Moment in time -1917

VALINHOS, PORTUGAL  - 13th October, 1917    

THE CROWD WAS restless. The rain, which had been falling steadily all morning, had finally stopped, leaving the ground waterlogged where many of the people stood. The two boys, however, although soaking wet, were oblivious to the elements.  “What’s happening? What’s happening?” one of them implored insistently. His friend responded patiently, “Nothing yet, Sancho! Don’t worry! I’ll let you know when something does!”

Sancho was appeased for the moment but he was finding it difficult to control his excitement. If only he had eyes to see for himself, he thought. Still, he had Manuel and that was something.

Sancho was blind. He had been that way for five of his twelve years. “What price a slate from the church roof dislodging and falling at the very moment he should be walking beneath,” someone had commented at the time. “Fate can be so unkind,” someone else had remarked. 

Sancho had been in a coma for seven days before he finally regained consciousness. However, his eyes refused to wake. “Blind, I’m afraid!” the doctor had remarked to his mother. “He may get his sight back! It’s hard to say for sure in such cases.”

That was all of five years ago and Sancho had long since learned to cope with a world in which he could no longer see.  Sancho and his mother, Maria Couceiro, a widow, survived mainly on the charity of others. She washed and mended clothes and any other servile work that the villagers could afford to give her. Maria’s husband, a tall handsome lad, had died ten years before of typhus and both Sancho and she were quite alone now. That is, except for Manuel Braga, a neighbour’s son. Manuel and Sancho were inseparable friends and Maria Couceiro was so grateful for that.  Sancho with his black curly hair and cherubic face and Manuel with his straight dark brown hair and finely honed features were closer than brothers. Manuel, the older of the two by just three weeks, was also the taller and slight of build whilst Sancho was stocky and robust. 

Maria Couceiro had come to look on Manuel as her second son because he spent so much time in her home. Many an evening they all sat together discussing different things, and Manuel often ate there and stayed overnight. Manuel’s mother never objected. “One less mouth to feed!” she would remark to her husband. Her husband always responded with a nod, for he was a man of few words and had long since learned not to argue with his wife.  She was right enough though, he had to admit on reflection. With seven children and a wife, “one less mouth to feed” was a powerful argument.

Now, at this moment in time, Sancho and Manuel were standing together amidst a vast crowd of people that were impatient. Folk had come from all around to witness something extraordinary and they were full of expectation. They wanted something to happen, something miraculous, something not of this world, and yet there was an undercurrent of fear present also. That innate fear that humans have of anything that is supernatural. Sancho himself felt both elated and apprehensive, elated that something wonderful might happen, but apprehensive that something terrifying could also occur. Those around him who had come to witness a miracle also shared his ambivalence.

The story itself was a strange one. Yet the three shepherd children telling it were totally convinced that they had really witnessed a visitation on May 13th of that year. Sancho’s thoughts turned to the children concerned, Lucia dos Santos and her cousins, Francisco and Jacinta Marto, the children of Fatima as they were now known.  They claimed that the visitation was from a woman that identified herself as the Lady of the Rosary. 

According to the three children, the Lady instructed them to return on the thirteenth day of each following month to the same spot. She also said that she had an important message for all mankind. This would be revealed to the children on the 13th of October when the visitations would end. At that time God would work a great miracle to prove her authenticity.

Of course, at first, everyone had laughed at the children's foolishness, but no one was laughing now, some five months later. People had flocked from around the country to gather together in the depression at Cova da Iria, near the hamlet where the children lived.  More than 70,000 people had come to witness the miracle that the Lady had promised the children would occur this very day. Sancho, like the rest, now waited expectantly for the miracle to take place.

“What’s happening now?”

Manuel answered softly, “Nothing yet! The three children are standing waiting. That’s all!”

“Oh!” exclaimed Sancho disappointingly and he lapsed into silence. It wasn’t long before Manuel’s voice whispered. “Lucia is walking forward on her own!” The excitement in his voice rose as he spoke.

“Yes, yes!” Sancho questioned feverishly.

A long pause occurred before Manuel continued his narrative, “She’s kneeling down! She seems...She seems to be praying...” Manuel was more than two hundred yards away from Lucia and could only guess from the way the girl held her hands together in front of her that this was, in fact, what she was doing. The distance itself was too great for any words she may be saying to carry.

“What’s she doing now?”

“Just kneeling on the ground praying, but I cannot see any Lady with her.”

The doubt in Manuel’s voice was apparent to Sancho and Manuel was not alone in this.  Misgivings were soon being echoed by some sections of the crowd.  Sancho with an acute sense of hearing borne of his years in the dark caught some of the remarks. “I told you nothing would happen!” one skeptic said. "They’re fakes!" someone else growled cynically. “I told you so!” a triumphal doubter somewhere else in the throng exclaimed contemptuously.  Sancho’s faith began to falter. What if the children were making it all up? What if there were no Lady - no miracle?

“Look at the sun!” someone suddenly yelled out. Others took up the call. “Look at the sun!”

Manuel cast his eyes skyward and saw that the sun had broken through the cloud cover. He gasped in amazement at the yellow orb, which was rotating wildly. It appeared to be shooting off coloured rays and its rim was like a rainbow. It suddenly stopped spinning and went on a merry dance in and out of the clouds stopping to spin every now and again on its erratic journey through the sky. Finally it stopped altogether and began to pulsate.  It was only then that Manuel became conscious of the persistent voice in his ear.

"What’s happening? What’s happening with the sun?” Sancho demanded to know as he pulled at Manuel’s sleeve, something he had done so often before. Manuel, however, was tongue tied for the moment.

“What’s happening, Manuel?” Sancho kept repeating earnestly.

“The sun!” Manuel managed to stammer out at last. “The sun was spinning!” then he could speak no more.

“Spinning!” Sancho said excitedly. “What do you mean, the sun was spinning?”

Manuel now became completely panic stricken as the sun began to hurtle towards the place where they stood, becoming hotter and brighter as it did so. Like others around him, he threw himself to the ground and huddled there afraid.  

Sancho being blind could not see the danger and therefore stood his ground. His face was turned up to the sky where he knew the sun to be and wondered what had disturbed Manuel so. What did Manuel mean when he said the sun was spinning? He became aware of the heat on his face and the screams that echoed around him. It was then that Sancho became truly afraid. He too went to earth and curled up there in a ball.

Manuel at last looked up and saw that the sun had returned to its normal position. Now that the threat was past Manuel felt ashamed that he had completely forgotten about his blind friend in the interest of self-preservation. Yet, the sun had been spinning towards them, or so it seemed, and Manuel thought his end had come. Now the sun was high again in the sky as if nothing had happened. 

Had he imagined it all but then many others in the crowd had seen the same thing. It was then that a strong wind began to howl through the depression. Funny though, he recalled later, the trees did not bend. The wind blew itself away as quickly as it started and all was quite again. Looking around he saw that the ground, wet a short while before, was now baked mud. He also noted with amazement that his clothes had completely dried out

Pulling himself to his feet, Manuel saw Sancho lying on the ground with his face buried in his hands. 

“Are you all right? Sancho?”

 “My face is burning! My face is burning!” Sancho sobbed back with the tears flowing down his face. But even before Manuel could console him, the pain was no more and Sancho took his hands from his face.

Manuel asked him again, “Are you all right Sancho? What is wrong?” Then Manuel drew back in astonishment as he looked into Sancho’s eyes and saw acknowledgement there. Sancho could see him!

“I can see!” Sancho whispered. Then he yelled in exhortation as he realized the enormity of what had happened. “I can see!" He hollered over and over again. 

Those people that were around him from the village and knew of Maria Couceiro’s blind son shouted out, “A miracle! A miracle!” and the word spread quickly.  A multitude started to surround Sancho but he no longer heard them. His heart was singing and his love of God overwhelming. He rose to his knees and started to recite the Lord’s Prayer and others joined in.  Presently the three girls that had been the focus of the crowd’s attention earlier joined them. 

“I can see!” Sancho excitedly exclaimed to Lucia dos Santos when he rose again. “God has given me back my eyes!”

Lucia’s big brown eyes met his moist gaze as she responded, “God has given me something also!”

“What’s that?” Sancho asked awed by the moment and the gratitude that was in his heart.

“Three messages for all man kind” she replied softly.

“What are they?” Sancho asked eagerly.

She looked at the boy before her and smiled knowingly.

“You will know two of them soon enough!” she said. “The third is a secret!”

She paused for a moment and then added, with horror in her eyes, “When it is revealed, mankind will surely tremble!”