is not the same as independent corroboration. The institutional setting of her interviews (bishops, cardinals, Vatican officials) created strong social pressure toward consistency with prior accounts.

Avelino de Almeida (O Século journalist): Actively anticlerical. He traveled to Fatima expecting to cover the event dismissively and still published an eyewitness report describing what he said he saw.

Dr. Garrett (University of Coimbra): Present as a scientific observer. No documented religious affiliation is identified in this context.

Bishop José Correia da Silva: Led the canonical process that eventually approved public devotion in 1930, after the popular movement around the apparitions had already become widespread.

The Vatican’s formal approval process: Operates on theological criteria — non-contradiction with doctrine, perceived sincerity, absence of deliberate trickery. None of these are falsifiable scientific standards. Vatican approval is a theological judgment, not a scientific one.

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Publicly documented chronology

Date	Location	Key Events
May 13, 1917	Cova da Iria	First apparition; Lady identifies herself as coming from heaven
June 13, 1917	Cova da Iria	Crowd grows; Lady reveals Francisco and Jacinta will die young
July 13, 1917	Cova da Iria	The Three Secrets of Fatima revealed
August 19, 1917	Valinhos	Apparition moves due to children’s imprisonment; cloud phenomena witnessed
September 13, 1917	Cova da Iria	~25,000 witnesses; “shower of white petals” visible to crowd
October 13, 1917	Cova da Iria	70,000+ witnesses; the Miracle of the Sun

^{[4] [5] [6]}

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The Three Secrets of Fatima

During the July 13 apparition, the Lady communicated three secrets to the children.^[4]

First Secret

A vision of Hell — a sea of fire with the souls of the damned.^[4] Lúcia later described it as terrifying and said the vision lasted only a moment but was seared into her memory permanently.^[4]

The children were explicitly told not to reveal this until further instruction.^[4]

Second Secret

A prophecy that the First World War would end — but that if mankind did not convert, a worse war would begin, announced by “a night illuminated by an unknown light.”^[4]

On the night of January 25–26, 1938, an extraordinary aurora borealis lit the skies across Europe and was visible as far south as North Africa.^[4] It was described in newspapers worldwide as an “unknown light.” Within months, Hitler had seized Austria. The Second World War began the following year.^[6]

Lúcia later wrote that when she saw the news reports of the aurora borealis in 1938, she immediately understood it as the sign foretold at Fatima.^[4]

Third Secret

Revealed in writing by Lúcia in 1944 and sealed by the Vatican until the year 2000, the Third Secret describes a bishop in white (understood to be the Pope) being shot and killed by soldiers, surrounded by other martyrs.^[7]

On May 13, 1981 — the anniversary of the first apparition — Pope John Paul II was shot by Mehmet Ali Ağca in St. Peter’s Square.^[7] He survived. He later credited Our Lady of Fatima with saving his life.^[7] He donated the bullet removed from his body to the Fatima shrine, where it is now set into the crown of the statue of Our Lady.^[7]

John Paul II publicly stated that the Third Secret was fulfilled in the assassination attempt — a connection he believed with great personal conviction.^[7]

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The Miracle of the Sun — October 13, 1917

The Prediction

At each of the six apparitions, the Lady had promised that on October 13, she would perform a public miracle so that everyone would believe.^[4] The children reported this publicly. Word spread. On October 13, an estimated 70,000 people traveled to the Cova da Iria — a field outside Fatima — in driving rain, to see what would happen.^{[1] [6]}

The Crowd

The crowd was not composed entirely of believers. It included:

• Atheists and non-Christians^[1]
• Journalists from O Século (a major secular, anticlerical Lisbon newspaper), O Dia, and other publications^{[1] [2]}
• Government officials^[5]
• Medical doctors^[3]
• University professors^[3]
• Ordinary villagers and pilgrims^[6]

Many had come specifically to expose the children as frauds.^[1]

What Happened

At approximately noon, the rain stopped. The clouds parted. The sun appeared, and then — according to thousands of independent accounts — it began to behave in a way that defies ordinary description.^{[1] [2] [3]}

From the testimony of Avelino de Almeida, editor of O Século

Avelino de Almeida was the editor of O Século — the largest, most respected secular newspaper in Portugal, and one that was actively anticlerical.^[1] He had traveled to Fatima to write a dismissive account of peasant superstition. Instead, he witnessed the following, which he reported in his newspaper the next day:^[1]

“Before the astonished eyes of the crowd, whose aspect was Biblical as they stood bare-headed, eagerly searching the sky, the sun trembled, made sudden incredible movements outside all cosmic laws — the sun ‘danced’ according to the typical expression of the people.”

He did not convert to Catholicism. But he could not deny what he saw.^[1]

The accounts describe:^{[1] [2] [3]}

1. The sun spinning — rotating rapidly on its own axis, throwing off colored light in all directions
2. Colored light — waves of red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and violet light sweeping across the crowd, the land, and the clouds
3. The sun plunging — the sun appearing to detach from its position and plunge toward the earth in a zigzag pattern, causing widespread panic among the crowd, who believed the world was ending
4. Sudden drying — the crowd, which had been standing in heavy rain for hours, found their clothes completely dry at the end of the event
5. Duration — the phenomenon lasted approximately ten minutes

One of the best-known Fatima photographs shows the crowd looking upward during the reported solar phenomenon on October 13, 1917. Wikimedia Commons identifies it as a 1917 image published in Ilustração Portugueza. Wikimedia Commons / Ilustração Portugueza

How people have tried to explain it

Mass hallucination

Some writers have tried to explain Fatima through crowd expectation or a shared emotional event. That remains part of the discussion. The reason the explanation does not end the story is that reports also came from outside the main field, including people who were not standing in the crowd at Cova da Iria.^[6]

Atmospheric anomaly

Other writers look to atmospheric optics and unusual light conditions. That line of explanation addresses part of the testimony, but the reports about movement, colored light, sudden drying, and sightings from more than one location are why the discussion has continued.^[3]

Staged or fabricated

A staged-event explanation has to account for the secular reporters, professors, officials, and other attendees who later described the day as something unexpected rather than as a planned display.^{[1] [3]}

Witnesses at Distance

Several witnesses reported seeing the solar phenomenon from locations far outside the Cova da Iria, including people who had no knowledge that anything was expected to happen that day.^[6] These distant witnesses — in towns such as Alburitel, 18 kilometers from Fatima — reported the same phenomena described by the crowd.^[6]

Those outlying reports are part of the reason later writers keep returning to the event. They suggest that the October 13 story was not confined only to one emotionally charged crowd in one field.^[6]

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The journalist’s account — primary source

One of the most important early texts in the Fatima story is a newspaper article written by a secular journalist.

Avelino de Almeida was editor of O Século — Portugal’s largest secular daily, explicitly anticlerical in its editorial stance.^[1] He traveled to Fatima on October 13, 1917, to write a dismissive piece on peasant superstition. His article, published October 15, 1917, was headlined “Como o Sol Bailou ao Meio-dia em Fátima” (“How the Sun Danced at Noon in Fatima”).^[1]

From that article:^[1]

“Before the astonished eyes of the crowd, whose aspect was Biblical as they stood bare-headed, eagerly searching the sky, the sun trembled, made sudden incredible movements outside all cosmic laws — the sun ‘danced’ according to the typical expression of the people.”

“People were weeping and praying with uncovered heads and… one heard cries of repentance, calls to the Holy Virgin… and other exclamations of a people deeply moved by the event that was taking place.”

De Almeida did not convert. He continued as editor of a secular newspaper. But he published what he saw.^[1]

Crowd response The same secular report says the whole crowd reacted as if something real had happened

People were weeping and praying with uncovered heads and... one heard cries of repentance, calls to the Holy Virgin... and other exclamations of a people deeply moved by the event that was taking place.

This line matters because de Almeida is not describing one or two excited believers. He is describing the behavior of the crowd in front of him after the reported solar event.

O Século, October 15, 1917 Open source

The October 29, 1917 illustrated press page attributed to Avelino de Almeida is one of the surviving visual records that helped circulate the Miracle of the Sun reports beyond Fatima. Wikimedia Commons / Ilustração Portugueza

A second journalist, Avelino de Almeida’s colleague at O Dia, wrote:^[2]

“The silver sun… was seen to whirl and turn in the circle of broken clouds… The light turned a beautiful blue, as if it had come through the stained-glass windows of a cathedral, and spread itself over the people who knelt with outstretched hands. The people wept and prayed with uncovered heads, in the presence of a miracle they had awaited.”

Dr. José Maria de Almeida Garrett, Professor of Natural Sciences at the University of Coimbra, was present as a scientific observer.^[3] He later published a detailed account:^[3]

“It was not the sparkling of a heavenly body, for it spun round on itself in a mad whirl. Then, suddenly, one heard a clamor, a cry of anguish breaking from all the people. The sun, whirling wildly, seemed all at once to loosen itself from the firmament and, blood-red, advance threateningly upon the earth as if to crush us with its huge and fiery weight.”

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The formal investigation

The Diocese of Leiria conducted a canonical investigation from 1922 to 1930, gathering testimony from hundreds of witnesses and cross-examining the children’s accounts.^[5] On October 13, 1930, the Bishop of Leiria formally concluded that the events warranted credibility.^[5]

In ordinary terms, the local Church did not claim to have solved every scientific question about what the crowd saw. It concluded that the witness record was strong enough that the case should not be dismissed as fraud or fantasy.^[5]

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What peer-reviewed science says about the Miracle of the Sun

The scientific literature directly addressing the 1917 event is limited. The following papers represent the primary peer-reviewed attempts to analyze what occurred.

Important: no instruments detected anything

No astronomical observatory anywhere in the world recorded an anomalous solar event on October 13, 1917. The sun’s actual behavior — as measured by instruments — was normal that day. This is a critical constraint on possible explanations: whatever was witnessed was either a localized optical phenomenon, a perceptual or psychological phenomenon, or something not detectable by astronomical instruments. It was not a measurable change in the sun’s actual movement or luminosity at a planetary scale.

Campbell, S. (1989). “The Miracle of the Sun at Fátima.” Journal of Meteorology, 14(142).^[8] — Proposed that stratospheric dust reduced the sun’s brightness to safe viewing levels and produced color changes consistent with witness accounts. Note: Campbell is a British science writer, not a credentialed atmospheric physicist. The Journal of Meteorology in this context has limited authority as a peer-review venue for atmospheric optics claims.

Wirowski, A. (2014). “The Dynamic Behavior of the Electrically Charged Cloud of Ice Crystals.” Applied Mathematics and Physics, 2(1), 19–26.^[9] — Mathematical model of vibrating charged ice crystals producing optical color-change and motion effects consistent with some witness accounts. Published in a SCIRP-family open access journal; SCIRP journals have faced criticism for lax peer review standards.

Dalleur, P. (2021). “Fatima Pictures and Testimonials: In-Depth Analysis.” Scientia et Fides, 9(1), 9–45.^[10] — Argues that naturalistic explanations do not adequately account for witnesses reported up to 35 km from Fatima. Published in a peer-reviewed theology/faith-science journal (Scopus Q1 in Philosophy and Religious Studies) at Nicolaus Copernicus University. Relevant disclosure: Scientia et Fides is a faith-science dialogue journal — its editorial context is oriented toward theological engagement with scientific questions, which is relevant when assessing the framing of its conclusions.

On “mass hallucination”: The term appears frequently in popular discourse as a dismissive explanation. It is not, however, a recognized clinical phenomenon at the scale described. Hallucinations are private experiences; they do not produce identical sensory content across thousands of people simultaneously. The scientifically precise framing involves crowd expectation effects (the crowd was told to expect a miracle on that exact date and had traveled there specifically), retinal afterimage effects from staring at the sun, localized atmospheric optics, and collective social reinforcement of ambiguous perceptions. These mechanisms can account for some reported features but do not fully explain all aspects of the testimony, particularly accounts from distant witnesses who were not part of the expectant crowd.

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Limits of scientific investigation

The Fatima events occurred in 1917. There is no physical trace to examine:

• No instrument data from that day — no observatory detected anomalous solar behavior
• No authenticated photographs of the solar phenomenon (photographs taken at the event show the crowd and an overcast sky, not a dancing sun)
• No biological or material samples of any kind
• No surviving witnesses

A prospective scientific investigation is impossible. A retrospective one can work only with the surviving written testimony.

Limits of further investigation

The Vatican has not requested independent scientific investigation of the 1917 events, and no external institution has standing to conduct one. There are no samples to test, no instruments to consult, and no witnesses to interview. The evidentiary record is therefore limited to historical written testimony rather than additional scientific testing.

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References

1. de Almeida, A. (October 15, 1917). “Como o Sol Bailou ao Meio-dia em Fátima.” O Século, Lisbon. — Primary eyewitness account from the editor of Portugal’s largest anticlerical newspaper. De Almeida traveled to Fatima expecting to write a dismissive report and still published an account describing what he said he saw.
2. O Dia (October 17, 1917). Correspondent account. — Independent secular newspaper account of the same events.
3. Garrett, J.M.A. (1922). Scientific observer account. In: Documentação Crítica de Fátima. Diocese of Leiria. — University of Coimbra Professor of Natural Sciences; present as a scientific observer with no documented religious stake in the outcome.
4. Kondor, L. (Ed.). (1976). Fatima in Lucia’s Own Words. Postulation Centre, Fatima. — Lúcia dos Santos’ direct testimony. Note: produced under episcopal instruction over decades; elaboration over time is difficult to assess independently.
5. Diocese of Leiria — Canonical investigation archive (1922–1930). Hundreds of depositions; formal conclusion October 13, 1930. Note: canonical investigations operate on theological rather than scientific criteria.
6. Walsh, W. T. (1947). Our Lady of Fatima. Doubleday Image. — Detailed historical account including witness depositions.
7. Vatican Congregation for Divine Worship. (2000). The Message of Fatima. — Official Vatican document releasing the Third Secret; available at: https://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/documents/rc_con_cfaith_doc_20000626_message-fatima_en.html
8. Campbell, S. (1989). The Miracle of the Sun at Fátima. Journal of Meteorology, 14(142). — Proposed stratospheric dust as explanation for reduced solar brightness and color changes. Note: Campbell is a science writer, not a credentialed atmospheric physicist.
9. Wirowski, A. (2014). The Dynamic Behavior of the Electrically Charged Cloud of Ice Crystals. Applied Mathematics and Physics, 2(1), 19–26. — Mathematical model of vibrating charged ice crystals producing optical effects. Published in SCIRP open-access journal family; SCIRP has faced criticism for lax peer review.
10. Dalleur, P. (2021). Fatima Pictures and Testimonials: In-Depth Analysis. Scientia et Fides, 9(1), 9–45. — Peer-reviewed analysis arguing naturalistic explanations are insufficient. Published in a faith-science dialogue journal (Scopus Q1, Philosophy and Religious Studies) at Nicolaus Copernicus University. Institutional context is theology/faith-science dialogue.