Before the Miracle of the Sun: What the Virgin Asked at Fátima on 13 September 1917 before 30,000 People
On 13 September 1917, between 20,000 and 30,000 people gathered in the Cova da Iria, in Fátima (Portugal), to accompany Lúcia dos Santos and her cousins Francisco and Jacinta Marto at the fifth apparition of Our Lady. The Miracle of the Sun was still a month away, yet the crowd that had gathered at the site had grown considerably since the first apparitions.