Observations placeholder
Reverend Jacques Fodere - 23 January 1603, Besangon, France – A Self-propelled cloud
Identifier
028951
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
"In the year 1603, being in Besangon for the duties of my charge as Visitor to Sainte Claire monastery, it happened that on a Thursday, the 23th day of January, between 7 and 8 P.M., we were told that all the people were assembling in the streets, terrified. I went out, and like the others I saw a great light in the air over the cathedral, covering the whole of Mount Saint Etienne with a round-shaped, heavy cloud, reddish in color, while all the air was clear and the sky so devoid of fog that the stars were seen shining brilliantly.
"This light remained quasi-motionless over Mount Saint Etienne, and from there we saw it coming so low that it nearly touched the houses and lit up the nearby streets, but with a motion so slow that it was hardly noticeable, and it halted for at least a quarter of an hour over Saint Vincent Abbey, where some pieces of relics of two glorious Saints are kept. Then, escaping over the Grande place of Chammar to the Doubs river, it went away through the Grande rue that goes to the bridge, and straight to the cathedral where it vanished, but as we said before, with such a slow motion that its travel lasted until 9:30 at night, which is to say at least two hours."
Source: Reverend Jacques Fodere, Narration historique et topographique des convens de J'ordre de St-Frangois (Lyon: Pierre Rigaud, 1619), 10-11.