The case of the Miracle of the Sun amazed and terrified tens of thousands of spectators in Portugal, 1917. The eyewitness accounts are well-documented by photographers and journalists, and describe a completely mobile Sun swirling through the midday sky.

“Paranormal activity” was an unfamiliar phrase to the villagers in Fatima, but every soul present at the event left with a permanent impression of another world.

Three Children

Three shepherd children had reportedly seen a Marian Apparition – a visit from the Virgin Mary – who promised to return to Portugal and perform a miracle in October of 1917.

Decades before digital cameras and social media sharing, reporters, priests, professors, and citizens alike gathered to witness “O Milagro del Sol.”

On whose authority did such a throng congregate?

It is true that children are inherently closer to the paranormal, a fact that the Fatima population understood and respected.

The villagers treated the three little prophets like royalty on that Sunday in October. Incidentally, the crowd’s respect for the paranormal may have been why the Other World decided to grace the earthlings with a Miracle of the Sun.

The Day of The Sun

On the fated day, an estimated thirty thousand people gathered around the three children. The number seems big in 2016, and could rival any contemporary concert or rally.

In 1917, that number was unheard of. The crowd was somber and expectant as they followed the children’s orders that afternoon.

Lucia and her cousin wore flower crowns in their hair, and the men carried them to an open clearing, followed by the swarm of believers.

One photo of the event shows countless umbrellas covering people’s heads as far as the eye can see. Lucia reportedly commanded the crowd to shut their umbrellas.

The paranormal event that followed would come to be described as The Miracle of the Sun.

The Unexplained

Sunday, October 13th is now consecrated in history as a physically unexplainable event. Those who trust in the paranormal, of course, are more interested than shocked by the Miracle of the Sun.

So what actually happened at high noon on that fateful Sunday?

Some witnesses interpreted the event as a confirmation of their Catholic beliefs. Italian Catholic Priest John De Marchi recorded eyewitness accounts of the Miracle.

His document, still accessible to armchair researchers today, reports that most people found the Sun to be a manifestation of God’s terrible power.

YouTube’s archives shows photographs taken on that day in 1917 by the emerging field of photojournalists.

Dozens of people are captured on film staring up into the sky, paralyzed by the same vision. Keep in mind that it was not the norm in 1917 to tell people to say “Cheese!”

No, the reactions to the miracle in Fatima are organic. Each face in the crowd is focused so deeply upon the apparition because, as eyewitness accounts prove, the thing in the sky was no longer our stationary Sun, but something far more menacing.

One professor of natural science in attendance described the Sun as swirling in the sky, and deemed it a fiery force ready to “advance threateningly upon the earth.”

The professor was not the only one in the crowd to describe the event as a spinning Sun. The parallel eyewitness accounts of the outrageous solar activity explains the name of the event, “Miracle of the Sun.”

The Witnesses

The most outstanding aspect of the Miracle of the Sun is the sheer number of people who testify to its occurrence.

The Miracle was further validated by the Roman Catholic church, who declared the event an official miracle in 1930. It is not often that paranormal activities are consecrated by a Church.

Of course, because most viewers saw the event as a miracle meant for Catholic eyes, the paranormal piece of the puzzle is replaced with religious interpretation.

It was not the first time a bizarre event was interpreted with religious fervor.

Regardless of what caused the apparition, it is important to note that the throng of people shared a common belief that the event would happen.

Their treatment of the three children was one of reverence and awe, evidence that sometimes the paranormal and the physical can interact peacefully.

The population of Fatima trusted in the voice of three children to lead them to the Miracle of the Sun.

Perhaps the peoples’ honest belief in some sort of paranormal force is what ultimately allowed the Miracle of the Sun to occur.

The Universe is here to impress us with its terrifying abnormalities, if we trust ourselves to believe in its miracles.