Miracle of the Sun#Critical evaluation of the event

{{main|Our Lady of Fátima}}

In the spring of 1916, three Catholic shepherd children near Fátima reported visions of an angel. Beginning in May 1917, they also experienced apparitions of the Virgin Mary, whom they called the Lady of the Rosary. The children claimed the Lady prophesied that prayer would bring an end to the Great War, and that on 13 October that year, she would reveal her identity and perform a miracle "so that all may believe."De Marchi 1952:38, 74 Newspapers reported the prophecies, and many pilgrims began visiting the area. The children's accounts were deeply controversial, drawing intense criticism from both local secular and religious authorities. A provisional administrator briefly took the children into custody, believing the prophecies were politically motivated in opposition to the officially secular First Portuguese Republic established in 1910.Bennett, 2012

File:Miracle of the Sun.jpg looking towards the Sun on 13 October 1917]]

Various claims have been made regarding the events that transpired. Many witnesses reported that after a period of rain, the dark clouds parted, revealing the Sun as an opaque, spinning disc in the sky. It was described as being significantly duller than usual, casting multicolored lights across the landscape, the people, and the surrounding clouds. The Sun was then reported to have careered towards the Earth before zig-zagging back to its normal position.{{cite web | url=http://johnhaffert.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Meet-the-Witnesses-91511.pdf#page=90 | author=John Haffert | title=Meet the Witnesses | year=1961 | access-date=28 November 2016 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161128200651/http://johnhaffert.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Meet-the-Witnesses-91511.pdf#page=90 | archive-date=28 November 2016 | url-status=dead }} 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".De Marchi 1952b: 150 Not all witnesses reported seeing the Sun "dance". Some people only saw the radiant colors. A number of people (thousands according to some sources) saw nothing.{{cite book |author= Jaki, Stanley L. |title=God and the Sun at Fátima | year=1999|page=272|publisher=Real View Books|asin=B0006R7UJ6}} Names Izabel de Melo{{cite book |author= Frere Michel de la Sainte Trinite |title=The Whole Truth About Fátima, Volume I: Science and the Facts | year=1989 | chapter=Chapter X, appendix II}} Names Izabel Brandao de Melo, and a few vague or unverifiable accounts.

Skeptic Brian Dunning commented on an image commonly mistaken for a photograph of the Sun taken at Fatima: "An old black and white photograph of the actual sun miracle event shows a lot of dark rain clouds behind some trees and the sun poking through. There is certainly nothing in the photograph that looks unusual, but of course a photograph is static. Whatever the crowd saw was not interesting enough to be noticeable in a photograph". The photograph, originally published in 1951 by {{lang|pt|L'Osservatore Romano}} was subsequently determined to have been taken approximately eight years later in a different Portugal town of a different solar phenomenon. The misattributed image, however, continues to circulate on the internet.{{Cite web |work=ChurchPOP |date=2017-05-11 |title=Is This a Photo of Fatima's "Miracle of the Sun"? The Truth Behind the Popular Photo – |url=https://www.churchpop.com/2017/05/11/is-this-a-photo-of-fatimas-miracle-of-the-sun-the-truth-behind-the-popular-photo/ |access-date=2022-11-09 |language=en-US}}

The three children (Lúcia dos Santos and her cousins Jacinta and Francisco Marto) who originally claimed to have seen Our Lady of Fátima also reported seeing a panorama of visions, including those of Jesus, Our Lady of Sorrows, Our Lady of Mount Carmel, and Saint Joseph blessing the people.De Marchi 1952b: 151–66 In the fourth edition of her memoirs, written in 1941, Lúcia said that on the occasion of their third visit to the Cova da Iria, on 13 July 1917, she asked the Lady to tell them who she was, and to perform a miracle so that everyone would believe. The Lady told her that they should continue to come to the Cova each month until October, when the requested miracle would occur.[https://books.google.com/books?id=5AaCA1qA0QAC&dq=miracle+of+the+sun+october+13+1917&pg=PT102 Bennett, Jeffrey S., When the Sun Danced: Myth, Miracles, and Modernity in Early Twentieth-Century Portugal, University of Virginia Press, 2012] {{ISBN|978-0813932507}}

{{Location map|Portugal|label=|marksize=6|mark=Blue_pog.svg|lat_dir=N|lat_deg=39|lat_min=37 |lat_sec=12|lon_dir=W|lon_deg=08|lon_min=39|lon_sec=00|position=right|width=130| float=right|caption=Location of Fátima}}

Descriptions of the events reported at Fátima were collected by Father John De Marchi, an Italian Catholic priest and researcher. De Marchi spent seven years in Fátima, from 1943 to 1950, conducting research and interviewing the principals at length.[http://www.ewtn.com/library/MARY/tsfatima.htm De Marchi, John. True Story of Fatima, Catechetical Guild Educational Society, St. Paul, Minnesota, 1956] In The Immaculate Heart (1952), De Marchi reported that, "[t]heir ranks (those present on 13 October) included believers and non-believers, pious old ladies and scoffing young men. Hundreds, from these mixed categories, have given formal testimony. Reports do vary; impressions are in minor details confused, but none to our knowledge has directly denied the visible prodigy of the sun."De Marchi 1952b: 143

File:People looking miracle sun.jpg

De Marchi authored several books on the subject, such as The True Story of Fátima. They include a number of witness descriptions:

• "The sun, at one moment surrounded with scarlet flame, at another aureoled in yellow and deep purple, seemed to be in an exceedingly swift and whirling movement, at times appearing to be loosened from the sky and to be approaching the earth, strongly radiating heat." — {{thin space}}Domingos Pinto Coelho, writing for the Catholic newspaper Ordem.De Marchi 1952b: 147
• "The silver sun, enveloped in the same gauzy grey light, was seen to whirl and turn in the circle of broken clouds{{nbsp}}[.. 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{{nbsp}}[...] 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." — {{thin space}}Reporter for the Lisbon newspaper {{lang|pt|O Dia}}.
• "The sun's disc did not remain immobile. This was not the sparkling of a heavenly body, for it spun round on itself in a mad whirl when suddenly a clamor was heard from all the people. The sun, whirling, seemed to loosen itself from the firmament and advance threateningly upon the earth as if to crush us with its huge fiery weight. The sensation during those moments was terrible." — {{thin space}}De Marchi attributes this description to Almeida Garrett, Professor of Natural Sciences at Coimbra University.De Marchi 1952b: 146 Theologian Father Stanley L. Jaki wrote that it was actually given by José Almeida Garrett, a young lawyer, and is often mistakenly attributed to his father, a professor of natural sciences at the University of Coimbra,Donal Anthony Foley. [https://books.google.com/books?id=p3tChFOtAiwC&pg=PA404 Marian Apparitions, the Bible, and the Modern World]. Gracewing Publishing; 2002. {{ISBN|978-0-85244-313-2}}. pp. 404–. named Gonçalo de Almeida Garrett.[https://books.google.com/books?id=hRaVCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA15 História da ciência na Universidade de Coimbra: 1772–1933]. Imprensa da Universidade de Coimbra / Coimbra University Press; 2013. {{ISBN|978-989-26-0609-5}}. pp. 15–.
• "As if like a bolt from the blue, the clouds were wrenched apart, and the sun at its zenith appeared in all its splendor. It began to revolve vertiginously on its axis, like the most magnificent firewheel that could be imagined, taking on all the colors of the rainbow and sending forth multicolored flashes of light, producing the most astounding effect. This sublime and incomparable spectacle, which was repeated three distinct times, lasted for about ten minutes. The immense multitude, overcome by the evidence of such a tremendous prodigy, threw themselves on their knees." — {{thin space}}Manuel Nunes Formigão, a professor at the seminary at Santarém, and a priest.
• "I feel incapable of describing what I saw. I looked fixedly at the sun, which seemed pale and did not hurt my eyes. Looking like a ball of snow, revolving on itself, it suddenly seemed to come down in a zig-zag, menacing the earth. Terrified, I ran and hid myself among the people, who were weeping and expecting the end of the world at any moment." — {{thin space}}Rev. Joaquim Lourenço, describing his boyhood experience in Alburitel, {{convert|18|km}} from Fátima.De Marchi 1952b: 149
• "On that day of October 13, 1917, without remembering the predictions of the children, I was enchanted by a remarkable spectacle in the sky of a kind I had never seen before. I saw it from this veranda" — {{thin space}}Portuguese poet Afonso Lopes Vieira.De Marchi 1952b: 148–49

De Marchi also drew on the newspaper account written by Avelino de Almeida, a journalist sent by the newspaper {{lang|pt|O Século}}, who described in detail the reactions of the crowd.{{cite web|url=http://www.universocatolico.com.br/index.php?/o-milagre-do-sol.html|title=Fátima – O milagre do sol|last=Elbson|website=www.universocatolico.com.br|access-date=17 May 2017}}

The event was declared of "supernatural character" by the Catholic Church in 1930. A shrine was built near the site in Fátima, which has been attended by thousands of faithful.{{cite web|title=Our Lady of Fatima 100th Anniversary|url=http://portlanddiocese.org/fatima-100th-anniversary|website=Roman Catholic Diocese of Portland|access-date=6 May 2017}}

Pope Pius XII approved the "Fatima apparitions" in 1940. Four times during the week that he declared the dogma of the Assumption of Mary (33 years after the actual event said to have occurred in Fátima), Pope Pius XII claimed to have witnessed the same "Miracle of the Sun".{{cite web|url=https://zenit.org/articles/pius-xii-saw-miracle-of-the-sun/|title=Pius XII Saw "Miracle of the Sun"|first=Antonio|last=Gaspari|date=4 November 2008|website=zenit.org}}{{cite web|url=http://www.spiritdaily.net/lastsecretqueen.htm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170820201952/http://www.spiritdaily.net/lastsecretqueen.htm|title=It Was Just After Hiroshima That Blessed Mother Began a Heightened Intervention |work=Spirit Daily|archive-date=20 August 2017|access-date=24 December 2018}} At 4:00{{nbsp}}p.m. on 30 October 1950, during a walk in the Vatican gardens, he arrived at the statue of Our Lady of Lourdes and began to see the miracle. He described himself in handwritten notes as "awestruck." He saw the same miracle on 31 October, again on 1 November (the date of the definition of the dogma) and then again on 8 November. He wrote that on other days at about the same time he tried to see if he could observe the Miracle of the Sun, but was unable to. He confided this information to a number of Vatican cardinals, to Sr. Pascalina Lehnert (the nun in charge of the papal apartments and his secretary) and finally to handwritten notes (discovered in 2008) that were later placed on display at the Vatican.

In 2017, Pope Francis approved the recognition of a miracle involving two of the children involved in the Fátima event, Francisco and Jacinta Marto, which paved the way for their canonization.{{cite web|title=Pope recognizes miracle attributed to Fatima visionaries|url=http://www.catholicsun.org/2017/03/23/pope-recognizes-miracle-attributed-to-fatima-visionaries/|website=Catholic Sun|author=Junno Arocho Esteves|date=23 March 2017|publisher=Diocese of Phoenix|access-date=6 May 2017}}

Within Catholicism, the event is seen as the fulfillment of a promise by Mary, mother of Jesus, to the shepherd children who said she appeared to them several times before 13 October 1917. According to the children's accounts, Mary, referred to as the "Lady of Fátima", promised them she would perform a miracle to show people they were telling the truth, and so caused the crowds to see the Sun make "incredible" movements in the sky.{{cite web|title=Our Lady Of Fatima|url=http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/saint.php?n=485|website=Catholic News Agency|publisher=CNA|access-date=7 May 2017|archive-date=25 December 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181225102209/https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/saint/our-lady-of-fatima-485|url-status=dead}} Catholics have regarded Mary as a powerful "miracle worker" for centuries, and this view has continued into the present.Miracles of Our Lady by Gonzalo de Berceo, Richard Terry Mount, Annette Grant Cash 1997 {{ISBN|0-8131-2019-5}} pp. 6–7 Various theologians and apologetic scientists have discussed the limits of scientific explanations for the event and proposed possible mechanisms through which divine intervention caused the solar phenomenon.{{Citation needed|date=August 2021}}

Fr Andrew Pinsent, research director of the Ian Ramsey Centre for Science and Religion at Oxford University, states that "a scientific perspective does not rule out miracles, and the event at Fatima is, in the view of many, particularly credible." He states that a usual prejudice involves a lack of understanding of the scope of scientific laws, which merely describe how natural systems behave isolated from free agents. Concluding that the event is "a public miracle of the most extraordinary kind and credibility", he sees the year of the event, as connected to significant historical milestones that call for Fátima's message of repentance: Protestantism in 1517, Freemasonry in 1717 and atheistic Communism in 1917.{{cite web|url=http://www.catholicherald.co.uk/issues/may-12th-2017/fatima-at-100-can-a-scientist-take-the-miracle-of-the-sun-seriously/|title=Fatima at 100: Can a scientist take the Miracle of the Sun seriously? |author=Fr Andrew Pinsent|date=11 May 2017|website=catholicherald.co.uk|access-date=17 May 2017}}

Theologian, physicist, and priest Stanley L. Jaki, concurs, concluding that by divine intervention, a coordinated interplay of natural meteorological events, an enhancement of air lens with ice crystals, was made to occur at the exact time predicted, and this is the essence of the miracle.{{cite web|url=http://www.catholicstand.com/fr-stanley-jaki-on-the-fatima-miracle/|title=Fr. Stanley Jaki on the Fátima Miracle – Catholic Stand|date=13 October 2013|website=catholicstand.com|access-date=17 May 2017}}

Jaki described the phenomenon:

{{blockquote|...a sudden temperature inversion must have taken place. The cold and warm air masses could conceivably propel that rotating air lens in an elliptical orbit first toward the earth, and then push it up, as if it were a boomerang, back to its original position. Meanwhile, the ice crystals in it acted as so many means of refraction for the sun's rays... Only one observer, a lawyer, stated three decades later that the path of descent and ascent was elliptical with small circles superimposed on it. Such an observation would make eminent sense to anyone familiar with fluid dynamics or even with the workings of a boomerang. There is indeed plenty of scientific information on hand to approach the miracle of the sun scientifically... The carefully co-ordinated interplay of so many physical factors would by itself be a miracle, even if one does not wish to see anything more in what actually happened. Clearly, the "miracle" of the sun was not a mere meteorological phenomenon, however rare. Otherwise it would have been observed before and after, regardless of the presence of devout crowds or not. I merely claim, which I did in my other writings on miracles, that in producing miracles God often makes use of a natural substratum by greatly enhancing its physical components and their interactions.}}

According to Jaki, the faithful should believe that a miracle occurred at Fátima, and "those who stake their purpose in life on Christ as the greatest and incomparably miraculous fact of history", need to pay attention to facts that support miracles.{{cite book |author= Jaki, Stanley L. |title=God and the Sun at Fátima | year=1999|publisher=Real View Books|asin=B0006R7UJ6}}{{page?|date=October 2024}}

De Marchi believed related miraculous phenomena, such as the Sun's effect on standing water from heavy rains that immediately preceded the event, to be genuine. According to De Marchi, "...engineers that have studied the case reckoned that an incredible amount of energy would have been necessary to dry up those pools of water that had formed on the field in a few minutes as it was reported by witnesses." De Marchi wrote that the prediction of an unspecified "miracle", the abrupt beginning and end of the event, the varied religious backgrounds of the observers, the sheer numbers of people present, reports of sightings by people up to {{convert|18|km|mi}} away, and the lack of any known scientific causative factor make a mass hallucination or mass hysteria unlikely. De Marchi concludes that "given the indubitable reference to God, and the general context of the story, it seems that we must attribute to Him alone the most obvious and colossal miracle of history."(De Marchi 1952b: 150, 278–282)

Leo Madigan, a former psychiatric nurse and local journalist at Fátima in the late 20th century, also dismisses suggestions from critics of mass hypnosis, and believes that astonishment, fear, exaltation and the spiritual nature of the phenomenon explain any inconsistency of witnesses descriptions. Madigan wrote that what people saw was "the reflection of the Lady's own light projected on the Sun itself".{{cite book|author=Leo Madigan|title=The Children of Fatima|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DWr8CwAAQBAJ|year= 2003|publisher=Our Sunday Visitor|isbn=978-1-61278-303-1}}

Philippe Dalleur, a priest and faculty philosophy at the Pontificial University of the Holy Cross in Rome, studied photographs of the crowd taken by "O Século" photographer Judah Ruah. In his analysis of shadows, Dalleur states there are two light sources, one being the "silver sun" described by witnesses – but at the wrong elevation to be the Sun. He states that testimonies of witnesses who observed the phenomenon from a distance place the "silver sun" neither at the azimuth of the real Sun, nor at any fixed azimuth – but invariably at the direction of Fatima, concluding that the "silver sun" was a real luminous object over Fatima.Dalleur, P. 2021. "Fatima pictures and testimonials: in-depth analysis". Scientia et Fides. 9, 1 (Mar. 2021), 9–45. {{doi|10.12775/SetF.2021.001}}.

File:Parhelion 2005 close.jpg in rainbow colors, photographed in 2005]]

Theologians, scientists and skeptics have responded to claims that conflict with established scientific knowledge regarding the behavior of the Sun. Science writer Benjamin Radford points out that "The sun did not really dance in the sky. We know this because, of course, everyone on Earth is under the same sun, and if the closest lying star to us suddenly began doing celestial gymnastics a few billion other people would surely have reported it". Radford wrote that psychological factors such as the power of suggestion and pareidolia can better explain the reported events. According to Radford, "No one suggests that those who reported seeing the Miracle of the Sun—or any other miracles at Fátima or elsewhere—are lying or hoaxing. Instead, they very likely experienced what they claimed to, though that experience took place mostly in their minds." Regarding claims of miraculous drying up of rain water, Radford wrote "it's not clear precisely what the weather was at the time of the miracle", and photography from the time of the event does not show that it had been raining as much or as long as was reported.{{cite journal |last1=Radford |first1=Benjamin |author-link1=Benjamin Radford |title=Fatima Miracle Claims All Wet |journal=Skeptical Inquirer |date=2019 |volume=43 |issue=3 |pages=31–33 |url=https://skepticalinquirer.org/2019/05/fatima-miracle-claims-all-wet/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190621174918/https://skepticalinquirer.org/2019/05/fatima-miracle-claims-all-wet/ |url-status=dead |archive-date=2019-06-21 |access-date=21 June 2019}}

In The Evidence for Visions of the Virgin Mary (1983), former editor of the ASSAP's journal, Kevin McClure, whose intention in the book was to approach Marian apparition events in a sufficiently objective format for the reader "to make an independent decision as to what the visions may mean, and whence they may have come,"{{cite book |last1=McClure |first1=Kevin |title=The Evidence for Visions of the Virgin Mary |date=1983 |publisher=Aquarian Press |isbn=9780850303513 |page=12}} wrote that "these events remain confusing and mystifying," and that the phenomenon is unique when compared to other abnormal events such as UFO sightings. He wrote that one is "not to say that a miraculous, stupendous, incomprehensible event did not occur" while looking for possible explanations.{{cite book |last1=McClure |first1=Kevin |title=The Evidence for Visions of the Virgin Mary |date=1983 |publisher=Aquarian Press |isbn=9780850303513 |pages=84–85}} In reference to the accounts of the Miracle of the Sun phenomena, McClure writes that "the accounts of the miracle, of the dance of the sun', are simply not consistent”. McClure remarks that perception and memory becoming uncertain during an incomprehensible event is not surprising, but that the contradictions in the accounts must raise some doubts towards the objective nature of what was seen.{{Cite book |last=McClure |first=Kevin |title=The Evidence for Visions of the Virgin Mary |date=1983 |publisher=Aquarian Press |isbn=9780850303513 |pages=78}} While McClure is often misquoted in purportedly stating that he had never seen such a collection of contradictory accounts of a case in any of the research that he had done in the previous ten years, he was specifically referring to accounts of the alleged Marian apparitions that the three children witnessed, not the accounts of the Miracle of the Sun phenomena itself, when making such a claim.{{cite book |last1=McClure |first1=Kevin |title=The Evidence for Visions of the Virgin Mary |date=1983 |publisher=Aquarian Press |isbn=9780850303513 |page=72}}

According to professor of religion Lisa J. Schwebel, claims of the miracle present a number of difficulties. Schwebel states, "Not only did all those present not see the phenomenon, but also there are considerable inconsistencies among witnesses as to what they did see". Schwebel also observes that there is no authentic photo of the solar phenomena claimed, "despite the presence of hundreds of reporters and photographers at the field", and one photo often presented as authentic is actually "a solar eclipse in another part of the world taken sometime before 1917".Lisa J. Schwebel. [https://books.google.com/books?id=bI9FuuwTBJYC&pg=PT2 Apparitions, Healings, and Weeping Madonnas: Christianity and the Paranormal]. Paulist Press; 2014. {{ISBN|978-1-61643-695-7}}. pp. 2–. There is some evidence to the effect that the miracle was expected by witnesses. The witness Joaquim Gregório Tavares, who was present at Fátima on 13 October, states, "We must declare that, although we admit the possibility of some miraculous fact, we were there while having in mind conversations we had earlier with cool-headed persons who were anticipating some changes of colour in the Sun".{{cite book |author= Jaki, Stanley L. |title=God and the Sun at Fátima | year=1999|page=92|publisher=Real View Books|asin=B0006R7UJ6}} The villagers in Alburitel were preparing for a Sun miracle too. According to Maria do Carmo, "It was anticipated that the miracle would involve the stars".{{cite book |author= Jaki, Stanley L. |title=God and the Sun at Fátima | year=1999|page=293|publisher=Real View Books|asin=B0006R7UJ6}} This is likely because in the months of July, August and September people at Fátima claimed the Sun's light dimmed and the sky became dark enough for stars to become visible. This was denied too by many witnesses from the previous months. She also states that on the morning of October 13, "the people of Alburitel were darkening bits of glass by exposing them to candle-smoke so that they might watch the Sun, with no harm to their eyes."

Supernatural explanations, such as those by Father Pio Scatizzi, who argues that observers in Fátima could not be collectively deceived, or that the effect was not seen by observatories in distant places because of divine interventionDe Marchi 1952b:282 have been dismissed by critics who say those taking part in the event could certainly be deceived by their senses, or they could have experienced a localized, natural phenomenon. According to Benjamin Radford, "It is of course dangerous to stare directly at the sun, and to avoid permanently damaging their eyesight, those at Fátima that day were looking up in the sky around the sun, which, if you do it long enough, can give the illusion of the sun moving as the eye muscles tire."{{Cite web|title=The Lady of Fátima & the Miracle of the Sun |url=https://www.livescience.com/29290-fatima-miracle.html|author= Benjamin Radford |date= 2 May 2013 |website=LiveScience.com |access-date=20 October 2015 |url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150415200520/http://m.livescience.com/29290-fatima-miracle.html|archive-date=15 April 2015 }} Others, such as professor of physics Auguste Meessen, suggest that optical effects created by the human eye can account for the reported phenomenon. Meessen presented his analysis of apparitions and "Miracles of the Sun" at the International Symposium "Science, Religion and Conscience" in 2003.[http://fr.scribd.com/doc/62639179/Les-apparitions-de-la-Vierge-et-la-critique-historique Hallet, M. (2011) Les apparitions de la Vierge et la critique historique (new expanded edition)][http://www.meessen.net/AMeessen/MirSun.pdf Apparitions and Miracles of the Sun. Auguste Meessen. International Forum in Porto "Science, Religion and Conscience" October 23–25, 2003] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100215194938/http://www.meessen.net/AMeessen/MirSun.pdf |date=15 February 2010 }} Meessen.net While Meessen felt those who claim to have experienced miracles were "honestly experiencing what they report", he stated Sun miracles cannot be taken at face value and that the reported observations were optical effects caused by prolonged staring at the Sun. Meessen contends that retinal after-images produced after brief periods of Sun gazing are a likely cause of the observed dancing effects. Similarly, Meessen concluded that the color changes witnessed were most likely caused by the bleaching of photosensitive retinal cells.Auguste Meessen 'Apparitions and Miracles of the Sun' International Forum in Porto "Science, Religion and Conscience" 23–25 October 2003 {{ISSN|1645-6564}} Shortly after the miracle, the Catholic lawyer named Coelho said in his article that a few days later, he saw the exact same motions and colour changes in the Sun as he did on 13 October. He says, "One doubt remained with us however. Was what we saw in the Sun an exceptional thing? Or could it be reproduced in analogous circumstances? Now it was precisely this analogy of circumstances that presented itself to us yesterday. We could see the Sun half overcast as on Saturday. And sincerely, we saw on that day the same succession of colors, the same rotary movement, etc."{{cite book |author= Jaki, Stanley L. |title=God and the Sun at Fátima | year=1999|page=57|publisher=Real View Books|asin=B0006R7UJ6}}

Meessen observes that Sun Miracles have been witnessed in many places where religiously charged pilgrims have been encouraged to stare at the Sun. He cites the apparitions at Heroldsbach, Germany (1949) as an example, where many people within a crowd of over 10,000 testified to witnessing similar observations as at Fátima. Meessen also cites a British Journal of Ophthalmology article that discusses some modern examples of Sun Miracles."Solar retinopathy following religious rituals". M Hope-Ross, S Travers, D Mooney; Br J Ophthalmol 1988, 72: 931–934 {{doi|10.1136/bjo.72.12.931}} [http://bjo.bmj.com/content/72/12/931.abstract] Prof. Stöckl, a meteorologist from Regensburg, also proposed a similar theory and made similar observations.{{cite book |author= Jaki, Stanley L. |title=God and the Sun at Fátima | year=1999|page=303|publisher=Real View Books|asin=B0006R7UJ6}}

Critics also suggest that a combination of clouds, atmospheric effects and natural sunlight could have created the reported visual phenomena. Steuart Campbell, writing for the edition of Journal of Meteorology in 1989, postulated that a cloud of stratospheric dust changed the appearance of the Sun on 13 October, making it easy to look at, and causing it to {{em|appear}} to be yellow, blue, and violet, and to spin. In support of his hypothesis, Campbell reported that a blue and reddened Sun was reported in China as documented in 1983."Fátima's dusty veil", New Humanist, Vol 104, No 2, August 1989 and "The Miracle of the Sun at Fátima", Journal of Meteorology, UK, Vol 14, no. 142, October 1989 Paul Simons, in an article entitled "Weather Secrets of Miracle at Fátima", stated that it is possible that some of the optical effects at Fátima may have been caused by a cloud of dust from the Sahara."Weather Secrets of Miracle at Fátima", Paul Simons, The Times, 17 February 2005.

Skeptical investigator Joe Nickell wrote that the "dancing sun" effects reported at Fátima were "a combination of factors, including optical effects and meteorological phenomena, such as the sun being seen through thin clouds, causing it to appear as a silver disc. Other possibilities include an alteration in the density of the passing clouds, causing the sun's image to alternately brighten and dim and so seem to advance and recede, and dust or moisture droplets in the atmosphere refracting the sunlight and thus imparting a variety of colors". Nickell also suggests that unusual visual effects could have resulted from temporary retinal distortion caused by staring at the intense light of the Sun, or have been caused by a sundog, a relatively common atmospheric optical phenomenon.{{cite book|last1=Nickell|first1=John|title=Looking for a Miracle: Weeping Icons, Relics, Stigmata, Visions, and Healing Cures|date=1993|publisher=Prometheus|isbn=0-87975-840-6|url=https://archive.org/details/lookingformiracl00nickrich}}{{cite book | first=Joe | last=Nickell | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gN3_q1lgqY0C&pg=PA178 | title=Looking for a Miracle: Weeping Icons, Relics, Stigmata, Visions and Healing Cures | publisher=Prometheus Books | year=1993 | isbn=978-1-61592-464-6 | pages=178–}} Nickell also highlights the psychological suggestibility of the witnesses, noting that devout spectators often come to locations where Marian apparitions have been reported "fully expecting some miraculous event", such as the 1988 Lubbock apparition of Mary in Texas, the Mother Cabrini Shrine near Denver, Colorado, in 1992, and Conyers, Georgia, in the early to mid-1990s.{{cite web|url=http://www.csicop.org/si/show/real_secrets_of_fatima/|title=The Real Secrets of Fatima |website=www.csicop.org|date=November 2009 |access-date=17 May 2017}}

• Marian apparition
• The Miracle of Our Lady of Fatima, 1952 film
• Fatima, 2020 film
• Three Secrets of Fátima

{{Reflist}}

• {{cite book|first= Jeffrey S.|last=Bennett|title=When the Sun Danced: Myth, Miracles, and Modernity in Early Twentieth Century|date=2012|publisher=University of Virginia Press|isbn=978-0-8139-3250-7}}
• {{cite book|first = John | last = De Marchi | date = 1956 | title = The True Story of Fátima | publisher = Catechetical Guild Educational Society | location = St. Paul Minnesota |oclc = 40630767}} ([https://fatima.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/The-True-Story-of-Fatima.pdf Online Text])
• {{cite book|first = John | last = De Marchi | date = 1952b |url=https://archive.org/details/immaculateheartt0000marc/mode/2up| title = The Immaculate Heart, The True Story of Our Lady of Fatima| publisher = Farrar, Straus and Young | location = New York|oclc = 2947238 }}
• {{cite book | first = Kevin | last = McClure | date = 1983 | title = The Evidence for Visions of the Virgin Mary | publisher = Aquarian Press | isbn = 0-85030-351-6 | url-access = registration | url = https://archive.org/details/evidenceforvisio00mccl }}

{{Commons cat}}

• [https://www.scribd.com/doc/30722706/The-Miracle-of-Fatima-El-Milagro-de-Fatima-O-Milagre-De-Fatima Newspaper article in Portuguese that came out shortly after the alleged miracle.]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20080818044757/http://www.tarxienparish.org/FatimaSun_13Oct1917.jpg Picture of the Sun during the alleged miracle.] (archive)
• Phil Plait [https://slate.com/technology/2009/10/when-self-fulfilling-prophecies-knock.html "When self-fulfilling prophecies Knock"]
• [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/8390184.stm BBC News article on Sun miracles at Knock]
• [https://www.piercedhearts.org/hearts_jesus_mary/apparitions/fatima/MemoriasI_en.pdf Fátima in Sister Lucia's own words] – Free online version of the memoir book written by Lucia dos Santos, OCD
• [https://fatima.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/The-True-Story-of-Fatima.pdf The True Story of Fatima] – Free online version of the book written by Father John de Marchi, IMC
• [https://fatima.org/books/ The Fatima Message books and documents]

{{Our Lady of Fátima}}

{{Private revelation}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Miracle Of The Sun, The}}

Category:Christian miracles

Category:Our Lady of Fátima

Category:1917 in Portugal

Category:Solar phenomena

Category:20th-century Catholicism

Category:1917 in Christianity

Category:October 1917 in Europe

Category:Saint Joseph (husband of Mary)

Category:Catholicism-related controversies

Category:Wikipedia articles containing unlinked shortened footnotes