Our commentary

The Miracle of the Sun at Fátima: miracle, weather or UFO?

Our own look at a common question, by David Dell. The background on this page is ours, not a summary of the book.

On 13 October 1917, a crowd in the tens of thousands (estimates run from about 50,000 to 70,000) gathered in a field near Fátima, Portugal. They came because three shepherd children, Lúcia Santos and her cousins Francisco and Jacinta Marto, said the Virgin Mary had promised a miracle on that day “so that all may believe.” What many of them reported has been discussed ever since, and it has also become one of the most-cited cases in UFO literature. This page sets out what was reported and how Catholics, scientists and UFO researchers read it, with respect for each, and then gives our own view.

What witnesses reported

After a period of rain, the clouds parted. Many witnesses said the sun appeared as a dull, spinning disc that could be looked at directly, cast changing colors over the crowd and the landscape, then seemed to plunge toward the earth in a zig-zag before returning to its place. Some said their soaked clothes were suddenly dry. By these accounts it lasted about ten minutes. Not everyone saw the same thing: some saw only the colors, some said they saw the Virgin Mary, and some saw nothing unusual.

The reports came from believers and skeptics alike, including secular journalists; Avelino de Almeida of the Lisbon newspaper O Século described the crowd's reactions in detail. One account collected by the priest and researcher John De Marchi says the sun “seemed to loosen itself from the firmament and advance threateningly upon the earth as if to crush us with its huge fiery weight.”

One widely shared “photo of the miracle” isn't from Fátima. A picture published in 1951 was later found to show a different solar phenomenon in another Portuguese town, and the Catholic network EWTN acknowledges it isn't from the events of Fátima. According to the religion professor Lisa J. Schwebel, there is no authentic photograph of the solar phenomenon itself.

How the Catholic Church judged it

The local bishop opened a canonical investigation in November 1917. On 13 October 1930, Bishop José da Silva declared the events “worthy of belief” and permitted devotion to Our Lady of Fátima. Pope Pius XII later wrote that he had seen the same solar miracle from the Vatican gardens in 1950, and in 2017 Pope Francis canonized Francisco and Jacinta Marto. For many Catholics, Fátima remains a treasured sign and a call to prayer and repentance.

The scientific explanations

Scientists and skeptics have proposed natural explanations, usually while granting that the witnesses were sincere. As the skeptic Benjamin Radford put it, “No one suggests that those who reported seeing the Miracle of the Sun… are lying or hoaxing.” The main proposals:

• The eye itself. The physicist Auguste Meessen argued that after-images from looking at or near the sun can make it seem to dance and change color, and noted similar “sun miracles” at other pilgrimage sites.
• Clouds and light. The investigator Joe Nickell pointed to thin cloud making the sun look like a silver disc, shifting cloud density making it seem to advance and recede, moisture or dust coloring the light, and sundogs.
• Dust or ice in the air. Others have suggested stratospheric dust (Steuart Campbell, 1989) or dust from the Sahara (Paul Simons). In 2019 the Guardian reported the work of Artur Wirowski of Lodz University of Technology, who proposes that electrically charged ice crystals at high altitude could produce “sun dance” effects, and noted similar events filmed in Brazil, Colombia and Bosnia.

Critics also point out that nothing unusual was reported about the sun beyond the region, which they take as a sign of a local or perceptual cause. Supporters such as Father Pio Scatizzi answered that so many observers couldn't all have been deceived together, and that the effect wasn't seen at distant observatories because of divine intervention.

Why UFO researchers cite Fátima

UFO writers see features familiar from later sighting reports: a luminous spinning disc, a falling, zig-zag motion, colored light and heat. The fullest case was made by the Portuguese researchers Joaquim Fernandes and Fina d'Armada, whose study was first published in Portugal in 1995 and later in English as Heavenly Lights: The Apparitions of Fátima and the UFO Phenomenon, with a foreword by Jacques Vallée. They argue that the events were close encounters rather than a Marian apparition. Vallée's wider idea, that modern UFO reports echo older accounts of fairies and spirits, is covered in The interdimensional theory of UFOs.

Our view

This section is our own commentary. Fátima shows how a single event gets read through whatever frame the reader brings. Catholics see a sign from heaven; skeptics see the eye and the weather; ufologists see a craft. Christians outside the Catholic tradition often weigh Marian apparitions differently from Catholics, and that long-standing disagreement won't be settled on this page.

What Christians do share is the Bible's own account of signs in the sky. Scripture records the sun behaving strangely before, and says there will be signs in the sun again:

“And the sun stood still, and the moon stayed, until the people had avenged themselves upon their enemies. Is not this written in the book of Jasher? So the sun stood still in the midst of heaven, and hasted not to go down about a whole day.” Joshua 10:13 (KJV)

“And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring;” Luke 21:25 (KJV)

So believers don't have to rule out that God can act through the heavens. Nor are they asked to accept every reported sign on sight. The instruction for every claim, from every tradition, is the same:

“Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.” 1 John 4:1 (KJV)

“Prove all things; hold fast that which is good.” 1 Thessalonians 5:21 (KJV)

It's worth noticing what the UFO reading does: it takes an event the witnesses understood as spiritual and turns it into a story about technology. Whether that's insight or a category mistake is the question behind our pages on UFOs and spiritual deception and Are UFOs demons?. For the passages UFO writers quote from Scripture itself, see UFOs in the Bible? The verses people cite.

Sources: Joshua 10:13; Luke 21:25; 1 John 4:1; 1 Thessalonians 5:21 (KJV) · Miracle of the Sun · Our Lady of Fátima · Guardian, Weatherwatch (14 Oct 2019) · Heavenly Lights (Anomalist Books)