Montreal, Quebec, Canada — 1663
The language of Heaven
This case is based on a relation of what occurred in the Mission of the Fathers of the Society of Jesus in the country of New France, from the summer of 1662 to the summer of 1663: Heaven and Earth have spoken to us many times during the past year, and that in a language both kind and mysterious, which threw us at the same time into fear and admiration. The Heavens began with Phenomena of great beauty, and the Earth followed with violent upheavals, which made it very evident to us that these mute and brilliant aerial voices were not, after all, mere empty words, since they presaged convulsions that were to make us shudder while making the Earth tremble. As early as last autumn we saw fiery Serpents, intertwined in the form of the Caduceus, flying through mid-air, borne on wings of flame. Over Quebec we beheld a great Ball of fire, which illumined the night almost with the splendor of day—had not our pleasure in beholding it been mingled with fear, caused by its emission of sparks in all directions. This same Meteor appeared over Montreal, but seemed to issue from the Moon 5 bosom, with a noise like that of Cannon or Thunder; and, after traveling three leagues in the air, it finally vanished behind the great mountain whose name that Island bears. But what seemed to us most extraordinary was the appearance of three Suns. Toward eight o ‘clock in the morning, on a beautiful day last Winter, a light and almost imperceptible mist arose from our great river, and, when struck by the Sun’s first rays, became transparent,—retaining, however, sufficient substance to bear the two Images cast upon it by that Luminary. These three Suns were almost in a straight line, apparently several ‘toises’ distant from one another, the real one in the middle, and the others, one on each side. All three were crowned by a Rainbow, the colors of which were not definitely fixed; it now appeared iris-hued, and now of a luminous white, as if an exceedingly strong light had been at a short distance underneath. This spectacle was of almost two hours’ duration upon its first appearance, on the seventh of January, 1663; while upon its second, on the 14 th of the same month, it did not last so long, but only until, the Rainbow hues gradually fading away, the two Suns at the sides also vanished, leaving the central one, as it were, victorious. These are classic descriptions of what we recognize today as natural atmospheric phenomena.
Source: The Jesuit relations and allied documents: travels and explorations of the Jesuit missionaries in New France, 1610-1791: the original French, Latin, and Italian texts, with English translations and notes. Reuben Gold Thwaites, 1853-1913. (Cleveland: Burrows, 1899.) Case: W507