As if the heavens were rejoicing for the official proclamation of another blessed figure, the clouds in the sky parted to reveal a rare solar rainbow halo during the beatification of Salvadoran Archbishop Oscar Romero in El Salvador.
The colourful solar halo appeared as Blessed Oscar Romero's relics were brought out to be venerated during a Holy Mass held as part of the archbishop's beatification ceremonies in El Salvador's capital, San Salvador.
People who witnessed this one-of-a-kind optical phenomenon during Romero's beatification were instantly astonished.
"Honestly, I think this one of the most supernatural things I have ever experienced in my life," Father Manuel Dorantes, who attended Romero's beatification ceremonies, said.
A solar halo appears when rays of the sun interact with ice crystals suspended in the atmosphere, resulting in a colourful ring or arc in the sky.
Cardinal Angelo Amato, the Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, led the emotional beatification ceremony attended by some 260,000 people, mostly Salvadorans.
"Romero's spirit remains alive and gives comfort to the marginalized people of the world. His preference for the poor was not ideological, but evangelical. His charity extended to his persecutors," Cardinal Amato said.
Now declared within the ranks of the blessed, Romero is now a step closer to sainthood.
In 1980, Blessed Romero died after he was shot through the heart by a sniper while celebrating Holy Mass at a chapel inside a cancer hospital.
A day before the shooting incident, the archbishop strongly criticized the Salvadoran military, which was supported by the United States, for its supposed abuse of civilians.
"I beg you, I beseech you, I order you, in the name of God, cease the repression," Romero, who was well-loved by the poor, said in his famous address.
