We stood where people saw the sun dance

Today is October 13th, 2025 and this picture was taken 18 days ago in Fatima, Portugal. Where we are standing is where 70,000 rain drenched people stood 108 years ago. They were expecting a miracle and boy, did they get one.

We are up near the top of the parking lot that was once a green pasture. Down in the background on the left, in front of the superimposed image of a statue of the Blessed Mother is a pavilion. That pavilion wasn't there in 1917. All that was there was green grass and a holm oak tree.

Beneath that tree were 3 children kneeling. Lucia- 10 years old, Francisco- 9 and Jacinta -7. They were having a conversation with a lady that only they saw.

It's an incredible story, I know.

All of a sudden, Lucia pointed to the sky and began yelling "look at the sun! look at the sun!"

Actual photograph

From Wikipedia:

De Marchi accounts

Location of Fátima

Descriptions of the events reported at Fátima were collected by Father John De Marchi, an Italian Catholic priest and researcher. De Marchi spent seven years in Fátima, from 1943 to 1950, conducting research and interviewing the principals at length.^[22] In The Immaculate Heart (1952), De Marchi reported that, "[t]heir ranks (those present on 13 October) included believers and non-believers, pious old ladies and scoffing young men. Hundreds, from these mixed categories, have given formal testimony. Reports do vary; impressions are in minor details confused, but none to our knowledge has directly denied the visible prodigy of the sun."^[23]

De Marchi authored several books on the subject, such as The True Story of Fátima. They include a number of witness descriptions:

• "The sun, at one moment surrounded with scarlet flame, at another aureoled in yellow and deep purple, seemed to be in an exceedingly swift and whirling movement, at times appearing to be loosened from the sky and to be approaching the earth, strongly radiating heat." —  Domingos Pinto Coelho, writing for the Catholic newspaper Ordem.^[24]

• "The silver sun, enveloped in the same gauzy grey light, was seen to whirl and turn in the circle of broken clouds [.. The light turned a beautiful blue, as if it had come through the stained-glass windows of a cathedral, and spread itself over the people who knelt with outstretched hands [...] people wept and prayed with uncovered heads, in the presence of a miracle they had awaited. The seconds seemed like hours, so vivid were they." —  Reporter for the Lisbon newspaper O Dia.^[23]

• "The sun's disc did not remain immobile. This was not the sparkling of a heavenly body, for it spun round on itself in a mad whirl when suddenly a clamor was heard from all the people. The sun, whirling, seemed to loosen itself from the firmament and advance threateningly upon the earth as if to crush us with its huge fiery weight. The sensation during those moments was terrible." —  De Marchi attributes this description to Almeida Garrett, Professor of Natural Sciences at Coimbra University.^[25] Theologian Father Stanley L. Jaki wrote that it was actually given by José Almeida Garrett, a young lawyer, and is often mistakenly attributed to his father, a professor of natural sciences at the University of Coimbra,^[26] named Gonçalo de Almeida Garrett.^[27]

• "As if like a bolt from the blue, the clouds were wrenched apart, and the sun at its zenith appeared in all its splendor. It began to revolve vertiginously on its axis, like the most magnificent firewheel that could be imagined, taking on all the colors of the rainbow and sending forth multicolored 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." —  Manuel Nunes Formigão, a professor at the seminary at Santarém, and a priest.^[25]

• "I feel incapable of describing what I saw. 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 zig-zag, 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." —  Rev. Joaquim Lourenço, describing his boyhood experience in Alburitel, 18 kilometres (11 mi) from Fátima.^[28]

• "On that day of October 13, 1917, without remembering the predictions of the children, I was enchanted by a remarkable spectacle in the sky of a kind I had never seen before. I saw it from this veranda" —  Portuguese poet Afonso Lopes Vieira.^[29]

De Marchi also drew on the newspaper account written by Avelino de Almeida, a journalist sent by the newspaper O Século, who described in detail the reactions of the crowd.^[30]

As I reflect on life's turmoil and challenges, I will remember that miracles happen and I stood in the very place of one of the biggest in world history.