Episode 381: Miracle at Fatima: Miracle or Mass Hallucination?

We get all supernatural on this episode of the world famous Sofa King Podcast, and we talk about the largest apparition in Catholic history, the Miracle of Fatima, which some 70,000 people witnessed. The place was Portugal, and the year was 1917. The children of three shepherds in the area were bringing their sheep home, and lo and behold, they ran into the Angel of Peace. He met with them several times and told him that the Virgin was going to show up on the 13th of the month for several months. When the kids told their parents, word got around, and the next thing you know, a media circus was erupting and pilgrims were coming to try and bottle a miracle.

The Virgin came several times as promised, all as a precursor so the Miracle of Fatima. She told the children three secrets which were to be revealed only at the proper time, later in life. And finally, on October 13th, she came back again one last time. But this time, the three kids weren’t alone; indeed, they had tens of thousands of people with them.

After revealing when World War I would end, the told the kids to look to the sky. The kids told the crowd, and then as the rains suddenly stopped, and the skies parted, the Miracle of Fatima happened. Also called the Miracle of the Sun, the crowd watched in awe as the sun did amazing things. It changed colors, it fired beams of color into the crowd, and it even loomed closer to earth, dominating the horizon and zigging around the sky.

Everyone from the most devout to the most skeptic was there to bear witness. Oddly, some skeptics saw the miracle while some with faith did not. Even more odd, a bunch of psychics fro the area predicted this and published their predictions in the newspaper as proof. So what does all of this mean? What was really behind this miracle that is hard to dismiss since so many people saw it? Was it a meteorological phenomenon as some say? Was it an alien vessel? Was it truly a miracle? Was it the largest case of mass suggestion ever recorded?

The children are all canonized, and the story is considered legit by the Vatican, but what really happened? Listen in and you decide.