In 1917, three children in Fátima, Portugal, claimed that the Virgin Mary appeared to them as they were returning home after finishing tending to their sheep.
According to the three children, the Virgin Mary said she would reappear on the 13th of each month for six months and disappeared. News of this “miracle” spread and visitors began to arrive in town. However, the Virgin Mary appeared only to Lucia, the eldest of the children, and Lucia had to tell others what she saw. According to the children, during her last visit on October 13, 1917, Mary promised to provide miraculous evidence to others.
This news spread quickly, and an estimated crowd of 70,000 people came to town to witness the promised apparition and miracle. A large portion of the crowd said they were not disappointed, as they claimed to have looked up and seen what became known as the “Sun miracle.” Various witnesses reported that the Sun, usually seen as a stationary blob in the sky, was hurtling towards the Earth, rotating around itself and producing flashes of colored light, before returning to its original position.
Science professor José Maria de Almeida Garrett, who witnessed the event, said: “When I looked at the sun, I noticed that everything was starting to darken. First I looked at nearby objects, then I widened my gaze to the horizon. I saw that everything turned into an amethyst color. The objects around me, the sky, and the atmosphere were the same color. “Everything, both near and far, changed, taking on the color of the old yellow Damascus rose,” he said. “People looked like they were suffering from jaundice, and I remember enjoying seeing how ugly and unattractive they looked. My own hand was the same color. All the events I described were observed by me in a calm and serene mood, without any emotional disturbance. It is up to others to interpret and explain them.” However, some claim that this incident was actually told by his son.
However, this phenomenon also varied greatly from person to person. Witnesses described what they saw in many different ways, from firework-like light shows described as a spinning Catherine wheel to the Sun changing color like a disco ball. Moreover, despite the crowd of 70,000 people eagerly waiting for the miracle and the participation of the press, there are no photographs of this strange behavior of the Sun.
What actually was the Miracle of the Sun?
Those trying to explain this miracle say that nothing unusual happened to the Sun that day, considering that the event was not witnessed anywhere else on Earth. So what happened was almost certainly a local incident.
One explanation, proposed by Artur Wirowski of the Lodz University of Technology, suggests that witnesses may have seen a “false sun” caused by ice crystal clouds high in the atmosphere. Since these clouds can also scatter color across the sky, it could also explain the color changes seen by witnesses.
A much more likely explanation is that the crowd experienced a dizzying mass hysteria, and solar retinopathy, or retinal burn caused by staring at the Sun for too long, supported these narratives. This is a situation that was later documented in religious individuals who stared at the Sun for too long during religious ceremonies.
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