 Proposed alternative explanations include witnesses being deceived by their senses due to prolonged staring at the Sun and then seeing something unusual as expected.Beginning in the spring of 1917, three Catholic shepherd children living near Fatima reported apparitions of an Angel, and starting in May 1917, apparitions of the Virgin Mary, whom the children described as the Lady of the Rosary.The children reported a prophecy that prayer would lead to an end to the Great War, and that on 13 October of that year the Lady would reveal her identity and perform a miracle "so that all may believe."