“The intensity of this extraordinary celestial spectacle, its splendid brightness, its enormous extent, its extreme rarity at this intensity especially in our regions, and even more so in this season of the year, seemed worthy to us of being pointed out to the Society immediately”.
Fatima 13th July, 1917:
‘When you see a night illumined by an unknown light, know that this is the great sign given you by God that he is about to punish the world for its crimes, by means of war, famine, and persecutions of the Church’.
The following eye-witness accounts of what pilots flying in the air at the time were to describe as “a shimmering curtain of fire” - including those accounts written up in the Bulletin of the Astronomical Society of France and Monthly Review of Astronomy of 1938 - reveal the apparently unprecedented nature of this terrifying doomsday phenomenon http://motheofgod.com/threads/aurora-borealis-of-1938.4360/
1. Bulletin of the Astronomical Society of France and Monthly Review of Astronomy, Meteorology and Globular Physics”, in the year 1938.
An aurora borealis of exceptional beauty was visible in France and in almost all the countries of Europe, from the evening of Tuesday, January 25, 1938, to the morning of Wednesday, the 26th. In Switzerland, in England as well as in the regions of the West, Southwest and Southeast, right down to Provence, and even further south, in Italy and Portugal, in Sicily and Gibraltar, and even in North Africa, the phenomenon showed an exceptional intensity for these latitudes...
The atmosphere had been cloudy and there had even been a slight drizzle around dusk. The sun had been invisible all day. But now, more than two hours after sunset, the clouds are dispelled. The northeast, northern and northwest horizons light up as though dawn were going to break all over again. For practical purposes it is dawn... but a nocturnal dawn, with a strange light; it is the aurora borealis.
A pale, beautiful, greenish-blue light envelops the sky from northeast to northwest. Gradually, up above the sky turns fiery red and an irregular red arch appears. A sort of cloud tinged with purple condenses in the northeast and moves over towards the northwest, as if propelled by a mysterious breath. It folds over, undulates, dilates, vanishes and then reappears, while immense rays, whose colour passes from blood-red to orange-red to yellow, rise up to the zenith of the sky, enveloping the stars. The spectacle is enchanting and varied, animated with luminous palpitations, with extinctions and recrudescences.
In the streets there is panic. “Paris is on fire!” In several villages of the province firemen are mobilized...» «An immense blood-red glow was extending over the sky...»
The review then gives a great number of statements from its correspondents, both from France and from foreign countries. Here are some significant excerpts:
At the observatory of pic du Midi: «This remarkable aurora was the first ever observed from the station of pic du Midi. It constitutes a rare phenomenon for this latitude... The first impression was of a gigantic conflagration...»
At La Chapelle-Saint-Laud, in Maine-et-Loire, the teacher kept this description given by one of his students, aged ten: «Yesterday evening there was a great red cloud; it was like a sheet of blood, then the cloud grew larger, forming great red threads, which kept going up, and below that, white threads, like chalk lines.
In Oise, Mr. Henri Blain - at first believed that it was the grim reflection of a vast inferno... Many of the villagers, struck by the anomaly and intensity of the phenomenon, observed somewhat nervously from the window sills of their houses... These red glows were visible, then disappeared, and later on reappeared after a more or less lengthy period of time... These luminous manifestations sometimes went up very high in the sky, and in colour and luminosity they were absolutely comparable to the very vivid reflections of a violent, nearby inferno... The intensity of this extraordinary celestial spectacle, its splendid brightness, its enormous extent, its extreme rarity at this intensity especially in our regions, and even more so in this season of the year, seemed worthy to us of being pointed out to the Society immediately.
In Picardie: «At a quarter past five, noticed in the north-northwesterly direction a red glow which first attributed as being the result of a far-off inferno... Ten minutes later, the great purple spot was extending above our heads right up to Orion; other smaller and paler ones formed and disappeared in their turn. A few moments later, the blazing sky was being reflected in our faces; my wife, who was admiring the phenomenon at my side, appeared to me in a red reflection which seemed to me unreal. At a quarter to eight, the red glow reached its maximum intensity, almost the whole sky seemed to be on fire. A second drapery was quickly lit up, its luminosity was such that could tell the time on my watch. The spectacle was extraordinary. A brave peasant who had come near me to ask for news believed very seriously that it was announcing the end of the world!... The cocks, undoubtedly fooled by this unusual aurora, began crowing as though it were sunrise!
At the minor seminary of Caen, the students contemplated from their dorm a great red sheet, through which a few stars could be seen.
A witness from Vaucluse employs the same expression: «I was surprised to notice a great red sheet in the sky. For a moment it resembled a fire to me somewhere in the surrounding area, whose glowing light was reflected in the clouds… I observed that during the whole duration of the phenomenon the dogs in the village and surrounding area began barking and howling. They did not stop until about half past ten.
In North Africa this aurora borealis was so intense that an admiral whose ships were cruising near the coast ordered a destroyer to turn towards the left, towards the northwest, for he too believed that a fire was in the distance.
Another witness reports: This aurora was visible in almost all of Tunisia. It is a very rare phenomenon in our region since a similar one has not been recorded since 1891... In general it looked like a vast red or rose coloured glow, more or less streaked with white... The natives, who were very frightened, saw in it a warning of the divine wrath; the Europeans believed it was a huge, distant fire. The descriptions coming from various points in Tunisia always come back to the same expressions, which reveals that the phenomenon had an astonishing uniformity: «the sky turning red, a large reddish band which at first resembled a fire...», the «blazing sky», «a general blaze in the sky, the colour of a red brick, etc. The phenomenon was visible in all of North Africa.
In England: a witness spoke of moving pleats of a red velour coloured curtain. The curtain was drawn and filled the whole space. In Switzerland: a spring-like day had preceded the unprecedented, unforgettable phenomenon.»
The astronomical review gave some reports originating from Czechoslovakia and Romania:
Very frequent but brief conflagrations inflamed the sky right up to its zenith. It seemed that the fiery arch in the sky had come very low.
In Italy: A phenomenon extremely rare in our country.» It was visible at Pontevedra in Spain, In Portugal: Yesterday, for the first time in my life I observed a magnificent aurora borealis, a phenomenon very rare over here, which nobody can remember having seen for fifty years. At Lisbon and in all Portugal this phenomenon occasioned as much attention as surprise. Almost all the spectators believed that the sky was being lighted up by an enormous fire; and I myself believed the same thing at first. The apparition lasted almost two hours, from ten o’clock until midnight... Its colour was a more or less intense red.
In the United States, «this aurora was spectacular... Early in the evening my attention was drawn to the east by an enormous conflagration. Over a wide area the sky was alight with a red glow and I believed at first that a great fire was devouring Hampton Beach. The aurora was also observed in Canada.
The astronomer, Carl Stromer, reports that one of his correspondents in Norway, at the station of Njuke Mountain (Tuddal), signalled to him that he had heard noises «while the aurora was at its height and the sky seemed to be an ocean of flames... The observer and his assistant heard a curious sound coming from above them... which lasted about ten minutes, rose to a maximum and then vanished, following the fluctuations of the aurora’s intensity. This sound, which resembled the crackle of burning grass, was perceived in the same region, in the Tuddal valley, by Mr. Oysteim Reisjaa. Everything was perfectly calm on the mountain, and nothing could explain the production of this noise, neither the wind, which was not blowing, nor the telegraph lines, nor motors. Above the observatories, from all sides, there was not a murmur in the forest.
January 26 issue of Le Petit Dauphinois
Grenoble, January 25. – An atmospheric phenomenon of exceptional intensity was noticed this evening between seven-thirty and ten-thirty on the entire range of the Alps. This phenomenon manifested itself by an immense luminous trail which seemed to come from the sun, to unfold, fan-shaped, right up to its zenith. The breadth of the spectacle observed was such that the blazing sky resembled the brilliance of dawn. The people were astonished at first, then admired this celestial manifestation, which is rarely seen in these latitudes; then, as the phenomenon prolonged itself, they grew disturbed. Some curious scenes – especially in our countryside – were witnessed as the horizon remained purple. A thousand controversies swirled around this strange vision, which was believed to be a vast fire in the mountains, or gigantic military manoeuvres with searchlights; it was even believed – and this was the almost unanimous and not the least interesting observation – that the sun was going to rise...
Now according to the first news we obtained from qualified professors, teachers of meteorology, it was a splendid aurora borealis, the most beautiful one to manifest itself in western Europe for centuries...
From the city itself the phenomenon was not very well perceived. But as soon as one left the suburbs, even without thinking of looking out over Grenoble, in the north a gigantic blazecould be perceived.
At Le Petit Dauphinois all the telephone lines were jammed by our correspondents – even the most distant ones – who informed us of the celestial manifestation. At eight o’clock, this animation which was continually increasing changed on certain points into a real terror.
Understanding Prophecies for Our Time
Saint Augustine said that we must pray as though everything depends on God and work as though everything depends on us. Thus, in addition to prayer, each of us has an obligation to act. Before one can take the appropriate action, however, one must be informed – about the Faith and about the prophecies God sends to guide us. St. Thomas tells us that God sends prophets to every generation, not to give us new doctrine, but to remind us what we must do to save our souls. ….
Saint Paul tells us: "Extinguish not the spirit. Despise not prophecies. But prove all things; hold fast that which is good" (1 Thes. 5:19-21). God sends prophets to set a straying world back on the right path, and we must not despise the prophecy that God has sent to us through His prophets.
Our Lady of Fatima gave us prophecies for our time: prophecies that are being fulfilled before our very eyes. For example, Our Lady predicted that if people did not amend their lives, a terrible war would begin during the reign of Pius XI. In addition to warning people to amend their lives and ask pardon for their sins, Our Lady offered a marvelous way to prevent the punishment of war: the solemn Consecration of Russia to Her Immaculate Heart. … people amend their lives … and World War II and the series of wars that followed it have resulted (Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, Kuwait, etc.). And more wars continue now and into the future – all because we ignore Our Lady of Fatima’s requests.
Some critics, including Father Edouard Dhanis, have argued that Sister Lucy’s prophecy that the "great war" would begin during the reign of Pius XI was incorrect. They make this claim because, as they say, the Second World War "began" with the German invasion of Poland on September 1, 1939 – as is widely and erroneously believed – when Pius XII, not Pius XI, was Pope. Pius XI died on February 10, 1939, and Pius XII was installed as Bishop of Rome on March 12, 1939.
Sister Lucy, however, has maintained that World War II, in truth, began during the reign of Pius XI. "The annexation of Austria was the occasion for it," she explained. The invasion of Austria (in March 1938), the annexation of Czechoslovakia, the formation of military alliances and the decision to invade Poland were the beginnings of the war, though war had not yet been officially declared. All of these events occurred during the pontificate of Pope Pius XI.
Furthermore, the "night illumined by an unknown light," which Our Lady said would signal the coming of the "great war", occurred during the night of January 25-26, 1938. On that night a bright red light, likened to the blaze of a gigantic fire, filled the evening sky, and was seen across Europe and even in parts of North America and North Africa. It was determined to be a most extraordinary aurora borealis. Sister Lucy expressed reservations on this, but wrote in her third memoir on August 31, 1941 that no matter what cause the light could be attributed to, "God made use of this to make me understand that His justice was about to strike the guilty nations…"
During the same night that the great sign appeared in the sky, in Moscow’s Lubianka prison a man by the name of Kristian Rakovsky was being interrogated by Josef Stalin’s chief interrogator. During the interrogation Rakovsky revealed Germany’s plan to dominate Europe. He proposed that the Soviet Union join Germany in an invasion of Poland, which would lead to Europe’s retaliation against Germany and not the Soviet Union. According to Rakovsky’s plan, France and England would wear each other out, after which the Soviet Union would turn on Germany and collect the spoils of the war. This fateful interview began at the same time the unknown light in the sky was beginning to fade. It resulted in the Soviet Union’s instigation of and participation in the war, and Rakovsky’s plan was carried out to the great benefit of the Soviet Union. Again, this decisive step toward World War II occurred during the reign of Pope Pius XI. 1
….
Notes:
1. For a text of the Rakovsky interview, see Manifold, Deirdre, Firinne Publications, Galway, Ireland, 1993, pp. 26-52. Towards World Government: New World Order
