The Real Secrets of Fatima

INVESTIGATIVE FILES INVESTIGATIVE FILES The Lady Appears Thus began a pattern that was The reported visits of the Virgin Mary re peated each month during the spec- to Fatima occurred in a time of trou- ified period, although the children JOE NICKELL ble. After the fall of the Portuguese were absent on August 13 (having been monarchy in 1910, there came a wave detained by secular authorities who disbe- of anti-clerical sentiment and persecu- lieved their tale and held them briefly for tion, followed by various revolutionary questioning in the public jail at Ourém). conflicts and Portugal’s involvement in On July 13, the children claimed to have World War I. received a special revelation that the lady The Real On May 13, 1917, three shepherd forbade them to disclose. The apparition children were tending their flock about re mained invisible to the onlookers, but two miles west of Fatima in a town near some reported seeing a little cloud rise Secrets of Ourém. The children were Lucia Santos, from (or from behind) the tree, together age ten, and her two cousins, nine-year- with a movement of the tree’s branches old Francisco Marto and his seven-year- “as if in going away the Lady’s dress had Fatima old sister, Jacinta. A sudden flash of trailed over them” (Dacruz n.d.). lightning sent the children fleeing down When the period ended on a a slope, whereupon the two girls beheld stormy October 13, as many as sev- the dazzling apparition of a beautiful enty thousand people were gathered at lady, radiant in white light, standing the site anticipating the Virgin’s final among the holly-like leaves of a small visit, many anticipating a great mira- holm oak. cle. Again, the figure appeared only to mong the intriguing mysteries Lucia was the only one who talked the children. Identifying herself as “the of modern Catholicism are the with the figure, who promised to identify Lady of the Rosary,” she urged people to A “miracles” and “secrets” sup- herself at the end of a six-month period, repent and to build a chapel at the site. posedly imparted by the Virgin Mary during which time the children were to After predicting an end to the war and at Fa tima, Portugal, in 1917 (Oliveira return to the site on the thirteenth day giving the children certain undisclosed 1999). In addition to an allegedly mirac- of each month. The woman said that visions, the lady lifted her hands to the ulous “dance of the sun,” there were all three of them would go to heaven sky. Thereupon Lucia exclaimed, “The three major secrets, two of which were but that Francisco, who could not see sun!” As everyone gazed upward to see revealed at the time. The third and her, would have to recite many rosa- that a silvery disc had emerged from final one—kept in an envelope by the ries. When she instructed Lucia to have behind the clouds, they experienced Vatican—was not made public until Francisco say the rosary, the boy became what is known in the terminology of mid-2000, provoking much interest and able to see the apparition, but he was Marian apparitions as a “sun miracle” controversy. I was involved in the media still unable to hear her speak. After she (Arvey 1990, 69–71). debate over the release of the third secret, in structed the children to pray for an end Miracle of the Sun appearing on a documentary for the to the war, the lady vanished into the sky. History Channel series History’s Mysteries Even though the children had agreed This Fatima “miracle” has been described titled “Fatima: Secrets Unveiled” (which that they should keep the event secret, in many very different ways. Some aired January 4, 2001) as well as being once home, little Jacinta blurted out claim ed that the sun spun pinwheel-like interviewed for newspaper articles (e.g., to her parents that she had shared in a with colored streamers, while others Valpy 2000; Barss 2000). Here is my vision of the Virgin Mary. News quickly maintained that it danced. One reported, investigative take on the entire Fatima spread throughout the town, and when “I saw clearly and distinctly a globe of phenomenon. the children revisited the site on June light advancing from east to west, gliding 13, they were accompanied by some slowly and majestically through the air.” Joe Nickell, PhD, is the author of numer- fifty devout villagers. Kneeling in prayer To some, the sun seemed to be falling ous books, including Entities and Adven- at the oak, the children saw the woman toward the spectators. Still others, before tures in Paranormal Investigation. Visit glide down from heaven and take a posi- the “dance of the sun” occurred, saw his Web site at www.joenickell.com. tion amid the oak’s foliage (Arvey 1990, white petals shower down and disinte- 66; Rogo 1982, 221–223). grate before reaching the earth (Larue 14 Volume 33, Issue 6 Skeptical Inquirer 1990, 195–196; Arvey 1990, 70–71; have been reported at other Marian sites— written by Lucia in the convent [where Rogo 1982, 227, 230–232). at Lubbock, Texas, in 1989; Mother she later resided] between 1935 and Precisely what happened at Fatima has Cabrini Shrine near Denver, Colorado, 1941, many years after the series of been the subject of much controversy. in 1992; Conyers, Georgia, in the early experiences that constitute the appa- Church authorities made inquiries, col- to mid-1990s; and elsewhere, including rition event” (Zimdars-Swartz 1991, lected eyewitness testimony, and declared Thiruvananthapuram, India, in 2008. 68). Indeed, Lucia recorded her first the events worthy of belief as a miracle Tragically, at the Colorado and India sites, “prediction” of the children’s deaths in (Zimdars-Swartz 1991, 90). However, many people suffered eye damage (solar 1927—several years after the fact! people elsewhere in the world, viewing retinopathy)—in some instances, possi- As to the other predictions, they the very same sun, did not see the alleged bly permanent damage (Nickell 1993, were supposedly part of three secrets gyrations; neither did astronomical obser- 196–200; Sebastian 2008). that had been delivered to Lucia by the vatories detect the sun deviating from At the Conyers site, the Georgia apparition on July 13, 1917 (Gruner the norm (which would have had a Skeptics group set up a telescope outfit- 1997, 290–291). Lucia’s Third Memoir devastating effect on Earth!). Therefore, ted with a vision-protecting Mylar solar gave the first secret as a vision of hell. more tenable explanations for the reports filter, and on one occasion I participated The second was a statement that World include mass hysteria and local meteoro- in the experiment. Becky Long, president War I would end, “but if people do not logical phenomena such as a sundog (a parhelion or “mock sun”). On the other hand, several eyewit- nesses of the October 13, 1917, gath- ering at Fatima specifically stated they were looking “fixedly at the sun” or “tried to look straight at it” or otherwise made clear they were gazing directly at the actual sun (qtd. in Rogo 1982, 230, 231). If this is so, the “dancing sun” and other solar phenomena may have been due to optical effects resulting from temporary retinal distortion caused by staring at such an intense light or to the effect of darting the eyes to and fro to avoid fixed gazing (thus combining image, afterimage, and movement). Most likely, there was a combina- tion of factors, including optical effects and meteorological phenomena, such Photo by Joe Nickel Figure 1. At the Conyers, Georgia, Marian apparition site in 1994, skeptic Rebecca Long—using a as the sun being seen through thin telescope with a Mylar solar filter—looks in vain for a “sun miracle.” clouds, causing it to appear as a sil- ver disc. Other possibilities include an of the organization, stated that more than cease offending God, a worse one will alteration in the density of the passing two hundred people had viewed the sun break out during the pontificate of Pius clouds, causing the sun’s image to alter- through one of the solar filters and not XI” (who was pope from 1922 to 1939). nately brighten and dim and so seem to a single person saw anything unusual However, since the Third Memoir was advance and recede, and dust or mois- ture droplets in the atmosphere refract- (Long 1992, 3; see figure 1). penned in August 1941, the so-called predictions were actually written after the ing the sunlight and thus imparting The Secrets a variety of colors. The effects of sug- fact (Zimdars-Swartz 1991, 198–199). gestion were also likely involved, since Those who believe in the Fatima “mir- Before considering the important devout spectators had come to the site acle” also cite certain predictions the third secret of Fatima, and to fully fully expecting some miraculous event, ap parition allegedly made to Lucia, one comprehend the entire Fatima experi- had their gaze dramatically directed at being that Jacinta and Francisco would ence, we must look more closely at its the sun by the charismatic Lucia, and soon die. Both did soon succumb to central figure—not the Virgin Mary but excitedly discussed and compared their influenza: Francisco in 1919 and Jacinta Lucia de Jesus Santos. Born on March perceptions in a way almost certain to the following year. However, Zimdars- 22, 1907, to Antonio and Maria Rosa foster psychological contagion (Nickell Swartz observes, “much of what devo- Santos, Lucia was the youngest of seven 1993, 176–181).

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