Many witnesses, both poor and rich, uneducated or cultured, believers or scoffers, testified to what happened next. First among them is the faithful Ti Marto, the father of Blessed Jacinta and Blessed Francisco: “We looked easily at the sun, which did not blind us. It seemed to flicker on and off, first one way and then another. It shot rays in different directions and painted everything in different colors…What was most extraordinary is that the sun did not hurt our eyes at all. Everything was still and quiet; everyone was looking upwards…”
O Dia, the Libson newspaper, described the Miracle in this way: “At midday by the sun, the rain stopped. The sky, pearly grey in color, illuminated the vast arid landscape with a strange light. The sun had a transparent gauzy veil so that the eye could easily be fixed on it. The grey mother-of-pearl tone turned into a sheet of silver which broke up as the clouds were parted and the silver sun, enveloped in the same gauzy grey light, was seen to whirl and turn in the circle of broken clouds. A cry went up from every mouth and people fell on their knees in the muddy ground…The light turned a beautiful blue as though through the window of a cathedral. The blue faded slowly and then the light seemed to pass through yellow glass. Yellow stain fell on white handkerchiefs against the dark skirts of the women. The colors were repeated on the stones and the serra.”
Perhaps most astonishing is the report published in O Seculo, the anti-Catholic, Masonic daily paper of Lisbon, Portugal, written by none other than the paper’s Editor-in-Chief, Avelino de Almedia. We must give credit to this man who, despite his leanings, honestly reported what he witnessed regardless of the heckling and derision that he knew he would receive from his employers and fellow journalists:
“…one could see the immense multitude turn toward the sun, which appeared at its zenith, coming out of the clouds.”
“It resembles a dull silver disc, and it is possible to fix one’s eyes on it without the least damage to the eye. It does not burn the eyes. It does not blind them. One might say that an eclipse was taking place.”
“An immense clamor bursts out, and those who are nearer to the crowd hear a shout: ‘Miracle! Miracle!’ Prodigy!...Prodigy!”
“The attitude of the people takes us back to biblical times. Stupefied and with heads uncovered, they watch the blue sky. Before their dazzled eyes the sun trembled, the sun made unusual and brusque movements, defying all the laws of the cosmos, and according to the typical expression of the peasants, ‘the sun danced…’”
Fifteen days later, after receiving the expected mocking, Almedia enumerated previously omitted details: “What did I see at Fatima that was even stranger? The rain, at an hour announced in advance, ceased falling; the thick mass of clouds dissolved; and the sun−a dull, silver disc−came into view at its zenith, and began to dance in a violent and convulsive movement, which a great number of witnesses compared to a serpentine dance, because the colors taken on by the surface of the sun were so beautiful and gleaming.”
Dr. Garrett also described “a disc, with a clear cut rim, luminous and shining, but which did not hurt the eyes. I do not agree with the comparison which I have heard made in Fatima−that of a dull silver disc. It was a clearer, richer, brighter color, having something of the lustre of a pearl. It did not in the least resemble the moon on a clear night because one saw it and felt it to be a living body…It looked like a glazed wheel made of mother-of-pearl.”