The Shrine's dated chronology, with references to its Documentação Crítica de Fátima: the apparitions of 1917, the O Século report, the canonical process and the 1930 pastoral letter declaring the visions worthy of belief.
“worthy of belief the visions of the children in the Cova da Iria, parish of Fatima, of this Diocese, on 13 May through October 1917” source
Quote is the Shrine's English rendering of the Bishop of Leiria's pastoral letter of 13 October 1930.
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Testimony
Interviews and witness statements: who, in what role, when and where it was said.
WITNESSShrine of Our Lady of Fátima, quoting Lúcia's memoirs (‘Fatima in Lucia's own words’) · DATE TO VERIFY
The Shrine's account of each apparition from Lúcia's memoirs and the 1917 interrogations, with the number of people present: 20,000 to 30,000 in September, 50,000 to 70,000 on 13 October.
“In October I will perform a miracle so that all may believe.” source
Lúcia's memoirs were written years after 1917; the Shrine's chronology dates her first written report to 1922.
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Press
Newspaper and magazine coverage, then and now. Linked, never copied.
PRESSAvelino de Almeida, O Século (Lisbon) · 1917-10-15
The best-known newspaper report of the day, by a reporter from a Lisbon daily: the crowd, bare-headed, looking up as the sun trembled and made sudden movements, ‘danced’ in the peasants' phrase.
“the sun trembled, the sun had never seen sudden movements against all cosmic laws - the sun "danced", according to the typical expression of the peasants.” source
English excerpt quoted on the Shrine's site, citing Documentação Crítica de Fátima vol. III (2002), p. 241. The headline is as cited in secondary sources; the original page was not opened.
PRESSAvelino de Almeida, Ilustração Portugueza (weekly edition of O Século) · 1917-10-29
Almeida's illustrated follow-up: photographs of the crowd kneeling and looking at the sky, and his letter estimating some fifty thousand present. He leaves it to science and the Church to say whether it was a miracle.
Full issue scanned by the Hemeroteca Digital, Lisbon City Council. In Portuguese; the Fátima pages are around pp. 353–356.
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Analysis
Our own reading of the file, written from the sources on the other sheets. Opinion is marked as such.
What is checkable, and confirmed: a very large crowd gathered at the Cova da Iria on 13 October 1917, a reporter from Lisbon's O Século was there, and he published what he and others saw. His paper's weekly printed photographs of the crowd two weeks later. The numbers differ: the Shrine gives 50,000 to 70,000, while Almeida's own letter in the weekly speaks of some fifty thousand.
What is not checkable is what the sun did. The photographs printed in the weekly are captioned as the crowd kneeling and looking up. Accounts vary from a trembling, spinning sun to nothing unusual at all. A physicist who stared at the sun himself saw the first stage, a grey disc with a bright rim; he explains the colours and the ‘dance’ as after-images and after-effects, and lists similar reports from other apparition sites from 1901 to 1983.
Our label is Confirmed, and it covers only the event as a recorded public happening. Whether the sign came from God is a matter of faith, which this archive does not stamp true or false. The Church itself, in 1930, declared the visions worthy of belief; Meessen notes that such a recognition means a supernatural origin is considered credible, and that Catholics are not obliged to believe it.
What it shows
That a crowd of tens of thousands gathered at the Cova da Iria on 13 October 1917, as reported by the press and recorded by the Shrine.
That a reporter for O Século, a Lisbon daily, published an account of the sun appearing to tremble and ‘dance’, and that its weekly printed photographs of the crowd.
That the Bishop of Leiria declared the children's visions worthy of belief on 13 October 1930.
What it doesn't prove
That the sun physically moved. Many present saw nothing unusual, and the physicist who studied the reports excludes an astronomical cause.
That everyone saw the same thing. Accounts range from colours and spinning to a sun falling towards the crowd, to nothing at all.
Anything about the faith claim. Whether the apparitions were real is a matter of belief; the archive labels only what can be checked.
The other side
The strongest argument against reducing the day to optics: the effects were reported by a large crowd at the same moment, on a day and at a place announced in advance. There are also reports of the same phenomena seen about 5 km and even more than 40 km from the Cova da Iria. Meessen himself records them and notes that they were cited precisely because they would exclude mass suggestion.
The promised sign. In Lúcia's account the Lady had said in September that in October she would perform a miracle so that all may believe. [fatima-narrative]
An astronomical or weather cause is excluded; the grey disc, colours and ‘dance’ arise in the eyes and brain of people staring at the sun, through after-images and after-effects. [meessen-2003]
Reports varied: some saw the sun spin or zigzag, thousands saw nothing unusual. The claim of something extraordinary falls far short of the burden of proof. [radford-2019]
The witnesses
Tens of thousands present, and a Lisbon daily reporting that the sun ‘danced’ before them. [o-seculo-1917]
Similar ‘miracles of the sun’ were reported with the same features at other sites, from Tilly-sur-Seulles (1901) to Kibeho (1983): a common mechanism. [meessen-2003]
Some 70,000 came, many fully expecting a great miracle (Nickell, quoted by Radford); strong elements of mass suggestion, though ‘mass delusion’ goes too far. [radford-2019]
What followed
In 1930 the Bishop of Leiria declared the visions worthy of belief, after a diocesan canonical process. [fatima-chronology]
A Church recognition means only that a supernatural origin is humanly credible and a cult is permitted; Catholics are not obliged to believe. [meessen-2003]
Later stories, such as the soaked crowd drying instantly, seem to have arisen afterwards in classic folkloric fashion. [radford-2019]
Open questions
How many people were really present? Estimates in the record range from about fifty to seventy thousand, and none was counted.
Were the same effects seen far from the Cova da Iria? Meessen mentions reports from 5 km and more than 40 km away; we have not traced the original testimonies.
Other analyses
COMMENTARYAuguste Meessen, Institute of Physics, Catholic University of Louvain · 2003-10
A physicist compares ‘miracles of the sun’ at Fátima and a dozen other sites, rejects astronomical and UFO explanations, and explains the grey disc, colours and ‘dance’ as retinal after-images and brain after-effects, tested in part on himself.
“An astronomic or purely meteorological explanation is excluded for physical reasons” source
Paper given at the International Forum in Porto, 23–25 October 2003; published in Consciências 2 (2005), pp. 199–222. PDF on the author's own site.
Sceptical reply to a reader: accounts of the sun varied and thousands saw nothing unusual, the photographs show little sign of heavy rain, and the drying-miracle stories seem to have grown afterwards.
“The burden of proof is on those claiming that something unusual happened that day, and in this case, it falls far short.” source
TO VERIFY Candidates, not yet checked
The original O Século page of 15 October 1917 (Biblioteca Nacional or Hemeroteca): not opened; quoted here via the Shrine's site.
Joe Nickell, ‘The Real Secrets of Fatima’, Skeptical Inquirer 33(6), Nov/Dec 2009 (skepticalinquirer.org/2009/11/the-real-secrets-of-fatima/): page opened, but the article text is not on it.
S. Campbell, ‘The miracle of the sun at Fatima’, Journal of Meteorology 14 (1988), cited by Meessen: not opened.
The name of the photographer of the Ilustração Portugueza pictures (often given as Judah Ruah): not confirmed from a source opened here.
Found, but not linked to a source we trust. Not on the sheets until they are.
