The miracle of the sun in Medjugorje
Dogma of Assumption Confirmed by Sun Miracle
By Bernard Gallagher
The dogma of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary was
declared by Pope Pius XII on November 1, 1950 and states that
“The Immaculate Mother of God, Mary ever Virgin, when the course
of her earthly life was finished, was taken up body and soul
into the glory of Heaven.”
In this declaration, no position is taken by the Church as to
the question of whether Mary actually died. However, in one of
Her very early messages given at Medjugorje, Our Lady gave this
answer to one of the seers when asked if She went to Heaven
before or after death: “I am the Mother of God and the Queen of
Peace. I went to Heaven before death” (10/12/81).
Five years ago, a previously unpublished document came to
light which revealed Pope Pius XII had witnessed the “miracle of
the sun” on four occasions, and he considered this experience as
confirmation of his plan to declare the dogma of the Assumption.
The information contained in this handwritten note by Pius XII
went on public display for two months in the Vatican in November
2008. Reporting at the time for zenit.org Antonio, Gaspari
wrote:
According to his own testimony, the Pope who declared the dogma
of the Assumption saw the “miracle of the sun” four times.
This information is confirmed by a handwritten, unpublished
note from Pope Pius XII, which is part of the Pius XII: The Man
and the Pontificate display.
A commissioner of the display and a Vatican reporter for the
Italian daily Il Giornale, Andrea Tornielli, explained to
ZENIT that the note was found in the Pacelli family archives. It
describes the “miracle of the sun,” an episode that until today
had only been affirmed by the indirect testimony of Cardinal
Federico Tedeschini (1873-1959), who recounted in a homily that
the Holy Father had seen the miracle.
Pius XII wrote, “I have seen the ‘miracle of the sun,’ this
is the pure truth.”
The miracle of the sun is most known as the episode that
occurred in Fatima, Portugal, on October 13, 1917. According to
the Fatima visionaries, Mary had said there would be a miracle
that day so that people would come to believe. Thousands had
gathered at the site of the visions, and the sun “danced,”
reportedly drying instantaneously the rain-soaked land and
spectators.
Pius XII’s note says that he saw the miracle in the year he
was to proclaim the dogma of the Assumption, 1950, while he
walked in the Vatican Gardens. He said he saw the phenomenon
various times, considering it a confirmation of his plan to
declare the dogma.
The papal note says that at 4:00 P.M. on October 30, 1950,
during his “habitual walk in the Vatican Gardens, reading and
studying,” having arrived to the statue of Our Lady of Lourdes,
“Toward the top of the hill […] I was awestruck by a phenomenon
that before now I had never seen.”
“The sun, which was still quite high, looked like a pale,
opaque sphere, entirely surrounded by a luminous circle,” he
recounted. And one could look at the sun, “without the slightest
bother. There was a very light little cloud in front of it.”
The Holy Father’s note goes on to describe “the opaque
sphere” that “moved outward slightly, either spinning, or moving
from left to right and vice versa. But within the sphere, you
could see marked movements with total clarity and without
interruption."
Pius XII said he saw the same phenomenon “the 31st of October
and November 1, the day of the definition of the dogma of the
Assumption, and then again November 8, and after that, no more.”
The Pope acknowledged that on other days at about the same hour,
he tried to see if the phenomenon would be repeated, “but in
vain – I couldn't fix my gaze [on the sun] for even an instant;
my eyes would be dazzled.”
Pius XII spoke about the incident with a few cardinals and
close collaborators, such that Sister Pascalina Lehnert, the nun
in charge of the papal apartments, declared that “Pius XII was
very convinced of the reality of the extraordinary phenomenon,
which he had seen on four occasions.”
As Pope, in 1940, Pius XII approved the Fatima apparitions,
and in 1942, consecrated the entire world to the Immaculate
Heart of Mary.
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