On Oct. 13, 1917, something extraordinary happened in the sky over Fatima, Portugal. The children had been told by a Marian apparition that something would take place on that day, and over 30k people gathered to see what would happen. There were peasants, doctors, scientists, reporters and photographers. Many came who believed and wanted to see the sign, and many came who did not and wanted to see the embarrassing conclusion. All present saw what happened that day. This event became known as The Miracle Of The Sun: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rBIs8cuIwTo
Paul Glynn recounts the following in his book, Healing Fire of Christ: Reflections on Modern Miracles — Knock, Lourdes, Fatima:
One youth, who was to become Father Ignatius Pererira, sat in a village school about six miles away from Fatima. His teacher rushed out of the their classroom, followed by the pupils, when a roar went up from villagers outside the school. They stood transfixed, gaping at the antics of the sun, and most became terrified when it zigzagged and came plummeting down. He remembered one unbeliever who had earlier been jeering at the people going off to Fatima. He wrote, “Now he stood there as if paralyzed, stunned, staring at the heavens. I then saw him shake from head to foot, raise his hands to heaven and fall on his knees in the mud cry ing, ‘Holy Vrigin, Holy Virgin’.” This testimony appeared in Professor G. da Forseca’s 1943 book about Fatima
Joaquim Lourenco, who later became a priest and a canon lawyer in the diocese of Leiria, was a pupil at the same school He witnessed the sun spectacle with Pereira, their teacher and the whole school. He and Pereira are featured in John Haffert’s book Meet the Witnesses, two of the two hundred witnesses personally interviewed by Haffert in the course of his research. (213)
One retorted that it was obviously a case of crowd hysteria and mass hallucination. However, Formigao pointed out that no one had been expecting a solar miracle; no one was even thinking about it. He was soon able to quote people in distant villages who saw the phenomenon independently of any links with the crowd. A number of these would eventually testify in print. A well-known Portuguese author, the Marquis de Cruz, published The Virgin of Fatima in 1937. He first quoted eye-witnesses who were at Fatima on October 13… Then he quoted “the brilliant poet Alfonso Lopes Viera”, with whom he visited the evening of October 30, 1935, on the balcony of the poet’s home in San Pedro der Muel, thirty miles from Fatima. “On October 13, 1917, I had forgotten about the prediction of the three shepherd children when I was surprised and charmed by a spectacle in the skies”, Viera told de Cruz. “It was truly astounding, and I’ve never so much as heard of anything similar to what I watched from this balcony.” (214)
…and so on. There’s more, but that should suffice to demonstrate that something did happen in the sky that was visible not only from within the crowd but also for many miles around. If you want more info, I suppose you could either grab that book or start tracking down the accounts I’ve reprinted here.
It’s important to remember as well that there was a miracle predicted for noon, but it was never said it would involve the sun or be in the sky, so nobody would have had a reason to be watching for it who was not present in the crowd when the word went out saying, “Look at the sun!” Also, the miracle happened at 1:30, but Portugal turned the clocks an hour forward on account of the war by an hour and a half, so it did occur at proper (solar) noon even though it was late by people’s watches.
Catholic Bricks 