Observations placeholder
Paul Selva - 8 September 1296, Loreto, Italy - Globes of light, and an elliptical object
Identifier
028868
Type of Spiritual Experience
None
Background
A description of the experience
As quoted in Wonders In The Sky - Unexplained Aerial Objects From Antiquity To Modern Times - and Their Impact on Human Culture, History, and Beliefs - Jacques Vallee and Chris Aubeck
Before dawn, mysterious globes of light appeared repeatedly in the sky of Loreto, falling, stopping and disappearing suddenly. The phenomenon was witnessed by a hermit, Paul Selva, who wrote a famous letter to Charles II dated June 1297.
The phenomenon appeared as a body of elliptical shape. A writer named Mantovano who obtained the information from a record dating back to 1300, notes: "He saw a light in the shape of a very bright comet measuring twelve feet in length and six in width, coming down from heaven in the direction of the church and after it approached, vanished at the site." The object, obviously, was not a comet.
Sources: G. Garrat, Loreto, nuova Nazaret (Recanati, 1894); O. Torsellini, Laurentana istoria, trans. B. Quatrini (Bologna, 1894).