Friday the 13th, October 1917 - The Day the Sky Lost Its Mind
Portugal, 1917. The country is officially atheist after the 1910 revolution. Churches have been looted, priests exiled, nuns raped in the streets. The government and the press despise religion with a passion. Three illiterate shepherd children - Lúcia dos Santos (10), Francisco Marto (9), and Jacinta Marto (7) - have been claiming since May that a beautiful Lady brighter than the Sun appears to them on the 13th of every month at Cova da Iria.
By October the story is national news. The biggest anti-clerical newspaper, O Século, sends star reporter Avelino de Almeida to watch the "superstitious circus" and bury the Church once and for all. It has rained nonstop for 36 hours. The ground is a swamp. Between 70,000 and 100,000 people (estimates vary) have walked for days through mud to get there. Many are knee-deep in water. Umbrellas are everywhere with people sheltering from the weather under them.
Then at 11:58 a.m... The children fall to their knees. Lúcia shouts, "Look at the Sun!". The rain stops instantly. The clouds tear open like stage curtains. And the Sun begins the most documented impossible performance in history.
Twelve Minutes That Broke Reality - Exact Sequence Reported by Every Witness
The Sun turns into a dull silver disk that can be stared at directly without pain. It begins spinning violently on its axis, throwing off beams of red, blue, green, yellow, violet light that paint the landscape like a kaleidoscope. It zig-zags left and right, up and down, defying gravity. It suddenly detaches from its normal position and plunges in a zigzag toward the Earth. People scream "We are going to die!" and confess sins aloud. The temperature spikes, peoples soaked clothes and ankle-deep mud dry completely in under two minutes.
Duration: exactly 10 to 12 minutes. Visible up to 40 km away. Astronomical observatories in Lisbon and elsewhere recorded nothing unusual in the actual Sun.
Front-Page Confessions From Newspapers That Came to Mock
O Século - 15 October 1917 (exact headline: "Coisas espantosas! Como o sol bailou ao meio-dia em Fátima"):
"The Sun trembled, made sudden incredible movements outside all cosmic laws - the Sun 'danced' according to the typical expression of the people... One could see the immense crowd turn toward the Sun, which appeared at its zenith, free of clouds. The Sun resembled a plate of dull silver and it was possible to look at it without the least discomfort. It did not burn the eyes... Then a tremendous cry arose and people shouted 'Miracle!'... The Sun suddenly seemed to loosen itself from the firmament and, blood-red, advance menacingly upon the earth, threatening to crush us with its fiery weight. The sensation during those moments was truly terrible." Avelino de Almeida, O Século, 15 Oct 1917
O Dia, Diário de Notícias, O Mundo, and every major paper ran identical accounts the next day. The anti-religious press had zero choice.
Photographic & Physical Evidence Still Existing Today
- Multiple photographs exist of the crowd staring upward with arms outstretched (published in 1917 newspapers).
- The ground and clothes dried so fast that witnesses reported steam rising from their bodies.
- Thousands of documented healings occurred in the following weeks (blind, paralyzed, tuberculosis cases). The Medical Bureau of the Sanctuary has 70+ cases deemed "inexplicable" by modern standards.
The Three Secrets - Full Text and the 81-Year Cover-Up
First Secret - Vision of Hell (revealed 1941)
"Our Lady showed us a great sea of fire which seemed to be under the earth. Plunged in this fire we saw demons and souls in human form... amid shrieks and groans of pain and despair, which horrified us and made us tremble with fear... The demons could be distinguished by their terrifying and repellent likeness to frightful and unknown animals."
Second Secret - World War II Predicted to the Month (revealed 1941)
"The war is going to end [WWI]; but if people do not cease offending God, a worse one will break out during the Pontificate of Pius XI. When you see a night illumined by an unknown light, know that this is the great sign given you by God that he is about to punish the world... If my requests are heeded, Russia will be converted, and there will be peace; if not, she will spread her errors throughout the world, causing wars and persecutions..."
25-26 January 1938: the greatest aurora borealis in history lit up Europe, visible in Gibraltar. As a side note Adolf Hitler annexed Austria only six weeks later. Coincidence?
The Third Secret - The One the Vatican Still Guards Like Nuclear Launch Codes
Sister Lúcia wrote the Third Secret in January 1944 on four pages of notebook paper, sealed it, and wrote on the envelope: "By express order of Our Lady, this envelope can only be opened in 1960 by the Cardinal Patriarch of Lisbon or the Bishop of Leiria."
Timeline of the cover-up:
- Apr 1957 - Envelope arrives at the Vatican
- 1959 - John XXIII reads it, turns pale, reseals it: "This does not concern my pontificate."
- 17 Aug 1959 - Vatican press office: "The Secret will probably never be revealed."
- 1965 - Paul VI reads it, puts it back
- 1978 - John Paul I reads it on day 26 of his pontificate. Dies 33 days later.
- 13 May 1981 - Assassination attempt on John Paul II exactly 64 years to the day after the first apparition
- 13 May 1982 - John Paul II goes to Fátima, places the bullet in the crown of the statue
- 26 June 2000 - Vatican releases a four-page vision of a "bishop in white" being executed
Why Nobody Believes the 2000 Version Was Complete
- Sister Lúcia always said the Secret has two parts: the vision AND the words of the Virgin explaining it. Only the vision was published.
- Cardinal Ottaviani (1960): "The Secret is written on one sheet of paper." The 2000 text is 62 lines on four pages.
- Cardinal Ciappi, personal theologian to John Paul II: "In the Third Secret it is foretold that the great apostasy in the Church will begin at the top."
- Malachi Martin (read it in 1960): "Satan would enter the Church right to its summit."
- Archbishop Capovilla (John XXIII's secretary) admitted in 2006 there are two envelopes and two texts, then backtracked.
- Antonio Socci and Father Paul Kramer proved through Vatican diplomatic correspondence that the missing text is literally one page containing the words of Our Lady beginning "In Portugal the dogma of the faith will always be preserved etc."
- Pope Benedict XVI, 2010 on the plane to Fátima: "We would be mistaken to think that Fátima's prophetic mission is concluded."
As of November 2025, Pope Francis has been asked directly four times about releasing the full text. Every time he changes the subject. Why? Imagine the documents and information hidden away in the Vatican archives, we really should be getting access to them but we aren't. I wonder why that is.
Final Verdict
THE LARGEST MASS-WITNESSED SUPERNATURAL EVENT IN RECORDED HISTORY
100,000 people watched the Sun fall from the sky.
Their clothes dried in minutes.
Atheist reporters printed front-page confessions.
The greatest aurora in history announced World War II exactly as predicted.
And 81 years later the Vatican still refuses to release one page of text that multiple cardinals say warns of "apostasy that begins at the top."
Good luck explaining the Fatima Event with mass hallucination and swamp gas.