An account of the deception of an appearance of Mary in Fatima, Portugal 1917

FATIMA A TRUE STORY
October 13th of 1917
Silence silence, Our Lady is coming," Lucia cried out as she saw the flash. The rain having ceased, the sun began gradually to appear, and Our Lady came. Her snow white feet rested upon the beautiful flowers and ribbons with which Senhora da Capelinha had adorned the tree. The faces of the three children assumed an unworldly expression, their features becoming more delicate, their color mellow, their eyes intent upon the Lady. They did not hear Lucia's
mother warning her to look closely so as not to be deceived. " What do you want of me?" Lucia inquired of the Queen of Heaven. " I want to tell you that they must build a chapel here in my honor; that I am the Lady of the Rosary; that they continue to say the Rosary every day. The war will end and the soldiers will return to their homes soon," Our Lady responded.
" I have many favors to ask. Do you wish to grant them or not?"
" Some I will! Others I will not! They must mend their lives, ask forgiveness for their sins.
Offend not Our Lord any more,"
Our Lady continued, her face becoming very grave,

"For He is already much offended."
Lucia, knowing this was to be the last interview with Our Lady, wanted to make sure that she received all the commands Mary wished to give her. She hoped to spend the rest of her life on earth fulfilling the desires of Our Lady. "Do you want anything else from me?" the girl asked."I desire nothing else."As Our Lady took leave of the children, she opened her hands which emitted a flood of light. While she was rising, she pointed towards the sun and the light gleaming from her hands brightened the sun itself.
" There she goes; there she goes!"
shouted Lucia, without for a moment taking her eyes from the beautiful Queen of Heaven...., the countless thousands of people were amazed and over-powered by other miracles in the skies. the sun had taken on an extraordinary color. The words of eye-witnesses best describe these stupendous signs.
" We could look at the sun with ease,"
Ti Marto testified; it did not bother at all. It seemed to be continually fading and
glowing in one fashion, then another. It threw shafts of light one way and another painting everything in different colors, the people, the trees, the earth, even the air. But the greatest proof of the miracle was the fact that the sun did not bother the eyes."
A man like Ti Marto who spent all of his days in the open fields with his flocks and tended his garden under the sun of the Portuguese hills, marveled at this Fact. " Every body stood still and quiet, gazing at the sun," he went on. " At a certain point, the sun stopped its play of light and then started dancing. It stopped once more and again started dancing until it seemed to loosen itself from the skies and fall upon the people. It was a moment of terrible suspense."...., " The sun cast different colors, yellow, blue, and white. It tremble constantly. It looked like a revolving ball of fire falling upon the people." As the sun hurled itself towards the earth in a mighty zigzag motion, the multitude cried out in terror, " Ai Jesus, we are all going to die here; Ai Jesus, we are all going to die here." Some begged for mercy,
"Our Lady save us"
many others made acts of contrition. One Lady was even confessing her sins aloud. At last the sun swerved back to its orbit and rested in the sky. " Everyone gave a sigh of relief; we were still alive, and the miracle promised by the children had come to pass."
Many thousands of people in the cova da Iria and in neighboring villages witnessed the overwhelming signs. Their reports are of intense interest. There are slight variations in their descriptions of the events, though all agreed it was the most tremendous, the most awe-inspiring sight they ever witnessed. Some idea can be had of its effect on the people by reading the newspaper accounts of the day.
"At one o'clock, the hour of the sun, the rain stopped, "O Dia" reported.
" The sky had a certain grayish tint of pearl and a strange clearness filled the gloomy landscape, every moment getting gloomier. The sun seemed to be veiled with transparent gauze to enable us to look at it without difficulty. The grayish tint of mother-of-pearl began changing as if into a shining silver disc, that was growing slowly until it broke through the clouds. And the silver sun, still shrouded in the same grayish lightness of gauze, was seen to rotate and wander within the circle of the receded clouds! The people cried out with one voice, the thousands of the creatures of God whom faith raised up to Heaven, fell to their knees upon the muddy ground. " Then as if it were shining the stained glass windows of a great cathedral, the light became a rare blue, spreading its rays upon the gigantic nave...Slowly the blue faded away and now the light seemed to be filtered through yellow stained glass. Yellow spots were falling now upon the white kerchiefs and the dark poor skirts of coarse wool. They were spots which repeated themselves indefinitely over the lowly holmoaks, the rocks and the hills. All the people were weeping and praying bareheaded, weighed down by the greatness of the miracle expected. These were seconds, moments that seemed hours; they were so fully lived."
"O Seculo", another newspaper of Lisbon.
Carried a more detailed account of the extraordinary events.
"From the height of the road where the people parked their carriages and where many hundreds stood, afraid to brave the muddy soil, we saw the immense multitude turn towards the sun at its highest, free of all clouds. The sun called to mind a plate of dull silver. It could be stared at without the least effort. It did not burn or blind. It seemed that an eclipse was taking place. All of a sudden a tremendous shout burst forth, 'Miracle, miracle! Marvel, marvel! "before the astonished eyes of the people, whose attitude carried us back to biblical times, and who, white with terror, heads uncovered gazed at the blue sky, the sun trembled and made some brusque unheard-of movements beyond all cosmic laws; the sun danced, in the typical expression of the peasants.
"On the running board of the bus from Torres Novas, an old man whose stature and gentle, manly features recall of Paul Deroulede, turned toward the sun and recite the Credo in a loud voice. ...I saw him later addressing those about him who still kept their hats on, begging them vehemently to take their hats off before this overwhelming demonstration of the existence of God. Similar scenes were repeated at other places. A Lady, bathed in tears and almost choking with grief, sobbed, 'How pitiful! There are men who still do not bare their heads before such a stupendous miracle!'
"Immediately afterwards the people asked each other if they saw anything and what they had seen. The greatest number avowed that they saw the sun trembling and dancing; others declared that they saw the smiling face of the Blessed Virgin herself; they swore that the sun turned around on itself as if it were a wheel of fireworks and had fallen almost to the point of burning the earth with its rays. Some said they saw it change colors successively."
The testimony of another witness, Dr. almeida Garret, professor at the University of Coimbra, is most informative and corroborates the others,
"As I waited",He said,"with cool and serene expectation, looking upon the place of the apparitions and with curiosity that was fading because the hour was passing away so slowly without anything to arouse my attention, I heard the rustle of thousands of voices. I saw the people stretched out over the large field turn about from the point upon which their desires and anxietes had covered so far to the opposite side and they looked up to the skies. It was almost two o'clock wartime or about noon, sun time. The sun had broken jubilantly through the thick layer of clouds just a few moments before. It was shining clearly and intensely. I turned to this magnet that drawing all eyes. It looked to me as a luminous and brilliant disc, with a bright well-defined rim. It did not hurt the eyes. The comparison (which I heard while still at Fatima) with a disc of dull silver, did not seem right to me. The color was brighter, far more active and richer than dull silver, with the tinted luster of the orient of a pearl. "Nor did it resemble the moon on a clear night. Everyone saw and felt that it was a body with life. It was not spherical like the moon, neither did it have an equal tonality of color. It looked like a small, brightly polished wheel of iridescent mother-of-pearl. It could not be taken for the sun as though seen through fog. There was no fog at that time.(The rain and the fog had stopped.) The sun was not opaque, veiled or diffused. It gave light and heat and was brightly outlined by a beveled rim. The sky was banked with light clouds, patched with blue here and there. Sometimes the sun stood out alone in rifts of clear sky. The clouds scuttled along from west to east without dimming the sun. They gave the impression of passing behind it, while the white puffs gliding sometimes in front of the sun seemed to take on the color of rose or a delicate blue." It was a wonder that all this time it was possible for us to look at the sun, a blaze of light and burning heat, without any pain to the eyes or blinding of the retina. This phenomenon must have lasted about ten minutes, except for two interruptions when the sun dated forth its more refulgent, lightning-like rays, that forced us to look away. The sun had a eccentricity of movement. It was not the scintillation of a celestial body at its highest power. It was rotating upon itself with exceedingly great speed. Suddenly, the people broke out with a cry of extreme anguish. The sun, still rotating, had unloosened itself from the skies and came hurtling towards the earth. This huge, fiery millstone threatened to crush us with its weight. It was a dreadful sensation. During this solar occurrence, the air took on successively different colors. While looking at the sun, I noticed that everything around me darkened. I looked at what was nearby and cast my eyes away towards the horizon. Everything had color of an amethyst; the sky, the air, everything and everybody. A little oak nearby was casting a heavy purple shade on the ground. Fearing impairment of the retina, which was improbable, because then I would not have seen everything in purple, I turned about , closed my eyes, cupping my hands over them, to cut of all light. With my back turned, I opened my eyes and realized that the landscape and the air retained the purple hue. This did not give the impression of being an eclipse. While still looking at the sun, I noticed that the air had cleared and I heard a peasant nearby say, 'This Lady looks yellow.' As a matter of fact, everything far and near had changed now. People seemed to have jaundice. I smiled when saw everybody looking disfigured and ugly. My hand had the same color..."
The testimony of this learned man demonstrates how difficult it is to describe adequately the marvelous signs that occurred in the skies on this day. October the thirteenth, 1917, was a day to remember for all the people who witnessed these events.....There is no possibility of error or illusion when close to a hundred thousand people concur in their testimony. God in Heaven had called the people of the world to join with the heavens in praying honor and glory to his Blessed Mother, Mary.

The Third Secret of Fatima

COMPLETE TRANSLATION OF ORIGINAL TEXT
VATICAN CITY, JUN 26, 2000 (VIS) - Given below is the complete translation of the original Portuguese text of the third part of the secret of Fatima, revealed to the three shepherd children at Cova da Iria-Fatima on July 13, 1917, and committed to paper by Sr. Lucia on January 3, 1944:

"I write in obedience to you, my God, who command me to do so through his Excellency the Bishop of Leiria and through your Most Holy Mother and mine.

"After the two parts which I have already explained, at the left of Our Lady and a little above, we saw an Angel with a flaming sword in his left hand; flashing, it gave out flames that looked as though they would set the world on fire; but they died out in contact with the splendor that Our Lady radiated towards him from her right hand: pointing to the earth with his right hand, the Angel cried out in a loud voice: 'Penance, Penance, Penance!'. And we saw in an immense light that is God: 'something similar to how people appear in a mirror when they pass in front of it' a Bishop dressed in White 'we had the impression that it was the Holy Father'. Other Bishops, Priests, men and women Religious going up a steep mountain, at the top of which there was a big Cross of rough-hewn trunks as of a cork-tree with the bark; before reaching there the Holy Father passed through a big city half in ruins and half trembling with halting step, afflicted with pain and sorrow, he prayed for the souls of the corpses he met on his way; having reached the top of the mountain, on his knees at the foot of the big Cross he was killed by a group of soldiers who fired bullets and arrows at him, and in the same way there died one after another the other Bishops, Priests, men and women Religious, and various lay people of different ranks and positions. Beneath the two arms of the Cross there were two Angels each with a crystal aspersorium in his hand, in which they gathered up the blood of the Martyrs and with it sprinkled the souls that were making their way to God."
.../THIRD SECRET/... VIS 000626 (380)