Wonders in the Sky (25 page)

Whether by some amazing coincidence or divine providence it did not take too long to find a hidden treasure: a bell, and below that a sculpted image of the Virgin Mary. Nolasco thanked the angels for the wondrous gifts and a little time afterwards constructed an altar at the spot.

 

Source: Tirso De Molina,
Historia de la Orden de la Merced
(1637). Today the monastery has a website: www.monasteriodelpuig.es.tl.

112.

24 July 1239, France
A great light, ascending

“On July 24, 1239, at dusk, but not when the stars came out, while the air was clear, serene and shining, a great star appeared.
It was like a torch, rising from the south, and flying on both sides of it, there was emitted in the height of the sky a very great light. It turned quickly towards the north in the aerie region, not quickly, nor, indeed, with speed, but exactly as if it wished to ascend to a place high in the air.”

This sequence of motion is not typical of a natural phenomenon, and it certainly was not a “star.”

 

Source: Matthew Paris,
Chronica Majora
(London: Longman, 1880), vol. 3, 566.

113.

1252, Padua, Italy: Flying light, seen for an hour

This event is described in the
Cronaca di Rolandino da Padova
, where a witness reports:

“A certain great star, like a comet, but it was not a comet because it did not have a tail and it was a portentous thing because it looked almost as large as the moon, and it moved faster than the moon, but as fast as falling stars, and indeed it was not the moon. It was observable for an hour and then it vanished.”

This object, as described, was not a comet or a meteor.

 

Source: U. Dall'Olmo, “Meteors, meteor showers and meteorites in the Middle Ages: From European medieval sources,”
Journal for the History of Astronomy
9 (1978).

114.

14 October 1253, England: A battle of stars

Nicholas of Findern reported to Burton Abbey that “About the hour of vespers, the sky being clear, suddenly a large bright star appeared out of a black cloud with two smaller stars in the vicinity. A battle royal soon commenced, the small stars charging the great star again and again, so that it began to diminish in size, and sparks of fire fell from the combatants. This continued for a considerable time, and at last, the spectators, stupefied, by fear and wonder, and ignorant of what it might portend, fled.”

 

Source:
Annales de Burton
, in H. R. Luard, ed.,
Annales Monastici
vol 1 (London: HMSO, 1864).

115.

12 September 1271, Japan
Saved from execution by a flying sphere!

At midnight one of Japan's greatest saints, Nichiren Shonin (1222-1282), was being escorted to the beach to be executed. Just before the fatal moment, a brilliant sphere as large as the moon flew over, illuminating the landscape. The authorities were so frightened by the apparition that they changed their minds about putting Shonin to death. Instead, they exiled him to Sado Island, though this did not prevent his teachings from spreading. A branch of his teachings, the Sokka-Gakkei, has millions of adherents throughout the world today.

 

Source: Rev. Ryuei Michael McCormick,
Lotus Seeds: The Essence of Nichiren Shu Buddhis
(Nichiren Buddhist Temple of San Jose, 2000).

116.

1273, Naples, Italy
A light enters the bedroom of a sick man

The biography of St. Thomas Aquinas (ca. 1225 to 7 March 1274) states that on the year before his death he returned to Naples, staying in that city for a few weeks during an illness. While he was there two monks saw a light described as a big star coming through the window. It rested for a moment on the head of the sick man and disappeared again, just as it came.

The link with ufology here is very much open to debate, yet abduction researchers have been looking into stories of this kind with increasing interest.

 

Source: Antonio Borrelli, “San Tommaso d'Aquino Sacerdote e dottore della Chiesa,” citing the
Life
of Saint Thomas Aquinas.

www.santiebeati.it/dettaglio/22550.

117.

3 June 1277, China, location unknown
Strange event seen at dawn

An unknown object was immortalized in a poem by Liou Ying, a Chinese poet of the Yuan Dynasty. The title of the poem, which can be found in chapter three of
The Yuan Literature Collection
, was simply “Event Seen at Dawn.”

“I rise at dawn and, through the window, I see a very bright star that crosses the Milky Way. Now I see three luminous objects appear in the southern sky, of which two fly away and disappear suddenly from my sight. The one which remains possesses five unequalled lights beneath it, and above its upper part I see something in the form of a dome. The unknown object begins to move in a zigzag, like a dead leaf. At the same time, some fiery thing falls from the sky. A short time afterwards, the sun rises but its brightness is dulled by the luminous object that moves quickly in a northerly direction. In the western sky, a green cloud is suddenly disturbed by another unknown object, oval in shape, flat, that descends quickly. This object is more than three metres long, and is surrounded by flames. It rises again shortly after its descent.

“In view of this splendid and amazing spectacle, I rush to the village to alert the inhabitants. When my friends come out of their houses, the flying machine has disappeared. After the event, I reflect on it very much but do not find a reasonable explanation. I have the impression I have come out of a long dream. I hasten to write down all that I have seen at the time so that whoever understands these events can give me an explanation.”

 

Source: Shi Bo,
La Chine et les Extraterrestres
, op.cit., 37.

118.

Circa 1284, Parma, Saint Ruffino, Italy
A duel of stars

On 6 August 1284 the naval battle of the Meloria, between the forces of Genoa and Pisa, took place. It is said in the
Chronicon Parmesan
, of the Franciscan monk Salimbene de Adam (1221-1287):

“It should be known that this battle and massacre between the Genovesi and Pisani had already been foretold and announced long before it happened. In the town of Saint Ruffino, in the diocese of Parma, some women peeled [washed?] the linen at night: and they saw two great stars meeting in the sky. They drew away from each other and still collided again, and chased one another, and more than once…”