The Prophecy of Fatima (Part 1)

The story begins 91 years ago when 3 Portuguese children, Jacinta Marto, Lucia dos Santos & Francisco had claimed to have a vision of Mother Mary in a place called Fatima in Portugal. Hence, it got the name, "the Prophecy of Fatima" or "the Fatima Prophecy".


The description of the Appartition....
Lúcia described seeing the lady as "brighter than the sun, shedding rays of light clearer and stronger than a crystal ball filled with the most sparkling water and pierced by the burning rays of the sun."


Children required to do penance. upon revelation of the 3 secrets.
Lúcia's says, the lady confided to the children 3 secrets. She exhorted the children to do penance and to make sacrifices to save sinners. These children wore tight cords around their waists to cause pain, abstained from drinking water on hot days, and performed other works of penance.


The children were asked to say the Rosary every day.
Lúcia said that of most important of all, the lady asked them to say the Rosary every day, reiterating many times that the Rosary was the key to personal and world peace. At the time, many young Portuguese men, including relatives of the visionaries, were fighting in World War I (1914-1918).



Attention brings problems to the children...

Attracted by reports of visions & miracles, thousands of people flocked to Fátima and Aljustrel in the following months. On August 13, 1917, the provincial administrator and Arthur Santos & anticlerical Freemason , believing that the events were politically disruptive, intercepted and jailed the children before they could reach the Cova da Iria that day. Prisoners held with them in the provincial jail later testified that the children, while upset, were consoled by the inmates, and then led the inmates in praying the Rosary.



Unsuccessful attempts by the administrators to get the secrets prematurely.
The children were subject to interrogation by the administrators and yet they were unsuccessful in their attempt to get them to reveal the content of the secrets. In the process, he frightened the children that he would boil them one by one in a pot of oil unless they confessed the secrets. The children, however, resisted. That month, instead of the usual apparition in the Cova da Iria on the 13th, the children reported that they saw at nearby Valinhos, the Lady again on August 19th the same year.


Thousands witnessed the "Miracle of the Sun".
During July, The Lady had promised to the children a miracle for the final apparition, on October 13, so that all would believe. What took place on that fateful day became known as the "Miracle of the Sun". A crowd of approximately 70,000 gathered at Cova da Iria to witness including newspaper reporters and photographers. The continuous rain had finally ceased and a thin layer of clouds cloaked the silver disc of the sun such that it could be looked upon without hurting one’s eyes. Lúcia called out to the crowd to look at the sun. Sometime while Lucia was pointing towards the sun and seeing various religious figures in the sky, the sun appeared to change colors and rotate, like a fire wheel. For some, the sun appeared to fall from the sky before retreating, for others, it zig-zagged. The phenomenon was witnessed by most in the crowd as well as people many miles and miles apart.


Witnesses described what they saw in the press.
1. Columnist Avelino de Almeida of O Século (Portugal's most influential newspaper, which was pro-government in policy and avowedly anti-clerical), reported the following "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."

2. Dr. Domingos Pinto Coelho, an eye-specialist, wrote for the newspaper Ordem describes, "The sun, at one moment surrounded with scarlet flame, at another aureoled in yellow and deep purple, seemed to be in an exceeding fast and whirling movement, at times appearing to be loosened from the sky and to be approaching the earth, strongly radiating heat".

3. The special reporter, O dia, of the Lisbon Daily reported in the edition for the October 17, 1917, "...the silver sun, enveloped in the same gauzy grey light, 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...people wept and prayed with uncovered heads, in the presence of a miracle they had awaited. The seconds seemed like hours, so vivid were they."


Could there be another Astronomical explanation to the phenomenon of the Sun described by many?
No movement or other phenomenon of the sun was registered by scientists at the time. According to contemporary reports from poet Afonso Lopes Vieira and schoolteacher Delfina Lopes with her students and other witnesses in the town of Alburita, the solar phenomena were visible from up to 40 kilometers away.


Eventhough we are inhabitants of earth, there are many things on earth that are not fully understood. Only 5% of the deep sea have been explored leaving another 95% still unknown. How can science explain the rational or the mystique of the sun? Scientists can't explain all the phenomenon especially when it comes to things that are related to the divine though they may try....