by Andrew Arnett
Rumor has it that deep within the bowels of Vatican City there exists a cavernous network containing a trove of priceless artifacts including, according to Ancient Astronaut Theorists, crashed alien technology. Think of the warehouse in Raiders of the Lost Ark where they stored the Ark of the Covenant. It is something like that only way bigger. We know the Church is a big time hoarder. Take for example the Vatican Secret Archives located above ground just north of the Sistine Chapel. It contains 53 miles worth of shelf space filled with priceless goodies dating back twelve centuries. There’s enough room right there to house a mothership, plus a shuttle craft or two.
F@ck Area 51. If you want dead aliens, storm the Vatican instead. Of course, that would be difficult to do on a normal day. Damn near impossible now that the entire country of Italy is shut down because of Corona Virus. Maybe they caught wind of such a scheme? I’m imagining Trump’s Space Force planning to do just that, in hopes of releasing free energy technology to the entire world. Great countries, after all, do great things.
Chances are we’re not going to find out what’s down there anytime soon. And until Full Disclosure occurs, those of us engaged in UFO research will have to contend ourselves with the evidence at hand. Turns out there are plenty of clues embedded in historic religious art. In our last article, we examined the anomalous saucer shaped object in the 1710 painting The Baptism of Christ, by Aert De Gelde. Today, we’re going to examine a painting which suggests, to my eyes, an entire fleet of flying saucers.
The Miracle of the Snow was painted by Masolino Da Panicale, sometime around 1400. Here, the artist depicts the legend of a mysterious snow fall that was said to have taken place in Rome on a hot day in August during the fourth century. The painting shows Jesus and Mary hovering overhead in what historians describe as a cloud, while townspeople below look at the snow on the ground.
The legend, referred to as “Our Lady of the Snow,” took place on August 5 in the year 352. It is said that Pope Liberius had a dream wherein the Virgin Mary told him to build a church in the Seven Hills of Rome. Mary, in the vision, told him that snow would fall on Mount Esquiline and exactly where the church should be located.
Across town, a rich patron of the Church named John had the same vision. John rushed to the site and sure enough, snow was falling in the formation of a square. Soon after, the Pope arrived. John and the Pope confirmed their mutual visions and laid the foundations for what would be the Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore, the largest Roman Catholic Church dedicated to Mary. The legend is celebrated in the name of the Virgin Mary as the Feast of St. Mary Major and commemorated every year by the dropping of white rose petals from the dome during the evening prayer on August 5.
Now tell the truth, does the depiction of “clouds” in the painting resemble actual clouds in anyway, shape or form? Nope. And certainly, they are not snowflakes. Hell no. One of these flakes span the length of the square down below and carry on board Jesus and Mary. These look like spaceships. Not only that, but an entire Armada of ships. In fact, it looks like a bloody ET invasion.The entire legend has characteristics of a close encounter of the 3rd kind, with alien contact made during a dream and then later with the saucers. For a painter to make an amateurish, childlike rendering of clouds seems out of character with someone as highly esteemed and accomplished as Masolino.
What do we know about the artist? Much of Masolino da Panicale’s life is shrouded in mystery. He was possibly born in Panicale, Italy. The exact date is not known – most likely around 1383 or 1384. Records show he studied painting at Ghiberti’s workshop at the age of nineteen. There appears to be a lack of record regarding Masolino during the first two decades of the fifteenth century. Scholars believe he may have been sojourning possibly in Hungary. Reports show he reappeared in Florence in 1428, and in 1429 went to Rome where he painted the Miracle of the Snow, now divided into three panels located at Museo di Capodimonte, Naples, National Gallery, London and John G. Johnson collection, Philadelphia Museum of Art.
The Legend of the Snow bares striking similarities to an event that took place practically 1600 years later, north of Rome, in the city of Florence. On October 27, 1954, a major soccer match taking place at Stadio Artemi Franchi in Florence was halted when spectators noticed a group of cigar or egg-shaped UFOs zoom overhead at high speed before stopping abruptly overhead, dropping a fine silver glitter over the crowd. One of the athletes, Italy World Cup player Ardico Magnini recalls the event, saying:
“I remember everything from A to Z. It was something that looked like an egg that was moving slowly, slowly, slowly. Everyone was looking up and also there was some glitter coming down from the sky, silver glitter. We were astonished we had never seen anything like it before. We were absolutely shocked.”
At the time, the snow-like material which fell from the saucers was debunked as “angel hair” from “migrating spiders.” US Air Force pilot-turned-astronomer James McGaha from the Grasslands Observatory in South Eastern Arizona claimed:
“The spiders use these webs as sails and they link together and you get a big glob of this stuff in the sky and the spiders ride on this to move between locations. They just fly on the wind and these things have been recorded at 14,000 feet above the ground. So, when the sunlight glistens off this, you get all kinds of visual effects. As some of this stuff breaks off and falls to the ground, this all seems magical of course, but I’m fairly confident that’s what happened that day.”
David Bowie made a tribute to this event in his 1972 album The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust. His backing band at the time, The Spiders from Mars, was a direct reference to the snow-like material which fell from the saucers. UFO phenomena would inspire much of Bowie’s work, starting with his breakthrough LP, 1969’s Space Oddity, with the inclusion of spaceships and aliens on its sleeve. On his song Starman, Bowie sings:
“There’s a starman waiting in the sky
He’d like to come and meet us
But he thinks he’ll blow our minds”
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