The Donglü Miracle of the Sun and Marian Apparition, Hebei, 1995

Donglü is a village about 140 km south-west of Beijing, in the Qingyuan District of Baoding, Hebei. Most of its people are Catholic. Its fame began in 1900, during the Boxer Rebellion, when Catholics believe Mary appeared in white in the sky above the village. Pius XI approved the image of Our Lady of China in 1928 and consecrated the shrine in 1932.

23 May 1995. The eve of the feast of Mary Help of Christians. Some 30,000 Catholics from the underground Church filled an open field at the shrine for a morning Mass. Four bishops stood at the altar with nearly 100 priests.

During the opening prayer, the sun suddenly lost its overpowering brightness. People found they could look straight at it, without blinking. Then it began to spin. Accounts disagree on the direction: left to right, right to left, or alternately both ways. A Portuguese report said it emerged from clouds and rotated like a screw.

Its centre seemed covered by a white host, ringed with layers of colour. It turned yellow, then red, then blue. Rays of various shades poured down on the crowd, who shouted and applauded: "Yellow, red, blue..." Then came the figures: the Cross, the Holy Family, the Sacred Host, and Our Lady of China holding the Christ Child.

It happened again at the consecration. After about 20 minutes, a sudden white ray ended it, and the sky returned to normal. Witnesses said they became conscious of their sinfulness and cried out for forgiveness. Others spoke of a sense of serene joy and confidence.

Bishop James Su Zhimin, the underground Bishop of Baoding, signed a statement of belief. The Holy Mother, he wrote, had manifested her great power to strengthen the faith of the pilgrims. He presented the event as a sign that the Church loyal to the Pope was the true Church.

The state never addressed the sun. It policed the crowds. The next day as many as 100,000 people came. The Public Security Bureau turned pilgrims back and forced them onto buses.

In 1996 the pilgrimage was banned as an illegal gathering. Up to 5,000 troops, about 30 armoured vehicles and helicopters sealed off the village, and the statue of Mary was reportedly confiscated. Bishop Su was arrested in 1996, escaped, and was arrested again in 1997. Police lockdowns returned every May for years.

No one has accused the clergy or the witnesses of a hoax, and no scientific study was ever made. The Vatican has not ruled on 1995. Its approvals concern the 1900 apparition and the shrine. Gianni Criveller and others compare Donglü to Fátima in 1917, the classic miracle of the sun. Explanations offered for solar miracles in general include afterimages and dazzle from staring at the sun, haze or thin cloud dimming the disc, and the expectation of a crowd during a long Mass. None has been argued in print about Donglü itself.

No photograph or film of that morning has surfaced. What remains is testimony, a bishop's signature, and a field the authorities guarded for years. Our Lady of China is now honoured in chapels from Honolulu to Australia. In Donglü, the faithful kept gathering for Mass in the open air.