October 13th: The Sun Miracle and Our Lady of the Rosary

On October 13, 1917, the Iria Grotto was soaked. It had been raining since dawn, yet tens of thousands of people (newspapers of the time spoke of up to seventy thousand) waited, standing in the mud, for what three children had announced: on that day, the Lady would perform a miracle “so that all may believe.” Lúcia, Francisco, and Jacinta could offer no guarantees. They had only the word of one who had been appearing to them since May.

“I am the Lady of the Rosary”

In previous apparitions, Our Lady had always asked for the same thing: that the rosary be prayed daily. In October, she finally revealed her name. According to Sister Lúcia’s account, she introduced herself as Our Lady of the Rosary He asked that a chapel be built there in her honor. He also asked that men amend their ways and no longer offend God, “who is already much offended.”

It is not a detail. The last word of Fátima is not a secret or a prophecy, but a name that refers to a prayer. The Rosary is the Scripture prayed: the mysteries of Christ’s life contemplated with Mary’s eyes. By identifying herself in this way, the Virgin sums up the entire message: returning to Christ through the simplest path, one that is within reach of any child.

The sun that “danced”

After the conversation with the shepherd children, the rain ceased and the clouds parted. Witnesses of all sorts described the sun spinning, changing colors, and appearing to rush down upon the earth. Among them was Avelino de Almeida, a journalist for the Lisbon daily newspaper. The 20th Centuryknown for his anti-clerical stance, published the account of what he had seen. Many noted afterwards that his clothes, soaked minutes before, were dry.

While the crowd looked at the sun, the three visionaries saw something else: the Holy Family, then Our Lady of Sorrows with the Lord, and finally Our Lady of Carmel. In a few moments, the vision passed through the joyful, sorrowful, and glorious mysteries of the Rosary. The miracle that the crowd saw in the sky was, for the children, the Rosary itself in images.

The enmity between Woman and the serpent

To understand why Fátima continues to challenge the Church more than a century later, one must return to the beginning of Scripture. Immediately after the fall, God tells the serpent: “I will put enmity between you and the Woman, between your offspring and hers” (Gen 3:15). Tradition has called this phrase “the promise of a Redeemer.” ProtoevangelhoIt is the first announcement of salvation. It runs throughout the Bible, up to the Apocalypse, where the “Woman clothed with the sun” appears again in struggle with the dragon (Ap 12).

Fátima fits into this line of events. In 1917, as the war devastated Europe and on the eve of revolutions that would mark the century, the Woman appeared once more as a sign in the sky, and the sign is literal: the sun. The weapons she offers are the same as always: prayer, penance, conversion. Nothing spectacular, except the confidence that these poor weapons triumph.

What does Fátima ask for today?

The Church has never compelled anyone to believe in private apparitions, and Fátima adds nothing to the Gospel. But, as the Catechism teaches, these revelations can help to live the Gospel more fully at a particular moment in history (CIC 67). October 13th is a good occasion to ask three simple questions:

• Do I pray the rosary, or has it become a casual devotion?
• “Who does Mary lead me from, and to whom does she guide me?”
• Do I live conversion as a daily thing, or as a past event?

October is the month of the Rosary. Perhaps the best way to celebrate the anniversary of the sun miracle is the most discreet: take up the rosary today and pray an additional mystery.

To deepen

In the book I will put enmity between you and the Woman: A Re-reading of the Message of Fátima, Fr. João Paulo Quelhas Domingues reads the apparitions in the light of Gen 3:15 and of the whole biblical tradition about the Woman, showing how the 1917 message is rooted in the heart of Revelation. Until October 13, the book is 20% off with the coupon FATIMA20 — click here to secure yours.