What do you think?
Rate this book
The Sun Danced at Fatima
Describes the apparitions of angels and the Virgin Mary in Fatima, Portugal to three children prior to World War I
238 pages, Paperback
First published September 1, 1984
4 people are currently reading
29 people want to read
About the author
Joseph Albert Pelletier
11 books3 followersBorn as Charles Albert in Winchendon, MA, one of eight children born to Elizabeth McGlinchey Pelletier (1877-1926) and Dr. Alfred Pelletier (1876-1955), who was a country doctor for more than 50 years. Young Albert played basketball and tennis in high school and college.
He graduated from Assumption Prep in 1924 and from Assumption College in 1932.
During his senior year, he decided to become a priest with the Augustinian Assumptionists and was ordained in Rome in 1937.
He received his Baccalaureate and Licentiate in Sacred Theology at the Angelicum Pontifical Institute and then a Master's Degree in Sociology from Boston College.
As an adult he was known as Father Joe and was associated with Assumption College. Father Joe served the College for 37 years in many capacities (1937-74), including professor of sociology and religion, athletic director, tennis coach, dean of students and director of development.
Fr. Joseph A. Pelletier, A.A., died in Worcester, MA, at the age of seventy four. He was internationally known as a Marian Scholar.
(Biographical Information gathered from obituaries, assumption website and dustjacket author biographies).
He graduated from Assumption Prep in 1924 and from Assumption College in 1932.
During his senior year, he decided to become a priest with the Augustinian Assumptionists and was ordained in Rome in 1937.
He received his Baccalaureate and Licentiate in Sacred Theology at the Angelicum Pontifical Institute and then a Master's Degree in Sociology from Boston College.
As an adult he was known as Father Joe and was associated with Assumption College. Father Joe served the College for 37 years in many capacities (1937-74), including professor of sociology and religion, athletic director, tennis coach, dean of students and director of development.
Fr. Joseph A. Pelletier, A.A., died in Worcester, MA, at the age of seventy four. He was internationally known as a Marian Scholar.
(Biographical Information gathered from obituaries, assumption website and dustjacket author biographies).
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
May 18, 2024
AN EXCELLENT OVERVIEW AND SUMMARY OF THE EVENTS AND AFTERMATH
Rev. Joseph Alfred Pelletier (1912-1986) was a priest with the Augustinian Assumptionists, and taught Sociology and Religion, was athletic director, tennis coach, and dean of Students at Assumption College.
He wrote in the Author’s Foreword to this 1983 book, “it is time that authors get together and discuss the facts concerning Fatima.. There is so much diversity in the various books and pamphlets that it has created considerable confusion in people’s minds. It is urgent that the facts be sifted, that the wheat be separated from the chaff… We have attempted to write an authoritative and critical story of the apparitions based on authentic documents and sources, both old and new, a story that is not afraid to differ from the so-called standard works when the facts demand it.”
He recounts, “It is 1915. Lucia dos Santos, a robust lass of eight from the parish of Fatima … is tending sheep… With her are three young friends… Maria Rosa Matias, her sister Teresa, and Maria Justino… they see a strange cloud, whiter than snow, hovering above the trees… The mysterious object is transparent and has a human form… When Lucia’s mother, Maria Rosa, finally learns of the affair, she quickly dismisses it with: ‘Foolish girl’s nonsense!’ … Yet, some time later, Lucia witnesses the strange phenomenon a second time, at the same place… still later that year, the same thing happens again a third time. The key to the mystery of the strange cloud is given to Lucia in 1916, when she is visited three times by an angel who clearly manifests himself to her… His first words are to reassure them: ‘Do not fear. I am the Angel of Peace…’ … they felt themselves possessed as it were by God during his visit… This experience has been so intimate and so manifestly sacred that none of them ever thinks of revealing it, or even the smallest part of it, to anyone else…” (Pg. 17-19)
He continues, “On his next and last visit the angel teaches them another prayer that henceforth they usually … recite along with it… This third and most extraordinary apparition takes place in fall of the same year, 1916… he says: ‘Take and drink and body and the Blood of Jesus Christ, horribly outraged by ungrateful men…’ His mission on earth then accomplished, the angel disappears. It is the last time the children ever see him.” (Pg. 21-22)
He records, “May 13, 1917, is destined to be a memorable day hereafter in the religious history of Portugal… Lucia and her two cousins, Jacinta and Francisco… raise their heads and look straight ahead. Their little hearts almost stop beating at the sight that greets their eyes. Just a few feet before them… stands a lovely maiden… ‘the Lady’ sets about to reassure and detail them, for she has come with a message of vital importance.” (Pg. 25-26) The Lady says, “I have come to ask the three of you to come here for six consecutive months, on the thirteenth day, at this same hour. Then I will tell you who I am and what I want. Afterward I will return here again a seventh time.” (Pg. 28) “On leaving her two little cousins at their home, Lucia issues a final warning. ‘Remember, not a word to anyone! Not to anyone!’ ‘We’ll remember,’ they both reply. ‘We won’t say anything to anybody.’” (Pg. 34) That evening, however, Jacinta says to her mother, “O Mamma, I saw Our Lady at the Cova da Iria!’ ‘I don’t believe it. You are a fine saint to be seeing Our Lady,’ the mother declares ironically.” (Pg. 35)
In a later vision, the Lady says to Lucia, “I will take Jacinta and Francisco within a short while, but you are to remain here on earth for some time longer. Jesus wants to use you to make me known and loved. He wants to establish in the world the devotion to my Immaculate Heart… Don’t be discouraged. I will never abandon you. My Immaculate Heart will be your refuge and the way that will lead you to God.’” (Pg. 47-48)
He states, “The spectators present at the June apparition have not been idle. They have told the story of the sensational happenings of that day to their friends and acquaintances. As a result, an ever-increasing number of people now believe in the children’s story of a lovely Lady from heaven.” (Pg. 53) “A crowd of some four or five thousand persons… waits impatiently for the hour of noon, the announced hour of the Lady’s arrival… She is every bit as lovely this day as on her two former visits, and as unbelievably brilliant and glowing. Once again it is the exclusive privilege of the three children to contemplate the Lady. Yet the spectators nearest the seers can see her presence reflected on their countenances…” (Pg. 57-58)
Later, the Lady tells them, “You have seen hell where the souls of poor sinners go. To save them God wants to establish in the world the devotion to my Immaculate Heart. If people will do what I shall tell you, many souls will be saved and there will be peace. The war is going to end, but if people do not stop offending God, another and worse one will begin during the reign of Pius XI… To prevent this I shall come to ask for the consecration of Russia to my Immaculate Heart and for Communions of reparations on the first Saturdays. If they heed my requests, Russia will be converted and there will be peace. If not, she will spread her errors throughout the world, promoting wars and persecution of the Church, the good will be martyred, the Holy Father will have much to suffer. Various nations will be annihilated. In the end my Immaculate Heart will triumph. The Holy Father will consecrate Russia to me and she will be converted, and a certain period of peace will be granted to the world. In Portugal the dogma of Faith will always be preserved.” (Pg. 62)
He reports, “Most of the eighteen thousand people … have been waiting for hours… From all sides the same anxious cry is heard: ‘Where are the children?’ … a formidable clap of thunder is heard… The sun loses its brilliance and the atmosphere becomes hazy… they observe a small whitish cloud form around the trunk of the tree of the apparitions… then it rises into the air and melts away. But this is not the last of today’s wonderful signs… The clouds in the sky have turned crimson red. And now quickly they change color and become rose, yellow, and blue. In rapid succession they assume all the colors of the rainbow… Then, just as mysteriously as it had all occurred, everything returns to normal.” (Pg. 81-82)
He continues, “on the day preceding the Lady’s rendezvous, people are flocking to Fatima… The people present … are, for the most part, prayerful believers. The few who have come out of simple curiosity soon find themselves gripped by the ardent faith that radiates from almost every face… Most of the vast throng are packed in tightly around what is left of the tree of the apparitions. Everyone wasn’t to be as close to this blessed spit and to the three seers as possible.” (Pg. 103-104) He continues, “Worn and weary, the children finally arrive… Lucia turns to the crowd and asks the people to say the rosary… In a matter of seconds the Cova becomes a solid, throbbing mass of supplicant souls…” (Pg. 107)
“Abruptly Lucia … exclaims: ‘There she is! I see her!’ Lucia’s jubilant cry is drowned in a roar of shouts that rise at this very same moment from thousands of throats… What these gesticulating and thrilled spectators are usually seeing is not the Lady herself but a globe of light which advances from east to west… the luminous globe has come to rest on the tree of the apparitions. As the people gaze in awe and astonishment, they see a lovely white cloud about the tree and the three children, and out of the cloudless sky a shower of mysterious shiny white petals commences to fall… the children are lost in … the vision of their lovely Lady… the Lady repeats her promise: ‘Yes, in October I will perform a miracle so that all may believe.’” (Pg. 107-110)
On the fateful day, “While Lucia is absorbed in the apparitions of Our Lord and of the Blessed Virgin … her younger cousins are busy contemplating the sun…Seventy thousand amazed and tense faces are raised and pointed at the colorful spinning sun. And they have been this way ever since Lucia unknowingly shouted: ‘Look at the sun!’ … One of the things that strikes most of the people … is the fact that they can look at it without pain or harm… it ceases its dizzy spinning and spraying of colored light… it plunges in zigzag fashion toward the earth and the horrified spectators… Cries of horror and anguish rise from all sides as the majority of the multitude fall to their knees on the wet muddy terrain… But just when the tension and suspense have reached their peak and it seems that the curiously careening sun is about to obliterate everyone, it halts in its downward course and … It goes back to the heavens. There it … begins to shine again with its customary golden glow and its usual unbearable glare… the people quickly… realize that … they have just witnessed the great, long awaited, and much publicized miracle. It is not long before the spectators… including the atheists, the skeptics, and the liberal newspaper reporters, are excitedly exchanging their profound and reverent impressions. They soon discover that… they have all witnessed the same miraculous phenomena.” (Pg. 124-127)
He notes, “The Bishop’s approval of the vision was the biggest thing that had ever occurred at the Cova da Iria since the apparitions themselves… From the point of view of episcopal approbation the apparitions of Fatima were now on an equal footing with those of Lourdes. It is not the policy of Rome to intervene directly and pronounce judgment concerning the authenticity of any apparition. The formal approbation of such occurrences is left to the Ordinary or Bishop or the locality where they take place. But Rome can and does manifest its attitude toward apparitions by its actions…” (Pg.149)
He points out, “Sister Lucia was so convinced of the importance of the First Saturday Communions of reparation, and so frustrated at the little that was being done to promote them, that in 1946 she had made up her mind to leave the Sisters of Saint Dorothy and establish and apostolate to spread the devotion… she thought that the Blue Army would be an effective means for disseminating this devotion. The decision to abandon her religious life was a tremendously important, perhaps even traumatic one for her to have taken. It points up… how vital a part of this devotion she considers the Communions of reparation to be.” (Pg. 163)
In an Appendix, he explains, “The July 13, 1917, apparition is the one that contained the most startling parts of the Fatima message. There are three parts of the particular apparition that were not made known in 1917… The first part has to do with the vision of hell. The second part… includes the following related elements: the prediction of World War II, the punishment of the world by means of war, famine, and persecution of the Church and the Pope, the consecration of Russia to the Immaculate Heart, the Communions of reparation, the conversion of Russia and peace for the world. The first two parts … were incorporated by Sister Lucia in Memoir III… and also in Memoir IV… It was the revealing of these two parts of the secret twenty-five years after the children had received them from Our Lady that electrified the Catholic world and suddenly sparked a new era of interest in the Fatima event.” (Pg. 195)
He continues, “The third part of the July 13 secret, the so-called ‘1960 Secret’ has still to this day not been made public.” (Pg. 196) “Pope John XXIII… definitely read the secret in 1960… The Pope then passed the document to the Cardinal … and allowed him to read it. John XXIII … sent it to the secret archives of the Vatican… The wildest rumors have indeed circulated. What do we know with certainty about the secret of 1960?... The Cardinal has … let us know that it contains a message for the Pope. We also know that the Pops decided in his wisdom not to reveal its contents to the world.” (Pg. 197-198)
This an excellent and very ‘readable’ summary of the Fatima events, by a ‘believer’ in them. It will be of great interest those studying the topic.
Rev. Joseph Alfred Pelletier (1912-1986) was a priest with the Augustinian Assumptionists, and taught Sociology and Religion, was athletic director, tennis coach, and dean of Students at Assumption College.
He wrote in the Author’s Foreword to this 1983 book, “it is time that authors get together and discuss the facts concerning Fatima.. There is so much diversity in the various books and pamphlets that it has created considerable confusion in people’s minds. It is urgent that the facts be sifted, that the wheat be separated from the chaff… We have attempted to write an authoritative and critical story of the apparitions based on authentic documents and sources, both old and new, a story that is not afraid to differ from the so-called standard works when the facts demand it.”
He recounts, “It is 1915. Lucia dos Santos, a robust lass of eight from the parish of Fatima … is tending sheep… With her are three young friends… Maria Rosa Matias, her sister Teresa, and Maria Justino… they see a strange cloud, whiter than snow, hovering above the trees… The mysterious object is transparent and has a human form… When Lucia’s mother, Maria Rosa, finally learns of the affair, she quickly dismisses it with: ‘Foolish girl’s nonsense!’ … Yet, some time later, Lucia witnesses the strange phenomenon a second time, at the same place… still later that year, the same thing happens again a third time. The key to the mystery of the strange cloud is given to Lucia in 1916, when she is visited three times by an angel who clearly manifests himself to her… His first words are to reassure them: ‘Do not fear. I am the Angel of Peace…’ … they felt themselves possessed as it were by God during his visit… This experience has been so intimate and so manifestly sacred that none of them ever thinks of revealing it, or even the smallest part of it, to anyone else…” (Pg. 17-19)
He continues, “On his next and last visit the angel teaches them another prayer that henceforth they usually … recite along with it… This third and most extraordinary apparition takes place in fall of the same year, 1916… he says: ‘Take and drink and body and the Blood of Jesus Christ, horribly outraged by ungrateful men…’ His mission on earth then accomplished, the angel disappears. It is the last time the children ever see him.” (Pg. 21-22)
He records, “May 13, 1917, is destined to be a memorable day hereafter in the religious history of Portugal… Lucia and her two cousins, Jacinta and Francisco… raise their heads and look straight ahead. Their little hearts almost stop beating at the sight that greets their eyes. Just a few feet before them… stands a lovely maiden… ‘the Lady’ sets about to reassure and detail them, for she has come with a message of vital importance.” (Pg. 25-26) The Lady says, “I have come to ask the three of you to come here for six consecutive months, on the thirteenth day, at this same hour. Then I will tell you who I am and what I want. Afterward I will return here again a seventh time.” (Pg. 28) “On leaving her two little cousins at their home, Lucia issues a final warning. ‘Remember, not a word to anyone! Not to anyone!’ ‘We’ll remember,’ they both reply. ‘We won’t say anything to anybody.’” (Pg. 34) That evening, however, Jacinta says to her mother, “O Mamma, I saw Our Lady at the Cova da Iria!’ ‘I don’t believe it. You are a fine saint to be seeing Our Lady,’ the mother declares ironically.” (Pg. 35)
In a later vision, the Lady says to Lucia, “I will take Jacinta and Francisco within a short while, but you are to remain here on earth for some time longer. Jesus wants to use you to make me known and loved. He wants to establish in the world the devotion to my Immaculate Heart… Don’t be discouraged. I will never abandon you. My Immaculate Heart will be your refuge and the way that will lead you to God.’” (Pg. 47-48)
He states, “The spectators present at the June apparition have not been idle. They have told the story of the sensational happenings of that day to their friends and acquaintances. As a result, an ever-increasing number of people now believe in the children’s story of a lovely Lady from heaven.” (Pg. 53) “A crowd of some four or five thousand persons… waits impatiently for the hour of noon, the announced hour of the Lady’s arrival… She is every bit as lovely this day as on her two former visits, and as unbelievably brilliant and glowing. Once again it is the exclusive privilege of the three children to contemplate the Lady. Yet the spectators nearest the seers can see her presence reflected on their countenances…” (Pg. 57-58)
Later, the Lady tells them, “You have seen hell where the souls of poor sinners go. To save them God wants to establish in the world the devotion to my Immaculate Heart. If people will do what I shall tell you, many souls will be saved and there will be peace. The war is going to end, but if people do not stop offending God, another and worse one will begin during the reign of Pius XI… To prevent this I shall come to ask for the consecration of Russia to my Immaculate Heart and for Communions of reparations on the first Saturdays. If they heed my requests, Russia will be converted and there will be peace. If not, she will spread her errors throughout the world, promoting wars and persecution of the Church, the good will be martyred, the Holy Father will have much to suffer. Various nations will be annihilated. In the end my Immaculate Heart will triumph. The Holy Father will consecrate Russia to me and she will be converted, and a certain period of peace will be granted to the world. In Portugal the dogma of Faith will always be preserved.” (Pg. 62)
He reports, “Most of the eighteen thousand people … have been waiting for hours… From all sides the same anxious cry is heard: ‘Where are the children?’ … a formidable clap of thunder is heard… The sun loses its brilliance and the atmosphere becomes hazy… they observe a small whitish cloud form around the trunk of the tree of the apparitions… then it rises into the air and melts away. But this is not the last of today’s wonderful signs… The clouds in the sky have turned crimson red. And now quickly they change color and become rose, yellow, and blue. In rapid succession they assume all the colors of the rainbow… Then, just as mysteriously as it had all occurred, everything returns to normal.” (Pg. 81-82)
He continues, “on the day preceding the Lady’s rendezvous, people are flocking to Fatima… The people present … are, for the most part, prayerful believers. The few who have come out of simple curiosity soon find themselves gripped by the ardent faith that radiates from almost every face… Most of the vast throng are packed in tightly around what is left of the tree of the apparitions. Everyone wasn’t to be as close to this blessed spit and to the three seers as possible.” (Pg. 103-104) He continues, “Worn and weary, the children finally arrive… Lucia turns to the crowd and asks the people to say the rosary… In a matter of seconds the Cova becomes a solid, throbbing mass of supplicant souls…” (Pg. 107)
“Abruptly Lucia … exclaims: ‘There she is! I see her!’ Lucia’s jubilant cry is drowned in a roar of shouts that rise at this very same moment from thousands of throats… What these gesticulating and thrilled spectators are usually seeing is not the Lady herself but a globe of light which advances from east to west… the luminous globe has come to rest on the tree of the apparitions. As the people gaze in awe and astonishment, they see a lovely white cloud about the tree and the three children, and out of the cloudless sky a shower of mysterious shiny white petals commences to fall… the children are lost in … the vision of their lovely Lady… the Lady repeats her promise: ‘Yes, in October I will perform a miracle so that all may believe.’” (Pg. 107-110)
On the fateful day, “While Lucia is absorbed in the apparitions of Our Lord and of the Blessed Virgin … her younger cousins are busy contemplating the sun…Seventy thousand amazed and tense faces are raised and pointed at the colorful spinning sun. And they have been this way ever since Lucia unknowingly shouted: ‘Look at the sun!’ … One of the things that strikes most of the people … is the fact that they can look at it without pain or harm… it ceases its dizzy spinning and spraying of colored light… it plunges in zigzag fashion toward the earth and the horrified spectators… Cries of horror and anguish rise from all sides as the majority of the multitude fall to their knees on the wet muddy terrain… But just when the tension and suspense have reached their peak and it seems that the curiously careening sun is about to obliterate everyone, it halts in its downward course and … It goes back to the heavens. There it … begins to shine again with its customary golden glow and its usual unbearable glare… the people quickly… realize that … they have just witnessed the great, long awaited, and much publicized miracle. It is not long before the spectators… including the atheists, the skeptics, and the liberal newspaper reporters, are excitedly exchanging their profound and reverent impressions. They soon discover that… they have all witnessed the same miraculous phenomena.” (Pg. 124-127)
He notes, “The Bishop’s approval of the vision was the biggest thing that had ever occurred at the Cova da Iria since the apparitions themselves… From the point of view of episcopal approbation the apparitions of Fatima were now on an equal footing with those of Lourdes. It is not the policy of Rome to intervene directly and pronounce judgment concerning the authenticity of any apparition. The formal approbation of such occurrences is left to the Ordinary or Bishop or the locality where they take place. But Rome can and does manifest its attitude toward apparitions by its actions…” (Pg.149)
He points out, “Sister Lucia was so convinced of the importance of the First Saturday Communions of reparation, and so frustrated at the little that was being done to promote them, that in 1946 she had made up her mind to leave the Sisters of Saint Dorothy and establish and apostolate to spread the devotion… she thought that the Blue Army would be an effective means for disseminating this devotion. The decision to abandon her religious life was a tremendously important, perhaps even traumatic one for her to have taken. It points up… how vital a part of this devotion she considers the Communions of reparation to be.” (Pg. 163)
In an Appendix, he explains, “The July 13, 1917, apparition is the one that contained the most startling parts of the Fatima message. There are three parts of the particular apparition that were not made known in 1917… The first part has to do with the vision of hell. The second part… includes the following related elements: the prediction of World War II, the punishment of the world by means of war, famine, and persecution of the Church and the Pope, the consecration of Russia to the Immaculate Heart, the Communions of reparation, the conversion of Russia and peace for the world. The first two parts … were incorporated by Sister Lucia in Memoir III… and also in Memoir IV… It was the revealing of these two parts of the secret twenty-five years after the children had received them from Our Lady that electrified the Catholic world and suddenly sparked a new era of interest in the Fatima event.” (Pg. 195)
He continues, “The third part of the July 13 secret, the so-called ‘1960 Secret’ has still to this day not been made public.” (Pg. 196) “Pope John XXIII… definitely read the secret in 1960… The Pope then passed the document to the Cardinal … and allowed him to read it. John XXIII … sent it to the secret archives of the Vatican… The wildest rumors have indeed circulated. What do we know with certainty about the secret of 1960?... The Cardinal has … let us know that it contains a message for the Pope. We also know that the Pops decided in his wisdom not to reveal its contents to the world.” (Pg. 197-198)
This an excellent and very ‘readable’ summary of the Fatima events, by a ‘believer’ in them. It will be of great interest those studying the topic.
May 16, 2017
I am not sure how I never learned about this when I was younger. I recently joined a book club for Catholics and we read this in honor of the 100 Anniversary of Our Lady of Fatima. I am so glad I read this!
September 3, 2020
An amazing historical account of the appearances at Fatima.
June 2, 2008
I read this before I did a presentation at my parish bible study on the miracle of Fatima. It is a pretty exhaustive history of the events surrounding what happened in Portugal in 1917. The second half of the book is devoted to what happened to the three kids, and the subsequent consecration of Russia to Our Lady's Immaculate Heart.
If you're looking for an in-depth book regarding Fatima, I heartily recommend this book.
If you're looking for an in-depth book regarding Fatima, I heartily recommend this book.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews