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The Angels of Thornton
by Ann Druffel
FATE :: December 2006
Vangie Santos had joined a two-bus pilgrimage of people who traveled from their homes in Strathmore, California, to Thornton, to visit a small modern church where, for several months preceding, a statue of Our Lady of Fatima had been reported by reliable witnesses to weep and change position spontaneously. Several photos taken of the statue by pilgrims at the site allegedly showed paranormal artifacts, such as the image of Christ’s face. These, together with other photos taken of tears on the statue’s face, were considered by many of the pilgrims to be supernatural. At the time of Vangie’s visit, the statue of Our Lady was drawing large, fervent crowds who gathered to pray for world peace, in recognition of Our Lady’s specific request to the three small Portuguese children during her apparitions at Fatima in 1917.
The Strathmore pilgrims arrived at the Thornton church early one afternoon. In front of the church, a man was enthusiastically showing passersby an album of photos he had collected of the weeping statue inside. Many of the photos, Vangie noticed, showed white streaks and other markings, which the gentleman claimed were supernatural manifestations. A few of these white streaks seemed to have meaningful form but most of them did not impress her. She was more interested in seeing for herself if the statue actually wept.
When Vangie entered the church, she saw the statue of Our Lady of Fatima, which had been placed on a small table on the left side of the main altar, surrounded by banks of white and blue flowers; a myriad of candles glowed around its base. An air of rapt attention accompanied prayers being said by dozens of onlookers kneeling in the pews and moving along the aisles.
Vangie scouted the church, taking photos of the saints’ statues. The statue of Our Lady, however, took Vangie’s main attention. She gazed at it intently, hoping to see some sign of weeping. An objective, down-to-earth Catholic, whose family owned a cattle-feed business in Strathmore, Vangie was not the type to expect a miracle. Neither was she the type to demand favors from God. None of the pilgrims saw the statue weep that day, and neither did Evangeline Santos.
However, as she looked at the statue, the eyes impressed her, for they seemed to gaze intently back at her. The statue was not life size, being only about two feet high, but its large, brown eyes were bright and luminous. To Vangie’s view, they seemed to have a moist, lifelike quality. Gazing at the other features on the lovely visage, Vangie saw that the plaster of the face had the same quality. To her it did not seem like plaster at all, but rather actual human skin. She peered as close as she could, but the nearest any of the pilgrims could come was about ten feet, for the church authorities had sealed it off from closer approach. Vangie examined the other statues in the church. None seemed to be other than what they were—plaster replicas of various saints. She felt that somehow the statue of Our Lady of Fatima was different but she would not allow her objective mind to assign any supernatural aspect to it; it was simply not in her nature.
She took two pictures of Our Lady’s statue, one right next to the railing and another a little farther away. She caught numerous features in the church in these pictures—banks of votive lights, other pilgrims, the large candles, flowers on the decorated platform, and the blue satin material that covered the base. Then Vangie and the busloads of pilgrims from Strathmore returned to their homes.
By the next day, even before she took the pictures to be developed, Vangie had her first awareness that something had happened to her. The day before, when she had gone on the pilgrimage, she had felt depressed. Now, however, she felt an unaccountable lifting of the spirit. Perhaps the pilgrimage to Thornton and the tranquil atmosphere in the church had brought it about. Whatever the cause, Vangie did not question it; she was grateful for the peaceful change in her mind and thanked God for his blessings.
When the pictures were developed some days later, Vangie now knew that something quite remarkable had occurred. Most of the negatives in the tiny circular Sun-disc pack were normal, except for three darkened ones where the flash had apparently not worked, and two others that were essentially clear but contained fogged areas. There was something else—a repeated image in Frame #6, one of the two bright photos of the statue of Our Lady of Fatima. Along the right side of this photo, in a perfect line extending from the bottom of the photo to the top was a row of four pink forms, resembling angels in profile, complete with flowing pink robes, haloes, their arms held in an attitude of prayer ...
Read the rest of this article in the December 2006 issue of FATE
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