Ana Maria da Câmara

I cannot find words to describe what happened. I had to struggle with difficulties of every kind to go to Fátima, but I managed it and I thank God for it.

The site of the Apparitions is in the middle of the heath, and the landscape is as Portuguese as can be.

We arrived towards 10 o'clock⁷, under torrential rain that soaked us to the bone. The crowd was astounding. The newspapers speak of 50:000 people; I do not doubt there were more. There was no ill humour noticeable about the weather; not a bad word was heard. People were praying aloud and singing. [2v] Towards 1 o'clock I went down from the road into the field and stood close to the very rough little altar set up at the place of the apparition, but I never managed to see the little girls. As soon as they arrived they ordered the umbrellas to be closed, and at once the rain stopped and the sun, the everyday sun, broke through the grey veil that had overcast the sky all morning. We stayed praying. I ask the time. Someone answers me: “It's a little past half past 1”. So we are right at solar noon. A few minutes later I hear something like a gigantic sigh and someone says to me: “Look at the sun”. At first I noticed nothing, but seconds later I see it as if it were the moon, [3] of a very pale silvery blue colour; from then on the sun is tinged green, purple, yellow, blue, but it always remains devoid of rays. It throws off far away rolls, so to speak, of smoke of the colour it is showing, but the shape of the disc is perfect and that disc spins in a dizzying way, and at a certain point the sun came down. Later it shows itself further to the right and then further to the left, or vice versa. At one moment the disc takes on a vivid rose colour; behind each hill there rises something like a veil of the same colour. Fields and crowd, everything reflects it.

There are no words to describe such splendour. I have thought a great deal [3v] about the words of the Church: “Who is she that cometh forth as the morning rising?” And the people? The people weep, shout, implore Our Lady and Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament. There is a mixture of confidence, joy and fear. I feel, like everyone, that we are in the very midst of the supernatural, and I can only say like the others: “Our Lady, help us”. I do not know how long it lasted, but I heard 4 minutes mentioned. It seemed to me much longer.

[…]

At the moment when the sun came down, the clamour of the crowd was much greater; so everyone saw at the same time, and near me a man was exclaiming in terror: "Most H^y Virgin, help us, for we are all dying here. Forgive our sins!"

In the field at Fátima, about 1 o'clock. It is raining torrentially, which does not manage to put out the groups near me. The rosary, the litany and the Crown of the Immaculate Conception are prayed. Acquaintances and strangers join their prayers.

Some time later the rain stops and the sun, the everyday sun, makes its appearance....

It is a few minutes past half past 1. I feel my heart slightly oppressed. I begin the Rosary again, and in the middle [1v] of the 2nd mystery I hear a gigantic sigh from the multitude and someone says to me: "Look at the sun". I answer that I see nothing, but seconds later this exclamation comes out of my mouth: "It's the moon". I see a very clear, silvery blue disc, without rays, which, soon taking on its natural colour again, begins spinning dizzily; then this disc takes on different colours.

It throws out from itself something like rolls of smoke of the colour with which it is tinged, but it always keeps its perfectly round shape, without rays, and can be looked at steadily without difficulty. At a certain moment I see it colour [2] itself a vivid pink. Behind each hilltop there rises something like a veil of gauze of the same colour; field and multitude, everything reflects it. It is grandly beautiful, and yet there grows in the soul a feeling of fear, inexplicable if we did not have the conviction of the "supernatural".

No one says aloud what he sees, but from the redoubled ardour of the invocations to Our Lady at the "culminating" moments one can tell that everyone more or less sees and feels the same.

The clamour is immense at the moment when the sun comes down, a movement [2v] which I observe distinctly, as well as a movement to the right and left, or vice versa, but now at the sun's normal height. These last two movements were much less perceptible than the downward movement, and I cannot affirm that they followed immediately after it.

What I have just written is what my eyes saw at Fátima

My soul — that was wholly with Our Lady.