Apparitions from heaven???

[abaris]

The only thing I can think of that I have not addressed was the part of Poca's conspiracy theory assertion that perhaps someone was able to predict the weather for that day and saw that the sun would do something extraordinary, and told the children to say the Virgin Mary would perform a miracle. 

Or did they predict it? How's that proven and by whom? We only have the word of religious people for that. What exactly did they allegedly claim to happen and what did the people really see or believed to see? We only have grainy pictures that reveal nothing out of the ordinary as far as the sky is concerned.

You know, these aren't exactly new miracle stories. One from the top of my head is the battle of Antioch during the first crusade where thousands of soldiers swore that their fallen comrades led the charge as a sort of ghost army. Also following a prediction made by their priests.

The naked facts are - Fatima was the literal ass of the world before the happenings of 1917. Now it's a thriving community because of that. There are thousands of similar stories. Some tied to supposed relics, some to miracles.

You see how things like that work? Rural Portugal hadn't moved much forward in terms of credultiy since the middle Ages. But a few well placed stories could give it a well needed boost.