The Miracle of the Sun at Fátima– 13 October 1917 – the Sixth and Final Apparition
“In October, I will perform a miracle so that everyone can believe.”
Never before had a miracle been pinpointed on the calendar, with the month, the day and the very hour so precisely predicted: Saturday 13 October 1917. A crowd estimated to be 70,000 to 100,000 gathered at the Cova da Iria, with many arriving the day before.
The children left home quite early, expecting to be delayed along the way. Masses of people thronged the roads. Although the rain fell in torrents, the muddy roads could not prevent these people from kneeling in the most humble and suppliant of attitudes. When the children reached the holmoak in the Cova da Iria, Lúcia asked those nearby to shut their umbrellas and pray the Rosary. A little later, there was a flash of light, and the Our Lady appeared on the holmoak.
Lúcia: “What do you want of me?”
Our Lady: “I want to tell you that a chapel is to be built here in my honor. I am the Lady of the Rosary. Continue always to pray the Rosary every day. The war is going to end, and the soldiers will soon return to their homes.”
Lúcia: “I have many things to ask you: the cure of some sick persons, the conversion of sinners, and other things . . .”
Our Lady: “Some yes, but not others. They must amend their lives and ask forgiveness for their sins. Do not offend the Lord our GOD any longer, because He is already deeply offended."
Lúcia: “Do you want anything more?”
Our Lady: “Nothing more.”
Lúcia: “Then neither will I ask anything more of You.”
[Ed. note: The following extended excerpt is from Fátima, the Signs and Secrets, pages 55-60] As Our Lady took leave of the children, She opened Her hands which emitted a flood of light. While She was rising, She pointed towards the sun, and the light gleaming from Her hands brightened the sun itself.
Our Lady opened her hands and they reflected on the sun, and as she ascended, the reflection of her own light began to be projected on the sun itself. After Our Lady had disappeared into the immense distance of the firmament, Saint Joseph with the Child Jesus were visible beside the sun, as well as Our Lady robed in white with a blue mantle. Saint Joseph and the Child Jesus appeared to bless world, for they traced the Sign of the Cross with their hands. A little later, after the apparition disappeared, Lúcia saw Jesus (visible from the waist up) and Our Lady, who appeared as Our Lady of Dolours, or Sorrows. Jesus appeared to bless the world in the same manner as St. Joseph had done. After this apparition vanished, Lúcia saw Our Lady once more, this time resembling Our Lady of Carmel.
As the children stared at these heavenly visions, the countless thousands of people were amazed and overpowered by other miracles in the skies. The sun had taken on an extraordinary color. The words of eyewitnesses best describe these stupendous signs. Ti Marto recounted:
“We could look at the sun with ease, it did not bother at all. It seemed to be continually fading and glowing in one fashion, then another. It threw shafts of light one way and another, painting everything in different colors, the people, the trees, the earth, even the air. But the greatest proof of the miracle was the fact that the sun did not bother the eyes. Everybody stood still and quiet, gazing at the sun. At a certain point, the sun stopped its play of light and then started dancing. It stopped once more and again started dancing until it seemed to loosen itself from the skies and fall upon the people. It was a moment of terrible suspense.”
Maria da Capelinha gave this impression of the tremendous miracle:
“The sun cast different colors, yellow, blue and white. It trembled constantly. It looked like a revolving ball of fire falling upon the people.” As the sun hurled itself towards the earth in a mighty zigzag motion, the multitude cried out in terror, ‘Ai Jesus, we are all going to die here; Ai Jesus, we are all going to die here.’ Some begged for mercy, ‘Our Lady save us.’ Many others made acts of contrition. One lady was even confessing her sins aloud. At last the sun swerved back to its orbit and rested in the sky. Everyone gave a sigh of relief; we were still alive, and the miracle promised by the children had come to pass.”
The Lisbon newspaper O Dia gave this account:
“The sky had a certain greyish tint of pearl and a strange clearness filled the gloomy landscape, every moment getting gloomier. The sun seemed to be veiled with transparent gauze to enable us to look at it without difficulty. The greyish tint of mother-of-pearl began changing as if into a shining silver disc, that was growing slowly until it broke through the clouds. And the silvery sun, still shrouded in the same greyish lightness of gauze, was seen to rotate and wander within the circle of the receded clouds! The people cried out with one voice; the thousands of the creatures of GOD, whom faith raised up to Heaven, fell to their knees upon the muddy ground.
“Then as if it were shining through the stained glass windows of a great cathedral, the light became a rare blue, spreading its rays upon the gigantic nave . . . Slowly the blue faded away and now the light seemed to be filtered through yellow stained glass. Yellow spots were falling now upon the white kerchiefs and the dark poor skirts of coarse wool. They were spots which repeated themselves indefinitely over the lowly holm oaks, the rocks and the hills. All the people were weeping and praying bareheaded, weighed down by the greatness of the miracle expected. These were seconds, moments, that seemed hours; they were so fully lived.”
The testimony of another witness, Dr. Almeida Garrett, professor at the University of Coimbra, is most informative and corroborates the others.
“As I waited, with cool and serene expectation, looking upon the place of the apparitions and with a curiosity that was fading because the hour was passing away so slowly without anything to arouse my attention, I heard the rustle of thousands of voices. I saw the people stretched out over the large field turn about from the point upon which their desires and anxieties had converged so far to the opposite side, and they looked up at the sky. It was almost two o’clock war-time or about noon, sun-time.
“The sun had broken jubilantly through the thick layer of clouds just a few moments before. It was shining clearly and intensely. I turned to this magnet that was drawing all eyes. It looked to me as a luminous and brilliant disc, with a bright well-defined rim. It did not hurt the eyes. The comparison (which I heard while still at Fátima) with a disc of dull silver, did not seem right to me. The color was brighter, far more active and richer than dull silver, with the tinted luster of the orient of a pearl.
“Nor did it resemble the moon on a clear night. Everyone saw and felt that it was a body with life. It was not spheric like the moon, neither did it have an equal tonality of color. It looked like a small, brightly polished wheel of iridescent mother-of-pearl. It could not be taken for the sun as though seen through fog. There was no fog at that time. The sun was not opaque, veiled or diffused. It gave light and heat and was brightly outlined by a beveled rim. The sky was banked with light clouds, patched with blue here and there. Sometimes the sun stood out alone in rifts of clear sky. The clouds scuttled along from west to east without dimming the sun. They gave the impression of passing behind it, while the white puffs gliding sometimes in front of the sun seemed to take on the color of rose or a delicate blue.
“It was a wonder that all this time it was possible for us to look at the sun, ablaze of light and burning heat, without any pain to the eyes or blinding of the retina. This phenomenon must have lasted about ten minutes, except for two interruptions when the sun darted forth its more refulgent, lightning-like rays, that forced us to look away.
“The sun had an eccentricity of movement. It was not the scintillation of a celestial body at its highest power. It was rotating upon itself with exceedingly great speed. Suddenly, the people broke out with a cry of extreme anguish. The sun, still rotating, had unloosened itself from the skies and came hurtling towards the earth. This huge, fiery millstone threatened to crush us with its weight. It was a dreadful sensation.
“During this solar occurrence, the air took on successively different colors. While looking at the sun, I noticed that everything around me darkened. I looked at what was nearby and cast my eyes away towards the horizon. Everything had the color of an amethyst: the sky, the air, everything and everybody. A little oak nearby was casting a heavy purple shadow on the ground.
“Fearing impairment of the retina, which was improbable, because then I would not have seen everything in purple, I turned about, closed my eyes, cupping my hands over them, to cut off all light. With my back turned, I opened my eyes and realized that the landscape and the air retained the purple hue.
“This did not give the impression of being an eclipse. While still looking at the sun, I noticed that the air had cleared and I heard a nearby peasant say, ‘This lady looks yellow.’ As a matter of fact, everything far and near had changed now. People seemed to have jaundice. I smiled when I saw everybody looking disfigured and ugly. My hand had the same color . . . .”
The testimony of this learned man demonstrates how difficult it is to describe adequately the marvelous signs that occurred in the skies on this day. October 13, 1917, was a day to remember for all the people who witnessed these events.
The reporter for the Ordem, a newspaper of Oporto, wrote about it in these words:
“The sun was sometimes surrounded by blood-red flames; at other times it was aureoled with yellow and soft purple. Again it seemed to have the swiftest rotation and then seemed to detach itself from the heavens, come near the earth and give forth a tremendous heat.”
O Século, another newspaper of Lisbon, carried a more detailed account of the extraordinary events:
“From the height of the road where the people parked their carriages and where many hundreds stood, afraid to brave the muddy soil, we saw the immense multitude turn towards the sun at its highest, free of all clouds. The sun resembled a plate of dull silver. It could be stared at without the least effort. It did not burn or blind. It seemed that an eclipse was taking place. All of a sudden a tremendous shout burst forth, ‘Miracle, miracle! Marvel, marvel!’
“Before the astonished eyes of the people, whose attitude carried us back to biblical times, and who, white with terror, heads uncovered, gazed at the blue sky, the sun trembled and made some abrupt unheard-of movements beyond all cosmic laws; the sun danced, according to the typical expression of the peasants.
“On the running board of the bus from Torres Novas, an old man whose stature and gentle, manly features recall those of Paul Deroulede, turned toward the sun and recited the Credo in a loud voice . . . I saw him later addressing those about him who still kept their hats on, begging them vehemently to take their hats off before this overwhelming demonstration of the existence of GOD. Similar scenes were repeated at other places. A lady, bathed in tears and almost choking with grief, sobbed, ‘How pitiful! There are men who still do not bare their heads before such a stupendous miracle!’
“Immediately afterwards the people asked each other if they saw anything and what they had seen. The greatest number avowed that they saw the sun trembling and dancing; others declared that they saw the smiling face of the Blessed Virgin Herself; they swore that the sun turned around on itself as if it were a wheel of fireworks and had fallen almost to the point of burning the earth with its rays. Some said they saw it change colors successively.”
A complete translation of O Século's article: 
