Introduction 

ON THE MORNING of the October miracle, prominent Portuguese intellectual Avelino de Almeida published a front-page article in the government press 0 Seculo, in which he dismissed the previously reported visions and discounted the possibility of a final miracle. He then traveled to Fatima to see for himself.

Shortly after witnessing the dazzling solar apparition, he reverse his previous declarations entirely and wrote the following personal account for Illustratto Portuguesa, on 29 October 1917.  His conversion produced a storm of controversy among Lisbon atheists and anti-clericalists, who attacked him bitterly. 

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“You write and ask me to tell you, sincerely and minutely, what I saw and heard in the barren pastureland of Fatima, when the fame of the heavenly apparitions had congregated in that desolate wilderness tens of thousands of people... 

“Members of your family dragged you with them to Fatima among that immense ocean of people who gathered there on 13 October. Your reasoning suffered a formidable blow, and you want to form a secure opinion, enlisting the aid of unbiased evidence such as mine. For I was there only in the discharge of a very difficult mission: that of relating impartially for the notable daily paper 0 Seculo, the facts that occurred before me, and all the surrounding unusual and elucidating details connected with them . . .

 “What was it that I heard and that brought me to Fatima? I heard that the Virgin Mary had appeared after the feast of the Ascension to three little shepherds who were pasturing their flock, two little girls and a lad. She recommended them to pray, and promised to appear there on the holm oak on the 13th day of each month until October, when she would give them some sign of the power of God and would make revelations. 

“This news was spread all round for many miles, then flew like wildfire from place to place throughout Portugal. The number of believers increased month by month, coming on pilgrimage to this poor barren spot, so that by 13 October, about 50,000 people at least had gathered there, according to the calculations of some impartial individuals . .

“I saw the multitude, densely massed around the little miraculous holm oak and plucking its branches to keep as relics, or overflowing through the immense pastureland, traversed and dominated by the road from Leiria, and which now presented the most picturesque and varied concourse of cars and people that thronged it on that never-to-be-forgotten day, all awaiting in orderly fashion the supernatural manifestations, without fearing that the wintry weather would do any harm or diminish their splendour or magnificence . . . 

“At the hour foretold, the rain ceased to fall, the dense mass of clouds parted, and the sun -- like a shining disc of dull silver -- appeared at its full zenith, and began to whirl around in a wild and violent dance, that a large number of people likened to a carnival display, with such lovely glowing colours passing successively over the sun's surface. 

“A miracle, as the crowd cried out; or a natural phenomenon, as the learned say? It is not important for me to know the answer now, but only to tell you and confirm what I saw. . . The rest we leave to science and the Church.”

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“In spite of the fitful, drizzling rain that began to fall early in the morning, an extraordinary gathering of people assembled in the parish of Fatima to witness the unusual happening of an apparition that ever since Ascension Thursday had claimed the attention of the people and attracted thousands of pilgrims of all classes of society, age and sex, to the locality. 

“The day before yesterday, groups of people began to pass through this little town, men and women who went their way singing hymns and praying the rosary with great faith and devotion, in the direction of the place where the 'miracle' which, according to the declarations of the three little shepherds to whom Our Lady deigned to appear several times as they say, on each 13th of the month, would occur. 

“The air of expectancy was evident as the noontime encounter approached. Although the rain continued to pour down, not one of all that multitude moved a step from that favored spot. Precisely at that same moment, the three little shepherds, whose names are Lucia, Jacinta and Francisco, arrived at the exact spot, falling immediately to their knees beneath an arch erected for the occasion, with an altar close by.

“A wave of emotion seemed to take hold of those many thousands of believers and curious alike. As a great number of people had their umbrellas open, the little ones asked the people to shut them. Then an extraordinary thing happened. According to the testimony of thousands and thousands present there, the sun appeared like a dull silver plate spinning round in a circular movement as if it were moved by electricity, according to the expression used by knowledgeable people who witnessed the fact.

“Then thousands of people, swayed by emotion and who knows, even dazzled by the light of the sun that had appeared for the first time that day, fell to the ground, weeping and raising their hands, joined instinctively in prayer. On their faces an expression of ecstatic rapture could be observed, denoting absolute alienation from life. Their simple hearts prayed and wept in the presence of this strange sensation of a fact that for them, at the moment, was miraculous. According to what we heard, there were people who seemed to see the sun leave its supposed orbit, break through the clouds and descend to the horizon. 

“The impression of these seers spread to others, in a common effort to explain the phenomenon, many crying out in fear that the giant orb would precipitate itself to the earth on top of them, and imploring the protection of the Holy Virgin. The 'miraculous hour' passed.

“Then the children rose up smiling, and explained to their anxious listeners that the Lady had said that peace would come soon and it would not be long before our brave soldiers would return from France where they were fighting so courageously.

“After these moments of anxiety, the pilgrims returned to their homes, longing to tell those who hadn't the good fortune to journey to the holy place, of what their eyes and above all their believing souls had so astoundingly witnessed.”

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