". . . An indescribable impression overtook me. I only know that I cried out: I believe! I believe! And tears ran from my eyes. I was amazed, in ecstasy before the demonstration of Divine power . . . converted in that moment."

"As if like a bolt from the blue, the clouds were wrenched apart, and the sun at its zenith appeared in all its splendour. It began to revolve vertiginously on its axis, like the most magnificent fire-wheel that could be imagined, taking on all the colours of the rainbow and sending forth multi-coloured 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. The Creed, the Hail Mary, acts of contrition, burst from all lips, and tears, tears of thanksgiving and repentance sprang from all eyes."

Report of John Carreira

"…I saw the sun spinning round and it seemed about to come down on us. It revolved like a bicycle wheel. Afterwards, it returned to its place . . . I wasn't afraid, but I heard people cry out: 'Oh, we are going to die! We are going to die!'"

"I saw the sun as if it were a ball of fire, begin to move in the clouds. It had been raining all morning and the sky was full of clouds, but the rain had stopped. It lasted for several seconds, crushingly pressing down on us. Wan faces, standing here, from every side great ejaculations, acts of contrition, of the love of God. An indescribable moment! We feel it. We remain dominated by it. But it is not possible to describe it."

"I looked at the sun and saw it spinning like a disc, rolling on itself. I saw people changing colour. They were stained with the colours of the rainbow. The sun seemed to fall down from the sky… The people said that the world was going to end . . . They were afraid and screaming."

~

~

"The sun started to roll from one place to another and changed to blue, yellow -- all colours. Then we see the sun coming towards the children. Everyone was crying out. Some started to confess their sins because there was no priest around there . . . My mother grabbed me to her and started to cry, saying: 'It is the end of the world!' And then we see the sun come right into the trees

Dominic Reis, in an American
 TV interview in l960

~

"Suddenly the rain stopped and a great splendour appeared and the children cried: 'Look at the sun!' I saw the sun coming down, feeling that it was falling to the ground. At that moment, I collapsed."

~

"I looked and saw that the people were in various colours -yellow, white, blue. At the same time, I beheld the sun spinning at great speed and very near me. I at once thought: I am going to die."

"… 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 zigzag, 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. It was a crowd which had gathered outside our local village school, and we had all left classes and run into the streets because of the cries and surprised shouts of men and women who were in the street in front of the school when the miracle began.

"There was an unbeliever there who had spent the morning mocking the 'simpletons' who had gone off to Fatima just to see an ordinary girl. He now seemed paralyzed, his eyes fixed on the sun. He began to tremble from head to foot, and lifting up his arms, fell on his knees in the mud, crying out to God. 

"But meanwhile the people continued to cry out and to weep, asking God to pardon their sins. We all ran to the two chapels in the village, which were soon filled to overflowing. During those long moments of the solar prodigy, objects around us turned all colours of the rainbow.

Joaquim Lourenco, a schoolboy 
in the village of Alburitel  
He later became canon lawyer 
of the diocese of Leiria

~

Witness at village of Minde, eight miles away…

"I was watching sheep, as was my daily task, and suddenly, there in the direction of Fatima, I saw the sun fall from the sky. I thought it was the end of the world."

Abano Barros (later emigrated to U.S. 
and became a building contractor)

~

Poet Alfonso Lopes Viera saw the miracle from a distance of 30 miles at the oceanside town of San Pedro der Muel.

The miracle was also seen in Pombal, 32 miles north of Fátima.

The total land-area of visibility, based on witness interview, was approximately 32 by 20 miles.

No records of the solar phenomena were recorded by any of the world's observatories

Summation by a Scientist...

Fr. Pio Sciatizzi, professor of algebra and trigonometry at the Gregorian University, Rome, author of Fatima in the Light of Faith and Science in the 1940s wrote this:

"Of the historic reality of this event there can be no doubt whatsoever. That it was outside and against known laws can be proved by certain simple scientific considerations… Given the indubitable reference to God and the general context of the event, it seems that we must attribute to Him alone the most obvious and colossal miracle of history."

NOTE: The above reports and others were published in 1961 in Meet the Witnesses, by John Haffert, International Lay Delegate of the Blue Army of Our Lady of Fatima. (A.M.I. Press, Washington, N.J., U.S.A.).