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Whether the COVID19 pandemic will permanently end showings at your neighborhood cinema remains to be seen, but in the summer of 2020, the closest thing to a traditional summer blockbuster was the latest release from YouTube. It should come as no surprise, that in this unforgettably difficult year, the small-screen’s largest offering would remind us of another turbulent time, when, just over a century ago, another great pandemic ravaged the planet.

Fatima is the feature-length fully produced story of three young Portuguese shepherds who, in the Spring of 1917, claimed to have witnessed near their village (Fatima), an appearance by the Virgin Mary herself. The movie primarily focuses on the account of 10-year-old Lucia dos Santos, the eldest, who died in 2005. The other two children, Francisco and Jacinta Marto, were destined to die in the great flu epidemic of 1918, but not before participating in a drama that would command worldwide attention—and, with the new film, may still. Most reviewers appear to be in the skeptical camp, seeing the film as a polished but, in their view, unsatisfying argument for miracles.

But miracles aside, the documented facts of the episode itself still command attention, if not amazement.

In May of 1917, the children reported seeing a “Lady more brilliant than the Sun” who prophesied that prayer would end the ‘Great War’ (WWI) that had raged since 1914. Years later, Lucia, who became a nun, would recall that the ‘Lady’ had specifically requested the consecration of Russia. Indeed, the events in Fatima, coincided strangely with the lead-up to Russia’s Bolshevik revolution, which began with “The October Revolution of 1917,” something Portuguese children wouldn’t know, much less, warn about.

Yet months earlier they had declared that the ‘Lady’ would appear on October 13 to perform a miracle for all to see. In the intervening months they endured a gauntlet of disbelief and hostility from neighbors and government officials. Nevertheless, on the appointed day, many pilgrims and readers of published accounts journeyed to the spot. An estimated 70,000 were present for what newspapers would call ‘The Miracle of the Sun.’

After a rainstorm with thousands of umbrellas raised, the sun appeared, quickly drying everything, but, then, said witnesses, it became an opaque spinning disc, casting multi-colored rays across the landscape. It was seen to careen toward the earth before zigzagging back to its normal position. The phenomenon was observed miles away. Primitive but authentic black-and white film shows the crowd’s astonishment at the spectacle. Yet, as strange as the Fatima story may seem, even stranger may be the Russian connection.