A Little Bit for God and His People: (201) The Fatima Storm: the Great Unknown Light of January 25, 1938......a Prelude to World War II

AMDG

The great unknown light of January 25, 1938. In Switzerland one could read a newspaper under the light. Radio communications were disrupted.

On July 13, 1917 Mary told the world through the three shepherd children that it must repent of its sins. “You have seen Hell ---where the souls of poor sinners go. To save them God wills to establish throughout the world the devotion to my Immaculate Heart. If people will do what I tell you, many souls will be saved, and there will be peace. The war is going to end. But if they do not stop offending God, another and worse war will break out in the reign of Pius XI. When you see a night illumined by an unknown light, know that it is the great sign that God gives you, that He is going to punish the world for its crimes by means of war, hunger, persecution of the Church and of the Holy Father.”

Sadly, we did not listen and the world suffered the dire consequences. Surely, the Lord used the tragic war to save souls as many did come back to God. Since the world today is in much worse shape morally, are we repeating the same mistakes and will face even worse consequences?

The Great Unknown Light. On January 25-26, 1938 the night illuminated by an unknown light did come to pass as Mary had prophesized and the world press covered it. The news clipping below is from the London Times. The article says that it was visible over the whole of Europe from Budapest to Gibraltar. Other sources say that it was visible as far south as Australia and as far west as California. People reported that it looked like a big forest fire. In Switzerland they could read the newspaper under the light. Magnetic storms disrupted radio communications and caused problems with the news wires. For the New York Times report on it, see
https://rosariumblogdotcom.files.wordpress.com/2017/03/fatima-1-26-1938.pdf.

A news clipping from the London Times regarding the great unknown light.

Most scientists believe that it was an unusually strong Aurora Borealis or Northern Lights caused by intense sunspot activity, but other scientists simply cannot explain it because the Fatima Storm does not fit the typical characteristics of an Aurora Borealis. The Fatima Storm was red; almost always it’s green/blue. It extended below the 50^th Parallel, which is rare. An Aurora Borealis never covers such a wide area. It included most of the areas of conflict in World War II. See the appendix for some fascinating analysis.

The great unknown light, often called the Fatima Storm, looked something like the photos above, resembling a gigantic forest fire. Some startled people called the fire department.

An Aurora Borealis

Interesting is the fact that the great unknown light occurred on the Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul and Mary’s apparitions at Fatima were all about conversion.

Mary said that the second world war would start during the reign of Pius XI (1922 – 10 February 1939), but the official start of the war is September 1, 1939 when Hitler invaded Poland during the reign of Pius XII (2 March 1939 - 1958). Is this really a contradiction? Not at all. During the very night of the great unknown light (January 25, 1938) Communist leaders were meeting in Moscow over a sinister plan to propose to Nazi Germany to divide up Poland. This had historical precedent in that Germany, Russia, and Austria each annexed a third of Poland which ceased to exist as a country from 1795 – 1918 under the Third Partition. They correctly reasoned that the West would blame Hitler and attack Germany. This was in essence the start of World War II.

Furthermore, on March 12, 1938 Hitler invaded Austria which was annexed by Germany the next day. In October 1938 at a meeting in Munich the European powers appeased Nazi Germany by allowing it to take over the Sudetenland area of Czechoslovakia.

According to the sinister plan mentioned above, on August 23, 1939 the foreign ministers of Germany and the Soviet Union met and publicly agreed to a non-aggression pact while secretly agreeing to a partition of Poland. On September 1 Germany invaded Poland from the west and the allies declared war on Germany, but they were of no help except for an attempt to send equipment via Romania.

Not having an easy time, the Germans urged the Soviets to invade according to the agreement. The Soviet Union waited for the disintegration of Polish forces and finally invaded from the east on September 17. The Soviets had reason to be cautious. On August 15, 1920 when the Bolsheviks were poised to overrun a weak Europe exhausted from the war, Poland with a great mobilization of prayer defeated them in the Battle of Warsaw, commonly called the Miracle on the Vistula or Cud nad Visła.

The Polish army, one of the larger and better armies in Europe in 1939, was able to valiantly resist the onslaught from two huge armies, one from the east and another from the west until October 6, 1939. However, Poland had a strong underground resistance for the rest of the war while much of its air force escaped and continued to fight very honorably in the Battle of Britain.

By June 4, 1940 over 338,000 allied troops, mostly British, evacuated Dunkirk, France, which virtually surrendered in an unfavorable armistice on June 22, six weeks after being invaded on May 10. Germany had already taken over Belgium in 18 days; Holland, Denmark, and Norway in a matter of a day or two. Poland had fought both Germany and the Soviet Union for five weeks. Portugal, Spain, and Sweden remained neutral. On June 10, Italy entered the war against the allies. A year later on June 22, 1941 Germany broke the non-aggression pact and invaded the Soviet Union. See https://rarehistoricalphotos.com/german-invasion-europe-fall-of-france-1940/.

After the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, the United States entered the war in Europe and the Far East. Two days later Britain declared war on Japan and much of the world was on fire. .

The flames brought on 77 million military and civilian deaths or 3.35% of the world’s population of 2.3 billion people, including 15-20 million in the Holocaust inside and outside of concentration camps. In that number are 6 million Jews, one million Poles, 70,000 handicapped, and many Christians. Among them were two great Polish saints, St. Maximillian Kolbe and St. Edith Stein, both killed in Auschwitz. Millions more were maimed and wounded. The rest is tragic history. Detailed figures can be found in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_II_casualties.

A Friend’s Rosary in the Normandy Invasion. I know personally how the rosary saved the life of a friend of mine……bless his soul. Stanley Belback was part of the third wave of the Normandy Invasion, charging up a steep slope with German bunkers at the top spewing out heavy machine gun fire. Soldiers were being mowed down all around him. Finally, Belback was hit in the chest, but he was wearing a rosary around his neck. Miraculously the bullet glazed off of a rosary bead instead of going right through it. He lived to tell about it. Stanley showed me the broken rosary. Of course, his mother and young wife constantly prayed the rosary for him.

The Fatima Message saved the Franciscans from the atomic bomb in Nagasaki, Japan. In the 1930s Polish Franciscans had a mission in Japan. Among them was St. Maximilian Kolbe. He founded a Japanese version of the Knight of the Immaculata Magazine, which reached a circulation of 65,000 in 1936 or 800,000 world wide by 1938. When he founded a new friary in Nagasaki, where most Japanese Catholics live, the future saint inexplicably insisted that it be built on the side of a mountain and not near the center of the city. His Franciscan brothers did not understand, but went along with it. See

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/moniqueocampowrites/2015/08/14/the-japanese-legacy-of-st-maximilian-kolbe/.

Seconds after the detonation of the atomic bomb over Nagasaki, Japan on August 9, 1945. Imagine the power of a hydrogen bomb, which is hundreds of times more powerful. Pray the rosary for peace.

At 11:02 am on August 9, 1945 the United States dropped a five ton atomic bomb on Nagasaki instead of Kokura, the primary target because of cloud cover. President Truman hoped that the great destruction and loss of lives would force the Japanese to surrender. Most of the city was leveled; the temperature reached over 7000^oF with 600 miles per hour winds; over 40,000 people died immediately; many were vaporized. Those who looked at the flash became blind. Over 70,000 were injured; thousands more suffered from radiation; and many more contracted all kinds of cancers years later.

But miraculously the friary was untouched and the monks inexplicably did not suffer any radiation poisoning or aftereffects as thousands of other people did. The mountain protected them from the force of the blast. The following video link of the Nagasaki bombing details the bombing of Nagasaki and shows the stark horror of war in general and nuclear war in particular:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ncq_Wye43TM.

The smoke didn’t clear yet in a typical scene. The destruction in Nagasaki and Hiroshima was similar. Only a few badly damaged buildings were left standing and people were pulverized. In Hiroshima 70,000 died instantly, over 140,000 total within a year. Hiroshima and Nagasaki are among the most Catholic cities in Japan. Only a few walls of the beautiful Immaculate Conception Cathedral in Hiroshima remained. This could happen to us. Pray the rosary for peace.

Eight Jesuit missionaries from Germany occupied the rectory of Our Lady of Assumption Church and School in Hiroshima. They have a similar story of surviving a nuclear blast unharmed, perhaps even more miraculous since they were only four miles from ground zero although a nearby hill did give some protection. Everything was destroyed for many blocks around, but the priests survived with only scratches and minimal damage to the home. Fr Hubert Schiffer believed that “we survived because we were living the message of Fatima. We lived and prayed the rosary daily in that home.” This is reminiscent of Chapter 3 of the Book of Daniel of the Bible in which the three young men survived being thrown into Nebuchadnezzar’s fiery furnace. See http://catholicherald.co.uk/commentandblogs/2015/08/09/the-priests-who-survived-the-atomic-bomb/ and the video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xx2MRo3M3Fs.

Both the Polish Franciscans and the German Jesuits believed they were spared because they put into practice the Fatima message that Mary herself gave us over 100 years ago in 1917 (see http://www.aurora-service.eu/aurora-school/aurora-borealis/). Mother Mary asked us to: repent; pray, pray the rosary daily for peace; foster a devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary; and Penance - offer daily sacrifices and crosses for sinners because "so many souls are going to hell and nobody is praying for them". Everyday offer up the daily trials, frustrations, failures, sickness, accident, etc. (crosses) to the Lord through Mary for the conversion of sinners. In this way each one of us can help to save souls. That will make you a saint someday and they will thank you in Heaven.

Note: For a beautiful musical composed and produced by a Franciscan University student, Michael Cygan, for the Our Lady of Fatima Centenary, click on Fatima Musical: 2017 (Oficjalne) Przedstawienie na Stulecie Objawień or https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y669RdFpF5c. The website www.fatimathemusical.com. What a way for a college student to spread the Fatima Message! Wow!

Sources

https://rosariumblogdotcom.files.wordpress.com/2017/03/fatima-1-26-1938.pdf - New York Times Report.

http://www.solarstorms.org/SS1938.html - Solar storms.

http://www.aurora-service.eu/aurora-school/aurora-borealis/ - How the Aurora Borealis works.

http://edutechbook.com/lib/january%2025%201938%20the%20fatima%20storm%20solar%20storms%20space.pdf – more detailed technical analysis of the Fatima Storm.

https://rarehistoricalphotos.com/german-invasion-europe-fall-of-france-1940/ - Photos and information.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_II_casualties - Statistics of World War II dead and wounded world-wide.

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/moniqueocampowrites/2015/08/14/the-japanese-legacy-of-st-maximilian-kolbe/ - St. Maximilian Kolbe and the bombing of Nagasaki.

http://www.bbc.com/news/in-pictures-33769566 - Nagasaki bombing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ncq_Wye43TM – Fascinating video on the bombing and aftermath.

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/photography/.../fire-fury-hiroshima-nagasaki-an - Photos of the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

http://catholicherald.co.uk/commentandblogs/2015/08/09/the-priests-who-survived-the-atomic-bomb/ - Eight German Jesuits survive the Hiroshima blast only four miles from Ground.Zero.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o5XS2tzVJUg - German Jesuits survive the atom bomb at Hiroshima.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xx2MRo3M3Fs - Video of the atomic bomb dropped over Hiroshima.

http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/documents/rc_con_cfaith_doc_20000626_message-fatima_en.html - The message of Fatima and the secrets.

https://www.ewtn.com/fatima/message.asp - Extensive description, the Fatima Message and the secrets.

https://www.catholiccompany.com/getfed/how-to-live-the-message-of-our-lady-of-fatima/ - How to live the Fatima Message.

http://www.rosary-center.org/fatimams.htm - Excellent concise description of the Fatima Message.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxZBxEJz1v8 – a well done documentary on the apparitions of Our Lady of Fatima and her message.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y669RdFpF5c – a beautiful musical on the story of the Fatima apparitions and message done by “Michael Cygan” fatimathemusical@gmail.com a recent graduate of Franciscan University of Steubenville.

Other Articles in the Series on Our Lady of Fatima

(186) What Made Jacinta and Francisco New Saints 100 Years After Mary’s Appearances in Fatima, Portugal?

http://paulrsebastianphd.blogspot.com/2017/05/186-what-made-jacinta-and-francisco-new.html

(188) Our Lady of Fatima at 100…...the First Apparition on May 13, 1917 & the Second on June 13, 1917

http://paulrsebastianphd.blogspot.com/2017/06/188-our-lady-of-fatima-at-100may-13-and.html

(190) Our Lady of Fatima at 100…...the July 13, 1917 Apparition…….To Hell and Back

http://paulrsebastianphd.blogspot.com/2017/07/190-our-lady-of-fatima-at-100the.html

(192) OUR LADY OF FATIMA AT 100: The August 13 & 19 Apparitions and Jail

http://paulrsebastianphd.blogspot.com/2017/10/our-lady-of-fatima-centennial-august-13.html

(193) OUR LADY OF FATIMA AT 100……..The September 13, 1917 Apparition

http://paulrsebastianphd.blogspot.com/2017/10/193.html

(195) OUR LADY OF FATIMA AT 100……..The Apparition of October 13, 1917 And the Miracle of the Sun

http://paulrsebastianphd.blogspot.com/2017/10/195our-lady-of-fatima-at-100the.html

(6) Reflections: Our Public Square Prayer Rally in Gallipolis-Ohio

http://paulrsebastianphd.blogspot.com/2011/10/reflections-on-public-square-rosary.html

(95) International Pilgrim Virgin Statue of Fatima Visit; Its History & Message

http://paulrsebastianphd.blogspot.com/2012/10/normal-0-false-false-false-en-us-x-none.html

(96) International Pilgrim Virgin Statue of Fatima Visit (II): Its History & Consecration of the World to the Immaculate Heart

http://paulrsebastianphd.blogspot.com/2012/10/blog-post.html

(100) A Review of the Public Square Rosary Rally in Gallipolis, Ohio Saturday October 13, 2012 http://paulrsebastianphd.blogspot.com/2012/11/100-review-of-public-square-rosary.html

(143) Rosary in the Park: the Public Square Rosary Rally in Gallipolis, Ohio….....You can organize one in your community.

http://paulrsebastianphd.blogspot.com/2014/10/143-rosary-in-park-public-square-rosary.html

(177) The Consecration to the Immaculate Heart and the Course of World History

http://paulrsebastianphd.blogspot.com/2016/10/177-consecration-to-immaculate-heart.html

Appendix

The Fatima Storm

Newsletter N°20 – 30 January 2016

Dear Friends,

On the 13th of July 1917, Our Lady confided to the little shepherds : « If men do not refrain from offending God, another and more terrible war will begin during the pontificate of Pius XI. When you see a night that is lit by a strange and unknown light, you will know it is the sign God gives you that He is about to punish the world with war and with hunger, and by the persecution of the Church and the Holy Father. »

Twenty years later, on the night of the 25th to the 26th of January 1938, the sky was aflame with a strange glow. From 9 o’clock in the evening until 2 o’clock in the morning, the night sky was illuminated with a red light. This phenomenon was perceived in most of the countries of Europe, from Norway to Gibraltar, from Portugal to Greece, as well as in North Africa and in the United States and Canada. At the time, everyone believed there was a gigantic fire. The next morning, all the newspapers were talking about it. The phenomenon was attributed to an aurora borealis. The Bulletin de la Société Astronomique de France described it in the following way:

An aurora borealis of magnificent beauty was visible in France and in almost all of the countries of Europe, from Tuesday the 25th of January 1938, in the evening, until Wednesday the 26th, in the morning. In the Swiss Jura, in England, as in the regions of the west, the south-west and the south-east of France, as far as Provence, and even further south, in Italy and Portugal, in Sicily and in Gibraltar, and even in North Africa, the phenomenon showed an exceptional intensity for these latitudes. (…)

A bluish green glow, pale and pretty, covered the sky from the north-east to the north-west. Gradually, the sky above lit up and formed an irregular, red vault. A sort of crimson cloud formed at the north-east and moved towards the north-west as if pushed by a mysterious breath of wind. It moved back, undulated, expanded, faded, rekindled, while huge jets, whose color changed from blood-red to orange-red to yellow, soared towards the zenith.

As for Le Nouvelliste de Lyon it reported:

An aurora borealis of exceptional magnitude furrowed the skies of Western Europe yesterday evening. It caused an upheaval in a number of départements where the first reaction was the belief that it was a gigantic fire. The sky was alight like an enormous open fire in movement, creating a vivid blood-red glow. The edge of the fire was white, as if the sun was going to rise. Doubtless, it was an aurora borealis, but according to Professor Pers of the Faculty of Science at Grenoble, one of an exceptional magnitude.

To such a phenomenon by the expression ‘aurora borealis’ is, in fact, inappropriate. Actually, aurorae borealis generally happen at the north pole and the areas immediately surrounding it, but very rarely below the latitude of 50°. Moreover, they never have this allure of being a gigantic fire with a predominantly red coloring. While they can come in different colors, the dominant color is green and not red. Finally, they have never been so widespread. While they can sometimes stretch over a very long way, they form, for the most part, a ribbon about ten kilometers long.

Sister Lucia never accepted that this phenomenon could be attributed to an aurora borealis. Here is what she says in her third memoire:

Your Excellency is aware of how, a few years ago, God showed this sign which the astronomers wanted to be known under the name of aurora borealis. I don’t know; but it seems to me, that if they looked at the thing carefully, they would see that this was not, and could not be an ordinary aurora borealis, given the manner in which it presented itself. Whatever it was, God used it to make me understand that His justice was ready to strike at the guilty nations, and because of this, I began to ask for, with insistence, the communion of reparation and the consecration of Russia.

Even today, the astronomers are divided as to the origins of this phenomenon, because nothing similar has ever been seen before or since: it is a phenomenon unique in history. Another astonishing point: the regions where the glow was visible correspond exactly to the zone of Christianity which was going to be set alight by the Second World War!

And even if it was the most exceptional aurora borealis ever seen on this earth, the fact that it had been announced twenty years beforehand, constitutes a truly exceptional prophecy, along with the miracle of the dancing sun on the 13th of October 1917. These two prophecies announcing extraordinary natural phenomena, and observed by a very great number of witnesses, give to the apparitions at Fatima an authenticity which is also exceptional and which confer on them a place completely apart in the history of apparitions. No other apparition, either before or since, has been authenticated in such an extraordinary way.

Therefore, if Our Lady has chosen such means to authenticate her message, its importance is equally exceptional. And so, it is particularly important to know it well, and to make it well known.

In union of prayer in the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

Yves de Lassus
President, Cap Fatima 2017

Some News from the Project

For the next first Saturday of the month, the Notre Dame du Lys chapter has had the good idea to send us the hour of the Mass celebrated in the spirit of the devotion of reparation as asked for by Our Lady. You will find the details on the page accessible by the new button ‘1st Saturday of the month’ situated at the top of the website. Henceforth, we will list all the places and times of Masses for the First Saturdays of the Month which we receive.

A number of people have confided prayer intentions to us. It seemed to us pertinent to propose them to everyone by putting them on a special page accessible by the new button ‘Rosaire’ in the menu situated at the top of the website. Remember what Sister Lucia said to Father Fuentès : « The Most Holy Virgin, in these last times in which we live, gave a new impetus to the recitation of the Rosary. In such a way, there is no problem, no matter how difficult, temporal, or especially spiritual, with reference to the private life of each of us, of our families, families throughout the world, or religious communities, or even the lives of peoples and nations, there is no problem, I say, no matter how difficult, that we cannot resolve by praying the Holy Rosary. »

At this time, almost 1,500 people have consecrated themselves to the Immaculate Heart of Mary on one of the dates proposed since last December. The actual number is higher because many people have told us that they have consecrated themselves by organizing their own preparation, and so, without registering to receive the daily meditation. To respond further to Our Lady’s call, spread this devotion around you (see HERE the dates proposed for the consecrations).

The Devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary