Thrice foretold in the preceding three months, witnessed by 70,000-100,000 people, the astounding Miracle of the Sun marks Fatima as unique amongst all Church-authenticated Marian apparitions. The “Great Sign,” given on October 13, 1917, majestically summarizes the whole Fatima message of God’s Divine Mercy and Justice, which are inseparable.
During the whole night and morning of Oct. 12-13, 1917, a “thin, persistent rain fell, wetting the fields, muddying the ground, and penetrating with its cold humidity” all those making their way to Fatima. No doubt, Heaven had many reasons for sending this permeating rain, which might be summed up as a chance to offer as a sacrifice for the conversion of sinners that which the Lord allows us to suffer and as a “sensible sign” of the graces God wishes to dispense through the hands of the Immaculate One.
Many people expected the miracle to begin promptly at noon, according to the clock, not realizing that the Lady appeared at the solar noon hour−that is, according to the sun’s time. In October, the difference between solar time and clock time was that of an hour and a half, which explains why witnesses would later say that the children arrived just before one o’clock (11:30 a.m. by the sun’s time) or that they saw the cloud around 1:30 p.m. (solar noon), which occurs in the following account.
“I am going to relate to you in a brief and concise manner, without any statements which would conceal the truth, what I saw in Fatima on 13 October, 1917,” wrote Dr. Joseph Almeida Garrett, Professor of Natural Sciences at Coimbra University, who penned his witness account in December, 1917. “I arrived at midday. The rain which had fallen persistently all morning, combined with a blustery wind, continued fretfully, as if threatening to drown everyone. The dull and heavy sky, its dark-grey clouds water-laden, predicted abundant rain for a long time to come.”
“I remained on the road in the shelter of the hood of my car, looking rather disdainfully towards the place where they said the apparition would be seen, not daring to step on the sodden and muddy earth of the freshly-ploughed field. I was a little more than a hundred meters [about 330 feet] from the high wooden posts mounted by a rough cross, seeing distinctly the wide circle of people who, with their umbrellas open seemed like a vast arena of mushrooms. A little after one o’clock, the children to whom Our Lady, as they declare, appeared and appointed the place, day and hour of the apparition, arrived at the site. Hymns were intoned and sung by the people who gathered about them. At a certain moment, this immense mass of people, so varied and compact, closed their umbrellas and uncovered their heads in a gesture that could have been one of humility or respect, but which left me surprised and bewildered, because now the rain, with a blind persistency, poured down on their heads and drenched them through. Later, I was told that this crowd, who finished up by kneeling in the mud, had obeyed the voice of a child.” Indeed, it was true that Lucia, in anticipation of the Virgin’s arrival, had asked the people to close their umbrellas.
“It must have been about half-past one when there rose up, on the precise spot where the children were, a pillar of smoke, a delicate, slender, bluish column that went straight up to about two meters, perhaps above their heads and then evaporated. The phenomenon lasted for some seconds and was perfectly visible to the naked eye…It was repeated yet a second and third time. On these three occasions, and especially on the last one, the slender posts stood out distinctly in the dull grey atmosphere.”
Note that Dr. Joseph Almeida Garrett carefully observed the wondrous pillar of smoke and yet wrote in his account that he had been “looking at the spot of the apparitions, in a serene, if cold, expectation of something happening and with diminishing curiosity because a long time had passed without anything to excite my attention.”
One may well consider the professor’s latter words, pondering if the oppressive difficulties of the perseverant faithful−thousands of people exhaustedly making their way through persistent rain and wind that was at first annoying but then chilled them to the bone, spattered and then bogged down with the heavy mud of this earth, mocked by others and yet filled with hope−and who perhaps, like Dr. Garrett, also felt that a “long time had passed without anything to excite [their] attention” are literally indicative of the many spiritual trials the Church Militant shall continually endure until all of Our Lady’s requests are finally heeded. For although a long time has indeed passed since the Mother of God made her requests, we know that their accomplishment will immediately result in the fruition of the Virgin’s promise: “In the end, My Immaculate Heart will triumph. The Holy Father will consecrate Russia to me and she will be converted and an era of peace will be granted to mankind.”