Today is the anniversary of the big miracle of Fatima. Three children had a vision of a Lady on May 13, 1917, and she appeared to them on a few other occasions. The last apparition took place on October 13 where thousands of people were present, seeing the sun dance and other miraculous happenings. At first, the children were apprehended by police, questioned, and threatened. But everyone could see for themselves that what they saw was true, an apparition that was later approved by the Vatican. The children were Jacinta and Francisco Marto, brother and sister, who died soon afterwards. The third girl Lucia dos Santos survived and died recently while living as a Carmelite nun in a convent in Portugal. As early as July 1917, it was claimed that the Virgin Mary had promised a miracle for the last of her apparitions on October 13, so that all would believe. What happened then became known as the "Miracle of the Sun". A huge crowd, variously estimated between 30,000 and 100,000, including newspaper reporters and photographers, gathered at the Cova da Iria. According to accounts, after a period of rain, the dark clouds broke and the Sun appeared as an opaque, spinning disc in the sky. It was said to be significantly duller than normal, and to cast multicolored lights across the landscape, the people, and the surrounding clouds. The Sun was then reported to have careened towards the earth before zig-zagging back to its normal position. Witnesses reported that their previously wet clothes became "suddenly and completely dry, as well as the wet and muddy ground that had been previously soaked because of the rain that had been falling." After a canonical inquiry, the visions of Fátima were officially declared "worthy of belief" in October 1930.
No comments:
Post a Comment