Prophecy: A History of the Future
Robert A. Nelson
Chapter 3
Prophecy: A History of the Future
Robert A. Nelson
Chapter 3
1. Pseudo-Methodius
2. St. Hilarion
3. St. Ephrem
4. St. Columbcille
5. St. Brogan
6. St. Ultan
7. Bede the Venerable & Monk Adso
8. St. Edward
9. The Brahan Seer
10. Balthasar Mas
11. Rudolfo Gilthier
12. Liber Mirabilis
13. Mother Shipton
14. Rigord of St. Denis
15. Hepidanus
16. Caesarius of Heisterbach
17. Johann Friede
18. Anonymous
19. Anonymous
20. Anonymous
21. Pere Nechtou
22. Catholic Nuns
23. Anna Emmerich
25. St. Odile
26. The Seeress of Prague
27. Anna Taigi
28. Marie Jehannet
29. Melanie Calvat
30. Our Lady of Fatima
31. Our Lady of Garabandal
32. St. Malachi
33. The Monk of Padua
34. St.Capistran
35. Pope Pius X
36. St John Bosco
37. The Monk of Premol
38. The Angelic Pope &…
39. St. Cataldus
40. Rabanus Maurus
41. St. Caesarius
42. Merlin Ambrosius
43. Pope Leo VI
44. Sibylline Oracles
45. Joaquim Merlin
46. Barthalomew Holzhauser
47. St. Francisco de Paola
48. Abbe Souffrant
49. The Mother of Bourg
50. Cheiro
51. Mathias Lang
52. M. Tarabich
53. Alois Irlmaier
54. The Birch Tree Prophecies
55. Johannes Lichtenberger
56. Spielbahn
57. Bernard Rembold
58. The Prophecy of Mayence
59. The Monk of Werl
60. Wessel Eilert
61. Antonius
62. Peter Schlinkert
63. Brother Anthony
64. Paracelsus
65. Alchemy & Prophecy
66. References
Through psychic stress induced by faith or other dispositions, many cleric and lay Christians have enjoyed --- or suffered --- many apocalyptic visions. Pope Benedict IV (1657-1758), generously decreed that "the recipients of prophecy may be angels, devils, men, women, children, heathen or gentiles; nor is it necessary that a man should be gifted with any particular disposition in order to receive the light of prophecy provided that his intellect and senses be adapted for making manifest the things which God reveals to him."
Apocalyptic prophecy is a particular species of eschatology (dealing with death and final judgment). Many of such prophecies are not inspired originals, but are paraphrases of earlier writings (such as the Sibylline oracles) that were incorporated with hopeful political propaganda for the historical period in which the writers lived. However, such pseudo-prophecies contain valuable fragments which can be distinguished and selected for the present purpose. Many others of the representative prophecies included here were genuine original visions of doom, untainted by the odium of theology and politics.
The prophecies attributed to St. Methodius of Patara (a martyred bishop of the 4th century) are some of the earliest post-biblical Christian prophecies extant. Most authoritative scholars now agree that the prophecies are the work of a pseudonymous author who wrote in Syriac circa 680 AD. The manuscript in question(Monumenta Patrum Orthodoxographa, 1569) was located in the Patrium Veterum Library nearly 1000 years after the death of St. Methodius. (1)
The pseudo-Methodius collection comprises several distinguishable documents that recur in fragments in many other Medieval prophecies: (1) a historical survey of the nations, beginning with Adam; (2) Gideon's victory over the Ishmaelites; (3) a history of Alexander the Great and Gog-Magog (the Huns, who will attack the world again in the latter days); (4) the new Roman Empire and the ascendancy of Islam; (5) the Moslem reign of terror; (6) the victory of a holy Roman Emperor; and (7) the overthrow of Gog-Magog by the Roman Emperor, the birth of the Antichrist, and the Last Judgment. The following excerpts may have some bearing on our future:
"A time will come when the enemies of Christ will boast: "We have subjected the earth and all its inhabitants, and the Christians cannot escape our hands." Then a Roman Emperor will arise in great fury against them... Drawing his sword, he will fall upon the foes of Christianity and crush them. Then peace will reign on earth, and priests will be relieved of all their anxieties.
"In the last period Christians will not appreciate the great grace of God who provided a monarch, a long duration of peace, a splendid fertility of the earth. They will be very ungrateful, lead a sinful life, in pride, vanity, unchastity, frivolity, hatred, avarice, gluttony, and many other vices, [so] that the sins of men will stink more than a pestilence before God. Many will doubt whether the Catholic faith is the true and only saving one and whether the Jews are correct when they still expect the Messiah. Many will be the false teachings and resultant bewilderment. The just God will in consequence give Lucifer and all his devils power to come on earth and tempt his godless creatures...
"...Then suddenly tribulation and distress will arise against them [the Moslems]. The King of the Greeks, i.e., the Romans, will come out against them in anger, roused as from a drunken stupor like one whom men had thought dead and worthless [Psalms 77:65]. He will go forth against them from the Ethiopian sea and will send the sword and desolation into Ethribus, their homeland, capturing their women and children living in the Land of Promise [Israel]. The sons of the king will come down with the sword and cut them off from the earth. Fear and trembling will rush upon them and their wives and their children from all sides. They will mourn their offspring, weeping over them and all the villages in the lands of their fathers. By the sword they will be given over into the hands of the king of the Romans -- to captivity, death, and decay.
"The King of the Romans will impose his yoke upon them seven times as much as their yoke weighed upon the earth. Great distress will seize them; tribulation will bring them hunger and thirst. They, their wives, and their children will be slaves and serve those who used to serve them, and their slavery will be a hundred times more bitter and hard. The earth which they destituted will then be at peace; each man will return to his own land and to the inheritance of his fathers... Every man who was left captive will return to the things that were his and his fathers', and men will multiply upon the once desolated land like locusts. Egypt will be desolated, Arabia burned with fire, the land of Ausania burned, and the sea provinces pacified. The whole indignation and fury of the King of the Romans will blaze forth against those who deny the Lord Jesus Christ. Then the earth will sit in peace and there will be great peace and tranquillity upon the earth such as has never been nor ever will be any more, since it is the final peace at the End of Time...
"Then the "Gates of the North" will be opened and the strength of those nations which Alexander shut up there will go forth. The whole earth will be terrified at the sight of them; men will be afraid and flee in terror to hide themselves in mountains and caves and graves. They will die of fright and very many will be wasted with fear. There will be no one to bury the bodies. The tribes which will go forth from the North will eat the flesh of men and will drink the blood of beasts like water. They will eat unclean serpents, scorpions, and every kind of filthy and abominable beast and reptile which crawls upon the earth. They will consume the dead bodies of beasts of burden and even women's abortions. They will slay the young and take them from their mothers and eat them. They will corrupt the earth and contaminate it. No one will be able to stand against them.
"After a week of years, when they have already captured the city of Jappa, the Lord will send one of the princes of his host and strike them down in a moment. After this the King of the Romans will go down and live in Jerusalem for seven and a half-seven times, i.e., years. When the ten and a half years are completed the Son of Perdition will appear.
"He will be born in Chorazaim, nourished in Bethsaida, and reign in Capharnaum. Chorazim will rejoice because he was born in her, and Capharnaum because he will have reigned in her. For this reason in the Third Gospel the Lord gave the following statement: "Woe to you, Chorazaim, woe to you Bethsaida, woe to you Capharnaum --- if you have risen up to heaven, you will descend to hell" [Luke 10:13, 15]. When the Son of Perdition has arisen, the King of the Romans will ascend Golgotha upon which the wood of the Holy Cross is fixed, in the place where the Lord underwent death for us. The king will take the crown from his head and place it upon the cross and stretching out his hands to heaven will hand over the kingdom of the Christians to God the Father. The cross and crown of the king will be taken up together to heaven. This is because the Cross on which our Lord Jesus Christ hung for the common salvation of all will begin to appear before him at his coming to convict the lack of faith of the unbelievers. The prophecy of David which says, "In the last days Ethiopia will stretch out her hand to God" [Psalm 67:32] will be fulfilled in that these last men who stretch out their hands to God are from the seed of Chuseth, the daughter of Phol, king of Ethiopia. When the Cross has been lifted up on high to heaven, the King of the Romans will directly give up his spirit. Then every principality and power will be destroyed that the Son of Perdition may manifest...
"When the Son of Perdition appears, he will be of the tribe of Dan, according to the prophecy of Jacob. This enemy of religion will use a diabolic art to produce many false miracles, such as causing the blind to see, the lame to walk, and the deaf to hear. Those possessed with demons will be exorcised. He will deceive many and, if he could, as our Lord has said, even the faithful elect.
"Even the Antichrist will enter Jerusalem, where he will enthrone himself in the temple as a god (even though he will be an ordinary man of the tribe of Dan to which Judas Iscariot also belonged).
"In those days, the Antichrist will bring about many tribulation; but God will not allow those redeemed by the divine blood to be deceived. For that reason, he will send his two servants, Enoch and Elias, who will declare the prodigies of the Antichrist to be false, and will denounce him as an impostor. After the death and ruin of many, he will leave the Temple in confusion; and many of his followers will forsake him to join the company of the righteous. The seducer, upon seeing himself reproached and scorned, will become enraged and will put to death those saints of God. It is then that there will appear the sign of the Son of Man, and he will come upon the clouds of heaven."
St. Hilarion of Czenstochau was born at Tabatha, Palestine about 291 AD. He died on Cyprus circa 371. As a boy he was sent to study in the schools of Alexandria in Egypt. He became a Christian after studying with St. Anthony, the great "Father of Anchorites", and adopted the ascetic life of a hermit. He began to exorcise demons and performed miraculous cures, thus attracting over 300 disciples. He also was gifted with prophecy. According to St. Hilarion, World War III will be preceded by the appearance of a great comet. Here is his vision of our near future:
"After the World War they will make peace but not a lasting peace. They will immediately begin again preparing to strike at one another...
"Before the Christian Churches are renovated and united, God will send the Eagle, who will travel to Rome and bring much happiness and good. The Holy Man will bring peace between the clergy and the Eagle and his reign will last four years. Then after his death God will send three men who are rich in wisdom and virtue. These men will administer the laws of the Holy Man and spread Christianity everywhere. Then there will be one Flock, one Faith, one Law, one Life, and one Baptism throughout the World.
"The people of the Peninsula of Europe will suffer by unnecessary wars until the Holy Man comes. The people of Pannonia [Austria-Hungary] will be the cause of a great war, overcome a neighbor, and become an independent nation. Then will a Scourge of God come and chastise them, a Lion, which will reign a long time over the nation. The Lion will come from a high mountain in the Enlightened Nation between the Rhine and the North Sea, with a great army meet them by the mouth of the Rhine River and in a fierce battle almost entirely annihilate them.
"From the Northeast, where the People live in crude Houses, they will move out in a swarm and cut their way to the midday Sea [Mediterranean] and swarm over to many kingdoms. There where upwards the Rivers wander [Africa], there with six Armies in the Black Sea will surrender; as soon as they have defeated the Stream from Rome, themselves will turn in the midday Sea...
"Not far from the Outflow of one Plain, the great Eagle with a Leader will again come from the Rock Island. A final battle will be delivered. The wild horde will be defeated and made to pay, when they come, but will not win the Waste nor return to their Homeland...
"One day, before the Comet shines, a lot of People (that inspired present company excepted) from Need and Misery will be wanting a Home. The great Empire in the Sea, who are a different Folk stock and origin, will be devastated by Earthquake, Storm and Flood. This Empire will suffer much Misfortune from the Sea. It will be divided into two islands and part of it will sink. The distant possession in the East will be lost through a Tiger and a Lion."
This remarkable prophecy, nearly 1700 years old, apparently foretells the fate of England; it will be wracked and split by earthquakes and incursions of the ocean, and it will be invaded. This foresight has been reiterated by several other prophets since then.
Saint Ephrem was a 4th century Syrian churchman and writer, born in Mesopotamia. He wrote commentaries on the Bible and several theological treatises, homilies, and hymns. A collection of his prophecies about the Antichrist are found in Codex Barberinus XIV (The Utterances of St. Ephrem About the End of the World, and the Consummation of the Universe, and the Tribulation of the Nations). The following excerpts pertain to the Antichrist:
"Let us learn, my friends, in what form shall come on earth the shameless serpent, since the Redeemer, wishing to save all mankind, was born of a Virgin and in human form crushed the enemy with the holy power of his godhead. This then the enemy, having learnt that again shall the Lord come from heaven in the glory of His divinity, thus bethought him to assume the form of His coming and beguile all men. So in very truth shall he be born of a defiled woman, his instrument. In the form of Him shall come the all-polluted, as a wily thief to beguile all beings. Humble and gentle, hating the speech of the unjust, overturning all idols, honoring piety, a good lover of the poor, exceedingly fair, altogether well disposed, pleasant towards all. To conciliate all, he plots craftily, that he may be loved soon by the peoples; neither gifts shall he accept, nor speak in anger. He shows himself not sullen, but ever cheerful. And in all these well-planned schemes he beguileth the world so long as he shall rule. For when the many peoples and nations shall behold such great virtues, fair deeds and powers, all of one mind shall become and with great joy shall crown him, saying one to another, surely there is not found such another man so good and just... For the shameless one, grasping authority, sends his demons unto all the ends of the earth to announce unto all that a great king hath appeared in glory; come thither and behold... The peoples shall be gathered, and they shall come that they may see God, and the crowds of the peoples shall cleave to him, and all shall deny their own God and invite their fellows to praise the son of perdition, and one on another they shall fall and with swords each other destroy... Magnifying his miracles, performing his portents, Deceiver and not in truth manifesting these things, in such fashion the tyrant removeth the mountains, and simulates falsely and not truly while the multitude stands by, many nations and peoples applauding him for his illusions... Again this same dragon stretches out his hands and gathers the multitudes of reptiles and birds; and likewise he moves over the surface of the deep, andas on dry ground he walks thereon. But he simulates these things... The lightnings shall be his ministers and signify his advent; the demons shall constitute his forces, and the princes of the demons shall be his disciples; to far-distant lands he shall send captains of his bands, who shall impart virtue and healing... A great conflict, Brethren, in those times amongst all men, but especially amongst the faithful, when there shall be signs and wonders wrought by the Dragon in great abundance, when he shall again manifest himself as God in fearful phantasms flying in the air, and show all the demons in the forms of angels flying in terror before the tyrant, for he crieth out loudly, changing his forms also to strike infinite dread into all men...
"Then the skies no longer rain, the earth no longer beareth fruit, the springs run out, the rivers dry up, herbs no longer sprout, grass no longer grows, trees wither from their roots and no longer put forth fruits, the fishes of the sea and the monsters therein die out, and thus they say a fetid stench emits with a fearful roar, that men shall fail and perish through terror. And then in dread shall moan and groan all life alike when all shall see the pitiless distress that compasseth them by night and eke by day, and nowhere find the food wherewith to fill themselves... For stern governors of the people shall be appointed each in his place, and whoso bears with him the seal of the tyrant may buy a little food.
"But before these things be, the Lord sendeth Elias the Thesbite and Enoch the compassionate, that they may proclaim reverence to the race of men, and openly announce unto all the knowledge of God, that they believe not nor obey the false one through fear, crying out and saying, "A deceiver, O men, is he; let no one believe in him." But few are those who shall then obey and believe in the words of these two prophets.
"Many therefore of the saints as many are then found, as soon as they shall hear of the coming of the man of corruption, shall most speedily flee to the deserts and lie hid in the deserts and mountains and caves through fear, and strew earth and ashes on their heads, destitute and weeping both day and night with great humility. And this shall to them be granted by God the Holy One: And grace shall lead them unto the appointed places.
"But all those dwelling in the east of the earth shall fly to the west, through their great fear, and again those dwelling under the setting sun unto its rising shall fly in trembling...
"In the end like lightning flashing from heaven shall come God, our King and the deathless Bridegroom, in the clouds with glory unimaginable. And behold his Glory shall run the serried hosts of angels and archangels, all breathing flames, and a river full of fire, with a frightful crash...
"How may we then endure, my beloved brethren, when we shall see the fiery river coming out in fury like the wild seething ocean, and the hills and the valleys consuming, and all the world and the works therein; then, beloved, with that fire the rivers shall fail, the springs shall vanish, the sea dry up, the air be agitated, the stars shall fall out from the sky; the sun shall be consumed, the moon pass away, the heavens rolled up like a scroll..."
The very influential Irish Saint Columbcille (also called Colm, Colum, Columba, and Comcille, 521-597 AD) was the founder of a great monastery on the Isle of Iona. There he wrote numerous religious tracts and prophecies that especially concern Ireland. St. Columbcille predicted the Viking raids on Eire from the 8th through 10th centuries, the Anglo-Norman invasion of 1169, the Turod conquest, the Irish rebellion of 1641, the great potato famine of 1845-50, and the invention of railroads ("In both North and South iron wheels shall support fiery chariots..."). He prophesied the following concerning what is now our near future:
"Hearken, thou, until I relate things that shall come to pass in the latter ages of the world. Great carnage shall be made, justice shall be outraged, multitudinous evils, great suffering shall prevail, and many unjust laws will be administered. The time shall come when they will not perform charitable acts, and truth shall not remain in them, and truth shall not remain in them. They will plunder the property of the church, they will be continually sneering at each other, they will employ them at reading and writing. They will scoff at acts of humility; there will come times of dark affliction, of scarcity, monarchs will be addicted to falsehood. Neither justice nor covenant will be observed by any one people of the race of Adam; they will become hard-hearted and penurious, and will be devoid of piety. The clergy will become fosterers, in consequence of the tidings of wretchedness; churches will be held in bondage by the all-powerful men of the day. Judges will administer injustice, under the sanction of powerful, outrageous kings; the common people will adopt false principles. Oh, how lamentable shall be their position! Doctors of science will have cause to murmur, they will become niggardly in spirit; the aged will mourn in deep sorrow, on account of the woeful times that shall prevail. Cemeteries shall become all red, in consequence of the wrath that will follow sinners; wars and contentions shall range in the bosoms of every family. Excellent men shall be steeped in poverty, the people will become inhospitable to their guests, the voice of the parasite shall be more agreeable to them than the melody of the harp touched by the sage's finger. In consequence of the general prevalence of sinful practices, humility shall produce no fruit. The professors of science shall not be rewarded, amiability shall not characterize the people; prosperity and hospitality shall not exist, but niggardliness and destitution will assume their place. The changes of the seasons shall produce only half their verdure, the regular festivals of the Church will not be observed; all classes of men shall be filled with hatred and enmity toward each other. The people will not associate affectionately with each other during the great festivals of the seasons; they will live devoid of justice and rectitude, up from the youth of tender age to the aged. The clergy shall be led into error by the misinterpretation of their reading; the relics of the saints will be considered powerless, every race of mankind will become wicked! Young women will become unblushing, the aged people will be of irascible temper; the kine will seldom be productive, as of old; lords will become murderers. Young people will decline in vigor, they will despise those who have hoary hair; there will be no standard by which morals may be regulated, and marriages will be solemnized without witnesses. Troublous shall be the latter ages of the world, the dispositions of the generality of men I will point out, from the time they shall abandon hospitable habits -- with the view of winning honor for themselves, they will hold each other as objects for ridicule. The possessors of abundance shall fall through the multiplicity of their falsehoods; covetousness shall take possession of every glutton, and when satisfied their arrogance shall know no bounds. Between mother and daughter anger and bitter sarcasms shall continuously exist; neighbors will become treacherous, cold, and false-hearted towards each another. The gentry will become grudgeful, with respect to their trifling donations; and blood relations shall become cool towards each other; Church livings shall become lay property. Such is the description of the people who shall live in the ages to come; more unjust and iniquitous shall be very succeeding race of men. The trees shall not bear the usual quantity of fruit, fisheries shall become unproductive and the earth shall not yield its usual abundance. Inclement weather and famine shall come and fishes shall forsake the rivers. The people will be oppressed for lack of food, shall pine to death. Dreadful storms and hurricanes shall afflict them. Numberless diseases shall then prevail. Fortifications shall be built narrow during these times of dreadful danger.
"Then a great event shall happen. I fail not to notice it: rectitude shall be its specious motive, and if ye be not truly holy, a more sorrowful event could not possibly happen.
"I cannot observe after the death of Conn, aught but a sameness among his kindred clans, until the son of Ruadh from the glen appear, the span of the kingly reign shall be but brief. After the blameless son of Ruadh, Cathbarr from Cruachin shall assume the sovereign power, and though many fraudulent acts will be committed during his reign, he will be upon the whole friend to the church.
"After the conclusion of a long and blood rule of Ireland by England, the garment of death will descend and the rowing wheels will arrive. Ten hundred compartments shall be in the fleet, and each compartment shall contain ten hundred men. The armament will spread its forces over the sea and land and rear up mounds with mangled bones. They will inflict on their enemies a severe, flesh-hewing course of warfare to such a degree that scarce a man of them shall escape. The fleet of rowing vehicles will remain two short years and a half.
"This fleet that will come across the sea shall consist of ten ships, ten hundred fairy barks, ten hundred boats, ten hundred cock-boats and ten hundred spacious skiffs. The principal seaport belonging to the country abroad shall look to the west. Such a large assemblage of men never before met in the east or west; and never again shall such a muster congregate while Ireland is a seagirt island.
"The nobility shall sink into humble life before the great war; that war will be proclaimed against them from beyond the seas, by means of which the frantically-proud race shall be subdued. The enemies of the English shall be aroused into activity --- they who reside in the eastern and western parts of the world --- so that they will engage in a battle on the circumscribed sea, in consequence of which the English will be defeated.
"A fleet belonging to a foreign country will come hither, manned by the descendants of Golimh of the gold-embroidered garments, they shall lay prostrate the Gauls of the ships, and liberate the people who have been held in bondage. This fleet that shall arrive here from the east, cannot be impeded by the mighty ocean; through the impetuosity of its noisy breathing, its strange appearance shall be marked by flaming mouths. They will engage in furious conflict, it shall be a wonder that it will not be a mutual slaughter, the conflict of those who will come hither to sever the intricate knot.
"After the English shall be defeated in this battle, they shall be harassed from every quarter; like a fawn surrounded by a pack of voracious hounds, shall be the position of the English among their enemies. The English afterwards shall dwindle down into a disreputable people, and every obstacle shall be opposed to their future prosperity; because they did not (rather: as long as they do not) observe justice and rectitude, they shall be forever after deprived of power! Three warnings will be given them before their final fall, the burning of the Tower of the great kings; the conflagration of the dockyard of the English, and the burning of the Treasury where gold is deposited."
The first two warnings may have been fulfilled in World War II, when German air raids bombed the Tower of London and the dockyards. The burning of the Treasury has yet to occur. St. Columbcille concluded his prophecy with a promise of prosperity and the destruction of Ireland:
"This new Eire shall be Eire the prosperous; great shall be her renown and her power, and there shall not be on the surface of the wide earth a country found to be equal to this fine country... Seven years before the last day, the sea shall submerge Eire by one inundation."
Like St. Columbcille, the 6th century Irish Saint Brogan (also written "Bearchan") predicted a leader named Ruadh (Red) who will appear in Ireland n the latter days:
"After the man whose cognomen will be Ruadh, a spirit of fire will come from the north; there will be but one Lord over Ireland. It is he who will bring affliction to the Gauls, by which their savage hordes shall suffer; until he will sail across the azure sea to Rome he will be a great king renowned for feats of arms."
The Irish Saint Ultan of Ardbraccan (died 657) also predicted Ruadh:
"Then the Ruadh will proceed to the south, he will offer much opposition to the English; my confidence is in the Redhead for valor --- he will free Eire from her difficulties. In a month after that hard-fought battle, another king will come from the north; I assure, without the least deception, that three battles will be broken in one day. The battle shall continue during a whole week; after that, the aliens shall be dispersed. Wednesday will be the day of the battle, by which the aliens shall be driven from their strongholds; none of them shall remain after that but what birds could not carry off in their claws!"
7. Bede the Venerable & Monk Adso ~
The British monk known as Bede the Venerable (to acknowledge his wisdom and learning) lived most of his life (circa 672-735) at the monastery of St. Peter and St. `Paul at Warmouth-Jarrow. he is recognized as the "father of British history". He was the first to date events "Anno Domine" (AD). The prophetic writings of Bede the Venerable are very similar to those of Monk Adso, who authored an apocalypse in 954 at the request of Queen Gerberga. The priest Albinus of Cologne borrowed it, and the work was published under his name. Bede's work lies at the base of Adso's, and both authors drew on some older, unidentified sources (probably a Sibylline book).
Bede's prophecy is found in the Elucidorum of Honorius of Autun and Monumentum (22:146) by Godfrey of Citerbo (ca. 1190). It ends with a description of the "King by name and steadfast mind" and the advent of Antichrist. The end of the world ensues thereafter:
"And then will arise a king by name and of steadfast mind. The same will be the steadfast king of the Romans and Greeks... and the King himself will have before his eyes the scripture saying:
"The king of the Romans will claim for himself the whole kingdom of the lands; therefore he will lay waste all the islands and cities, and destroy all the temples of the false gods, and all the pagans will he call to baptism, and the cross of Christ shall be raised over all the temples..."
Monk Adso, who borrowed from and added to the writing of Bede, wrote thus of the Antichrist:
"Against the faithful will he rise up in three ways --- that is, by terror, by gifts, and by wonders; to the believers in him will he give gold and silver in abundance; but those whom he shall fail to corrupt by presents he will overcome by fear, and those whom he shall fail to vanquish by fear he will seek to seduce by signs and wonders...
"The ruined Temple also, which Solomon raised to God, he shall build and restore to its former state... and he shall circumcise himself, and lie that he is the Son of God almighty... Thereafter shall he send his messengers and preachers to the whole world...
"Then shall all the Jews flock unto him, and thinking they shall receive Christ they shall receive the devil... Coming to Jerusalem he shall be circumcised, saying to the Jews, I am the Christ promised unto you, who have come for your weal that I may gather and defend you that are scattered...
"Then shall be sent into the world the two great prophets Elias and Enoch, who shall forearm the faithful with godly weapons against the task of the Antichrist, and they shall encourage and get them ready for the war... But after they have accomplished their preaching, the Antichrist shall rise up and slay them, and after three days they shall be raised up by the Lord...
"The doctors also teach, as saith Pope Gregory, that Michael the Archangel shall destroy him on Mount Olivet in his pavilion and seat, in that place where the Lord ascended into heaven..."
Here is Bede the Venerable on the Antichrist:
"For he shall work such stupendous marvels, as to bid fire to come down from heaven... and the dead shall rise... he shall raise the dead, not verily, but the devil shall enter some dead man's body... and speak in him, that he may seem alive...
"There shall go forth the two most glorious men Enoch and Elias to announce the advent of the Lord, and them shall the Antichrist slay, and after three days they shall be resuscitated...
"The sign of the doom: the earth shall be moist with sweat; from heaven the king shall come to reign forever... At midnight in the hour when the angel made Egypt desolate, and when the Lord despoiled hell, in the same hour He shall deliver His elect from this world...
"Fire shall burn up earth and sea and heaven... The springs shall fail, and the everlasting flame consume; He shall cast down the hills, and raise up valleys from the depth... From the heavens shall fall both fire and a sulfur stream."
Bede also left this prophetic note among his writings:
"As long as the Coliseum stands Rome will stand; when Rome falls, the world will fall."
St. Edward (died 1066) prophesied the following for England:
"The extreme corruption and wickedness of the English nation has provoked the just anger of God. When malice shall have reached the fullness of its measure, God will, in his wrath, send to the English people wicked spirits, who will punish and afflict them with great severity, by separating the green tree from its parent stem the length of three furlongs. But at last this same tree, through the compassionate mercy of God, and without any national assistance, shall return to its original root, reflourish, and bear abundant fruit."
The prophecy seemingly concerns the return of the English to Catholicism, to be followed by the blessings of abundance. The contradicts St. Columbcille, who denies them such forgiveness.
The Gaelic Coineach Odhar Fiosaiche, or Kenneth MacKenzie, the Brahan Seer or "Warlock of the Glen", was the most highly respected of the Scottish prophets. The one-eyed magician foresaw the future through a hole in a smooth pebble that he always carried with him. Most of this predictions concerned 17th century Scotland, but he also foretold the Industrial Revolution and developments such as gas and water mains: "Fire and water shall run in long streams through all the streets and lanes of Inverness" and locomotives: "Long strings of carriages without horses shall run between Dingwall and Inverness." The Brahan Seer forecast a gloomy future for Scotland:
"The day will come when the jaw-bone of the big sheep will put the plow on the rafters; when the sheep shall become so numerous that the bleating of one shall be heard by the other from Conchra in Lochalsh to Bun-da-Loch in Kintail, they shall be at the height of their price, and henceforth will go back and deteriorate, until they disappear altogether, and be so thoroughly forgotten that a man finding the jawbone of a sheep in a cairn, will not recognize it, or be able to tell what animal it belonged to. The ancient proprietors of the soil shall give place to strange merchant proprietors, and the whole Highlands will become one huge deer forest; the whole country will become so utterly desolated and depopulated that the crow of cock shall not be heard north of Druim-Uachdair; the people will emigrate to islands now unknown, but which shall yet be discovered in the boundless oceans after which deer and other wild animals in the huge wilderness shall be exterminated and browned by horrid black rains. The people will then return and take undisturbed possession of the lands of their ancestors...
"The day will come when a river in Ester Ross shall be dried up.
"At bleak Runish in Lochs, they will spoil and devour, at the foot of the drags, and will split heads by the score.
"The day will come when there shall be such dire persecution and bloodshed in the county of Sutherland, that people can ford the river Oykel dryshod, over dead men's bodies.
"A severe battle will be fought at Ardelve market stance, in Lochalsh, when the slaughter will be so great that people can cross the ferry over dead men's bodies. The battle will be finally decided by a powerful man and his five sons, who will come across from the Strath (the Achamore district).
"A battle will be fought at Ault-nan-Torcan, in the Lewis, which will be a bloody one indeed. It will truly take place, though the time may be far hence, but woe to the mothers of sucklings that day. The defeated host will continue to be cut down till it reaches Ard-a-chaolais [about 7 miles from Ault-a-Torcan], and there the swords will make a terrible havoc.
"When a holly bush shall grow out of the face of the rock at Torr-a-chuilinn [Kintail] to a size sufficiently large to make a shaft for a sledge-cart, a battle will be fought there.
"However unlikely it may now appear, the Island of Lews will be laid waste by a destructive war, which will continue till the contending armies, slaughtering each other as they proceed, shall reach Tarbert in Harris. In the Caws of Tarbert, the retreating host will suddenly halt; an onslaught, left by a left-handed Maclaod, called Donald, son of Donald, will then be made upon the pursuers. The only weapon in this champion's hand will be a black sooty cabar, taken off a neighboring hut; but his intrepidity and courage will so inspire the fugitives that they will fight like mighty men, and overpower their pursuers. The Lews will then enjoy a long period of repose."
In 1630, Frater Balthassar Mas recorded a vision about England's destiny. Like several other prophets, he foresaw that the island will be inundated by the ocean:
"I saw a land swallowed by the sea and covered with water, but afterwards I saw that little by little, the sea retreated and left the land visible, and the upper parts of the towers and the turrets of the cities rose and appeared more beautiful than before being swallowed by the sea, and it was told me that was England."
The monk Rudolfo Gilthier made the following prophecy in 1765. The French text was found in the Augustine Library in Rome:
"From the Middle of the Twentieth Century on, there will be uprisings in all parts of Europe. The Republics will be upheaved. Kings, the Great, and Priests will be killed and Padres and Nuns will leave their Cloister. Hunger, Epidemics and Earthquakes will destroy numerous cities.
"Rome will lose its Sceptre through following False Prophets. The Pope will be taken Prisoner by his attendants. The Church will be held hostage, and after a short time there will be no more Pope.
"A Prince from the East with a great Army will move throughout Europe. The Republicans will be annihilated through the Rebellions. His Cross will be for God, he will fight for the Christian teachings and the Orthodox Belief, and he will subjugate the Kingdom of Mohammed. He will be a new Knight of the Faith, and Peace will be regained in the World." (3)
Liber Mirabilis is a collection of Medieval prophecies, first published in 1524. It was translated from Latin to French by Jean de Vatiguerro in 1831. The following anonymous apocalyptic prophecy is drawn from the book:
"All elements will become altered, because it is necessary, that the whole condition of the Centuries becomes changed; Certainly will the Earth at many places be in a dreadful state of collapse and all living things will be swallowed up. Numerous strong Towns and Cities will be shattered and collapse in Earthquakes... The Sea will scream out and raise itself against the whole World. The Air will be dirty and be polluted because of the Grossness and Discord of Men...The air will completely change and because of Pestilence, Illness through it will break out, and will completely spoiled. Men will become like animals from the various new Diseases. They will be overcome and die suddenly. An indescribable plague will break out from a sudden and terrible Famine and will torment Men. It will be such great suffering in the whole World, and there is nowherein the West that this will not find its place. Since the beginning of the World there has been nothing as horrible as this."
The English seeress Mother Ursula Shipton, as she was popularly known, was christened Janet Ursula Southiel (Southill). She lived inYorkshire from 1488 to 1561, during the reign of Henry VII. The first collection of her visions was published in 1641, and a more complete edition was published in 1646 by the astrologer and alchemist Sir William Lilly in his Collections of Prophecies. Most of her prophecies concerned her own times, but numerous fragments pertain to our future. Mother Shipton allegedly wrote the following verses about today and the near future, but in 1862 the English editor Charles Hindley admitted to the authorship of this falsely ascribed but nonetheless highly accurate prophecy, which includes descriptions of the radio, television, airplanes, and World Wars, including possibly WW3:
"Carriages without horses shall go.
And accidents fill the world with woe.
Around the world thoughts shall fly
In the twinkling of an eye.
Waters shall yet more wonders do
Now stranger, yet shall be true.
The world upside down shall be
And gold be found at the root of tree.
Through the hills man shall ride
And no horse be at his side.
Underwater men shall walk,
Shall ride, shall sleep, shall talk.
In the air man shall be seen
In white, in black, in green:
Gold shall be found in mid stone
In a land that's now unknown;
Fire and water shall wonders do,
England shall admit a Jew.
Women will dress like men and trousers wear,
And cut off all their locks of hair.
They will ride astride with brazen brow,
And love shall die, and marriage cease,
And nations wane and babes decrease,
And wives shall fondle cats and dogs;
And men shall live much like hogs,
Just for food and lust.
When pictures look alive, with movements free,
When ships, like fishes, swim beneath the sea,
When men, outstripping birds, can soar the sky,
Then half the world, deep-drenched in blood, shall die.
The fiery year as soon as over,
Peace shall then be as before.
Plenty everywhere be found,
And men with swords shall plow the ground.
All England's sons that plow the land,
Shall be seen with book in hand.
Learning shall so ebb and flow,
The poor shall most wisdom know.
And water wind where corn doth grow;
Great houses stand in farflung vale,
All covered o'er with snow and hail.
Taxes for blood and war
Shall come to every door.
And state and state in fierce strife
Will seek after each other's life.
But when the North shall divide the South
An Eagle shall build in the Lion's mouth.
In London Primrose Hill shall be,
Its center hold a Bishop's See.
Three times shall lovely France
Be led to play a bloody dance;
Before the people shall be free,
Three tyrant rulers shall she see:
Three times the people's hope is gone,
Three rulers in succession, be ---
Each sprung from different dynasty.
Then, when the fiercest fight is done,
England and France shall be as one.
The British olive next shall entwine
In marriage with the German vine
The Jew that once was held in scorn
Shall of a Christian be born,
A house of glass shall come to pass
In England --- but alas! alas!
A war will follow with the work
Where dwells the Pagan and the Turk.
The gods will send the Dragon back
To light the sky his tail will crack
Upon the Earth and rend the Earth
And man shall flee, King, Lord and serf."
The French chronicler Rigord of St. Denis lived in the 12th century. He wrote a prophetic text in Latin, which was later translated and printed by Fritz Baer. The following parts pertain to our future:
"At that time from the sea will rise a very strong wind, which will strike terror in the hearts of men, and it will raise sand and dust from the surface of the earth, until it will cover the trees and the towers... And there will be heard in the air quakes and thunder and voices which will strike terror in the hearts of men, and all the countries will be covered with sand and dust... For that wind will rise from the west corner and reach until the west corner, encompassing all the countries of Egypt and Ethiopia... and also the lands of Rome.
"After those events of the winds, five miracles will come to pass one after another.
"First, a most wise man will arise from the east, versed in secret wisdom, that is, in wisdom which is beyond man. And he will walk in justice and will teach the law of truth, and he will cause many to return to straight mores from the darkness of ignorance, and from unbelief to the way of truth, and he will instruct the sinners in the way of righteousness, and he will not pride himself with being counted among the prophets.
"Secondly, a man will come forth from Elam and will assemble a multitude of great forces (Daniel 11:1), and will wage a great war against the nations (Zechariah 14), and he will not live long.
"Thirdly, up will rise another man who will say that he is a prophet. He will hold a book in his hand and say that he was sent by God and by His prophets. And with his teachings he will cause many nations to go astray, and will seduce even more. But that which he will prophesy will come upon his own head. And he, too, will not live long.
"Fourthly, a comet will be seen in heaven -- a star, that is, with a tail or appendage -- and this apparition will signify destructions and tumults and hard strifes, and withholding of rains, and dryness of the earth, and mighty battles, and the flowing of blood upon the earth of the east, and from beyond the River Habor it will reach to the very end of the west. And the just and the truly righteous will be oppressed and will suffer persecutions, and the house of prayer will be destroyed.
"Fifthly, there will be an eclipse of the sun, like the color of fire, until the whole body of the sun will be obscured, and at the time of the eclipse there will such darkness over the earth as there is at midnight on those nights when there is no moonlight, in the days of the rains..."
The Swiss monk Hepidanus, who lived in the 11th century, accurately foresaw the coming of Napolean Bonaparte, the French Revolution, Adolf Hitler, and World Wars I and II. Furthermore, he saw a third World War:
"From North to South, the world will be split into two mighty hosts. The North will march against the South, the son against the father, and bring misfortune with him across the mountains as the night follows the day... A gloomy cloud will appear, and a terrible tempest will come forth from this cloud. It will consume a third of mankind, still living then. And it will destroy a third of all the crops, villages, and cities, and there will be a great misery and lamentation.
"A mighty empire will vanish thereafter, and another will take its place. From the East blows a storm, from the West a hurricane howls; woe to those who come into the sphere of this bloody whirlpool. Thrones a thousand years old will fall from the height... between the Rhine, the Elbe, and the Danube there will be a vast morgue, and a landscape of vultures and ravens... When a sign of fire will appear in the heavens, the time will have come close for these days to engulf humanity... but the date, when this sign will flash across the heavens, no mortal will know." (5)
16. Caesarius of Heisterbach ~
Caesarius of Heisterbach was a Cistercian monk who lived in Cologne from 1180 to 1240. Caesarius foretold the rise of Napolean and the event of the French Revolution. He also predicted the following events, still to come:
"There will be no Pope, and the air will be as a pestilence, destroying men and beasts alike. Not since the creation of the world has one experienced such misfortune."
According to a vision received by Johann Friede (1204-1257), an Austrian monk of the Order of St. John, several extraordinary phenomena will give warning that the present order of civilization is about to end:
"When the great time will come, in which mankind will face its last, hard trial, it will be foreshadowed by striking changes in nature; the alteration between cold and heat will become more intensive, storms will have more catastrophic effects, earthquakes will destroy greater regions and the seas will overflow many lowlands. Not all of it will be the result of natural causes, but man will penetrate into the bowels of the earth and will reach into the clouds, gambling with its own existence. Before the powers of destruction will succeed in their design, the universe will be thrown into disorder, and the age of iron will plunge into nothingness. When the nights will be filled with more intensive cold and the day with heat, a new life will begin in nature. The heat means radiation from the earth, the cold the waning light of the sun. Only a few more years and you will become aware that sunlight has become perceptibly weaker. When even your artificial light will cease to give service, the great event of the firmament will be near.
"The nebula of the Greater Bear will arrive in the vicinity of earth... and will fill the space of five hundred suns at the horizon. It will more and more cover up the light of the sun until the days will be like nights at full moon. The illumination will not come from the moon, but from Orion, which constellation, by the light of Jupiter, will send forth its rays on the Greater Bear and will dissolve its nebula with the force of light.
"By this time mankind will be stricken with terror. Birds will be like reptiles and will not use their wings. Animals of the ground, in fear and alarm, will raise such a clamor that it will make human hearts tremble. Men will flee their abodes in order not to see the weird occurrence. Finally, complete darkness will set in and last for three days and three nights.
"During this time, men, deprived of the power of light, will fall into a slumber-like sleep from which many will not awaken, especially those who have no spark of spiritual life. When the sun will again rise and emerge, earth will be covered with a blanket of ashes like snow in winter, except that the ashes will have the color of sulfur. Damp fog will ascend from the ground, illuminated by igneous gases.
"Of mankind there will be more dead than there have been casualties in all wars. In the abodes of the children of light, the Book of Revelations will be read, and in the palaces of the Church they will await the arrival of the great comet. On the seventh day after the return of light, earth will have absorbed the ashes and formed such a fertility as has not been experienced ever before. But Orion will cast its ray on the earth and show a path toward the last resting place of the greatest and most eminent man who had ever lived on the earth. The survivors will proclaim his ancient doctrine in peace and will institute the millennium, announced by the Messiah in the light of true brotherly and sisterly love for the glory of the Creator and for the blessedness of all mankind."
An unknown 17th century German monk left this prophecy, which Ludwig Emmerich recorded in Die Zukunft der Welt (The Future of the World):
"The twentieth century will be a period of terror and misery. In that century everything evil and disagreeable that can be imagined will happen. In many countries the princes will rise up against their father, the citizens against authority, the children against their parents, the pagans against God, entire peoples against the established order. A civil war will break out in which almost all the world will be turned upside down. Financial disasters and ruin of property will cause many tears to fall. Men will be without mind and without piety. Poisoned clouds and rays which can burn more deeply than the equatorial sun, iron armies marching, flying vessels full of terrible bombs and of arrow, fatal flying stars and sulphuric fire destroying great cities. This century will be the most perverse of all because men will raise themselves up and destroy each other mutually."
Today we know that the "poisoned clouds" are those produced by pollution, chemical warfare, or atomic fallout. The burning rays are lasers, the iron armies are tanks, the flying vessels are airplanes, and "fatal flying stars" are rockets.
In his collection of Voix Prophetiques (1872), Abbe Curique of Metz, France, included this anonymous prediction of a war between the East and West:
"A terrible war will ensue. the enemy will come from the East like a flood. In the evening they will call "Peace, Peace", but the next day they will be before our doors. There will be an early and beautiful spring in the year in which the war will start. The cows will walk through opulent grass in the meadows in April. Wheat can be harvested, but oats not any more. The conflict, in which one half the world will oppose the other half, will not be of long duration. God will scare the warring factions by producing a terrible natural catastrophe."
In the 16th century, an unknown German monk in the Maria Laach monastery recorded this prophecy of our times:
"The twentieth century will bring death and destruction, defection from the Church; families, cities, and governments will go to pieces. It will be the century of three great wars, which will follow each other in decades and will become increasingly devastating and bloody. Not only the Rhineland but all countries to the East and West will be laid desolate. After Germany has lost a terrible war, there will soon follow yet another. There will be no bread for the people and no hay for the cattle. Poisonous vapors, created by human hand, will sink down, destroying everything. Insanity will attack the spirit of man, and unrestrained hate shall rage. Evil will destroy evil, and many innocents shall perish."
Pere Nechtou (died ca. 1790) was the Father Superior of the Company of Jesus in Belgium, and the author of several ascetic works. He made this prophecy for France:
"When those things come to pass which will bring on the triumph of the Church, then such confusion will reign on earth that people will think God has permitted them to have their own contrary will and that the provenance of God is not concerned about the world. The confusion will be so general that mankind will not be able to think aright, as if God had entirely withheld his providence from mankind, and that, during the worst crisis, the best that can be done would be to remain where God has placed us, and persevere in fervent prayer.
"Two parties will be formed in France which shall fight unto death. The party of evil will at first be stronger; the good side shall be weaker. At that time there shall be such a terrible crisis that people, frightened by events, shall believe that the end of the world has come. Blood shall flow in several large cities. The very elements shall be convulsed. It will be like a little general judgment. A great multitude of persons shall perish in these calamitous times. But the wicked shall never prevail. They indeed shall conspire for the destruction of the Church, but time shall not be allowed them, because this frightful crisis shall be of short duration. When all will be considered lost, all will be found safe.
"During this revolution, which shall very likely be general, and not confined to France, Paris shall be destroyed so completely that, twenty years afterwards, fathers will promenade their children over the ruins, and they will ask what place that was; to satisfy their questions, they will tell them: "My child, here was a great city; God destroyed it, because of its crimes." Paris shall certainly be destroyed, but before this occurs, such signs and portents shall be observed, that all good people will be induced to fly away from it. After this most terrible event, everything shall return to order; justice shall reign in the world, and the counter-revolution shall be accomplished. The triumph of the Church will then be so complete that nothing like it shall ever be seen, for this will be the last victory of the Church upon earth. Those persons who shall behold this last revolution will thank God for having preserved them to witness this glorious triumph of the Church.
"A man disliked by France will be placed on the throne; a man of the house of Orleans will be made king. It is only after this event that the counter-revolution shall begin.
"As when the fig tree begins to sprout and produce leaves, it is a certain sign that summer is near, so when England shall begin to wave in power, the destruction of Paris shall be near at hand. This shall be a sign. England shall, in her turn, experience a more frightful revolution than that of France. It shall continue long enough to give time for France to recover her strength, then she will help England return to order and peace."
Several Catholic nuns of the 19th century reported their visions of a third and final world war and three days of darkness that will enshroud the planet. Such a darkness is prophesied several times in the Bible, and may have served to inspire their prophecies; see Joel 2:10, 31 and 3:15; Matthew 24:25, 29; Revelation 6:12, 14 and 8:12; Zechariah 14:6, 7; Isaiah 13:10 and 24:23; Mark 13:24; Luke 21:25, and Acts 2:19, 20.
Sister Palma Maria (d. 1863) of Oria, Italy, saw the event thus:
"There will be an attempt by the sectaries to establish a republican government in France, Spain and Italy; a civil war will, in consequence, break out in those countries, accompanied by other dreadful punishments, as pestilence and famine, the massacre of priests, and also of some dignitaries of the Church. Rome shall have to endure severe trials from the malice of wicked men. But at the critical moment, when the rebellious Republicans shall attempt to take possession of the Holy City, they shall be suddenly arrested at the gates and forced to fly away in terror...
"There shall be three days of darkness, during which the atmosphere will be infected by innumerable devils, who shall cause the death of large multitudes of unbelievers and wicked men.
"Blessed candles alone shall be able to give light and preserve the faithful Catholics from this impending scourge. Supernatural prodigies shall appear in the heavens. There is to be a short but furious war, during which the enemies of religion and of mankind shall be universally destroyed. A general purification of the world, and the universal triumph of the Church are to follow."
In 1878, the year of her death, Sister Marie de Jesus Crucifice of Pau, France, made this prophecy of apocalypse:
"All states will be shaken by war and civil conflict. During a period of three days of darkness, those who walk along the paths of deprivation will perish; only the fourth part of humanity will survive. The clergy, too will be greatly reduced in number, as most of them will die in the defense of the faith or their country."
The French nun Marie Dehenny de la Faudais received a similar vision in 1819:
"There will be three days of continuous darkness. During this fearful darkness only candles which have been blessed will burn. One candle will last for threedays, but in the houses of the impious they will not burn. During these three days demons will appear in horrible and nauseating forms and will make the air resound with appalling blasphemies. Rays and flashes will penetrate through the streets at an unusual time of the year. The sea will reverse in foamy waves upon the Earth. Indeed, our planet will become one huge cemetery. The bodies of the impious as well as with those of the just will cover the soil. The famine which will follow will be enormous; all the vegetation of the earth will be destroyed as also will be three-fourths of mankind. The crisis will come suddenly and the disaster will be universal."
The prophecies of Sister Rosa Columba of Taggia (died 1847) also foretell of tribulation for the Catholic Church:
"A great revolution will spread over all of Europe and peace will not be restored until the white flower, the Lily, has taken possession of the throne of France. Not only religious communities, but also good lay Catholics, shall have their property confiscated. Many of the nobility shall be cast into prison. A lawless democratic spirit of disorder shall reign supreme throughout all Europe. There will be a general overthrow. There shall be a great confusion of people against people, and nations against nations, with clashing of arms and beating of drums. The Russians and Prussians shall come to make war in Italy. They shall profane many churches, and turn them into stables for their horses. Some bishops shall fall from the faith, but many more will remain steadfast and suffer much for the Church. There will be a great persecution of the Church, begun by her own children.
"Many terrible calamities impend over Italy. Priests and religious shall be butchered and the earth, especially in Italy, shall be watered with their blood.
"The persecution in Italy is to begin by the suppression of the Jesuits; they shall be called back again; then a third time they will be suppressed and never more revived.
"During a frightful storm against the Church, all religious orders will be abolished except two, namely, the Capuchins and the Dominicans, together with the Hospitalers, who shall receive the pious pilgrims who, in great numbers, shall go to visit and venerate the many martyrs in Italy, killed during the impending persecution."
Shortly before her death in 1847, Sister Marie Lataste, who was a nun of the Sacred Heart, made this vague prophecy of doom for Paris:
"O Paris, execrable city, for how long have you deserved my indignation! Your inhabitants will one day curse you, for that you have steeped them in your baleful atmosphere, and even those to whom you gave refuge will hurl their maledictions at you, because they have found death in your bosom!
"Pray for France; pray much and never cease from praying. France shall not perish. When disorder and confusion are at their height in France, the merciful God will intervene in a marvelous manner, overthrow the evildoers and restore order. Afflictions shall come over the earth. Oppression shall reign in the city which I love, and where I have left my heart. She shall be in mourning and desolation, surroundedon every side by her enemies, like a bird caught in the net. During three years and a little more, this city shall appear overcome. But my Mother will come to that city; she will take the hand of the old man sitting on the throne, and will say to him: "Lo! the hour has come; rise up; behold thine enemies. I make them disappear, one after another, and they shall disappear forevermore. Thou hast given me glory both on earth and in heaven. Behold, men venerate thy name, venerate thy courage, venerate thy power: thou shalt live, and I will live with thee. Dry up thy tears, old man; I bless thee!"
Peace shall return to the world, because the Blessed Virgin Mary will breathe over the storms and quell the"m. Her name will be praised, blessed and exalted forever. Prisoners or captives shall recover their liberty; exiles shall return to their country, and the unfortunate or unhappy shall be restored to peace and happiness..."
Marie de Terreaux of Lyons made a doomsday prophecy in 1843, with these warning signs:
"These events will be preceded by a bad year. But, on the contrary, the year of the events will be an exceptionally fertile year, yet too few people will have remained on the earth to consume this abundance".
In 1790, Helena Walraff predicted thus:
"The Pope will be forced to flee, followed by four cardinals. He will find refuge in Cologne."
Anna Katherine Emmerich, "The Nun of Dulmen", was a German ecstatic visionary and stigmatic, born in Flamske in Westphalia on September 4, 1774. She died in February 1824. In 1802, at age 28, she entered the Augustine convent at Agnetenburg (Dulmen). She was zealous, and her ecstasies and other spiritual manifestations disturbed her more serene sisters. When the convent closed in 1812, she found refuge in the house of a poor widow. She became bedridden in 1813, and began to show stigmata such as crosses on her breast and the wounds of Christ. In 1817, a scrupulous investigation by an episcopal committee determined her stigmata to be genuine. (8, 9)
In 1819, the poet Klemens Brentano was induced to visit Anna, and he was astounded when she recognized him; he had been shown to her in a vision as the man who would enable her to fulfill God's command to put in writing the revelations made to her, for the benefit of human souls. This Brentano did with great care.
Anna Emmerich said that the Papacy will be replaced by a council of twelve new apostolic disciples who will merge with the people and bring forth a renewal of spiritual life after World War III. In 1820, Anna received this vision:
"All around me I see a terrible, bloody war, which approaches from Midnight, the North, and Evening, the East. I heard that Lucifer -- if I am not wrong, would be let go for a time, fifty or sixty years before the year 2000. I saw the earth covered with darkness, everything was withered and barren, everything made the impression of pining away. It seems that even the waters of the springs were exhausted. I saw how the labor of darkness multiplied among the people, I saw countries and people in the greatest of distress, and fighting each other violently. In the center of the battleground was a giant abyss, into which the warring factions seemed to fall.
A pale faced man floated slowly over the earth and, loosening the cloths which wrapped around his sword, he t"hrew them on sleeping cities, which were bound by them. This figure also dropped pestilence on Russia, Italy, and Spain. A red noose lay around Berlin, and from there it came to Westphalia. Now the man's sword was naked, bands red as blood hung from its hilt and blood trickled from it on Westphalia...
"...The Jews shall return to Palestine, and become Christians toward the end of the world."
Nearly 900 years ago, the Abbess Hildegard, founder of the Benedictine convents at Bingen and Eibingen, predicted such events as the coming of Protestantism, the fall of the Holy Roman Empire, the diminution of both the spiritual and temporal powers of the Holy See, and the universal secularization of Church property. Three popes, two emperors, and many bishops, saints, and common people sought advice from "The Sibyl of the Rhine".
She was born in 1098 at Bockelheim. When Hildegard was 8 years old, her parents placed her in the care of a recluse nun, and she remained in the service of God for the rest of her life. While still a child, she began to have beatific visions:
"Up to my fifteenth year I saw much, and related some of the things seen to others, who would inquire with astonishment, whence such things might come. ... Frequently, I my conversations, I would relate future things which I saw as if present, but, noting the amazement of my listeners, I became more reticent."
When she was about 40 years old, Hildegard received a spiritual command to publish her visions for the world to share. Her best known work, Scrivias, (ca. 1145) is a record of 26 visions. Like many other prophets, Hildegard foresaw the decline of the Church and the rise of Antichrist, whose career she described in detail:
"The time is coming when princes and people will renounce the authority of the Pope. Individual countries will prefer their own Church rulers to the Pope. The German Empire will be divided. Church property will be secularized. Priests will be persecuted. After the birth of Antichrist heretic will preach their false doctrines undisturbed, resulting in Christians having doubts about their holy Catholic faith."
"Toward the end of the world, mankind will be purified through sufferings. This will be true especially of the clergy, who will be robbed of all property. When the clergy has adopted a simple manner of living, conditions will improve.
"A powerful wind will rise in the North carrying heavy fog and the densest dust by divine command and it will fill their throats and eyes so they will cease their savagery and be stricken with great fear. After that there will be so few men left that seven women will fight for one man, that they will say to the man: "Marry me to take the disgrace from me." For in those days it will be a disgrace for a woman to be without child, as it was by the Jews in the Old Testament.
"Before the Comet comes, many nations, the good excepted, will be scoured with want and famine. The great nation in the ocean that is inhabited by people of different tribes and descent by an earthquake, storm and tidal waves will be devastated. It will be divided, and in great part submerged. That nation will also have many misfortunes at sea, and lose its colonies in the east through a Tiger and a Lion. The Comet by its tremendous pressure, will force much out of the ocean and flood many countries, causing much want and many plagues. All sea coast cities will be fearful and many of them will be destroyed by tidal waves, and most living creatures will be killed and even those who escape will die from a horrible disease. For in none of these cities does a person live according to the laws of God.
"Peace will return to Europe when the white flower again takes possession of the throne of France. During this time of peace the people will be forbidden to carry weapons and iron will be used solely for making agricultural implements and tools. Also during this period the soil will be very productive and many Jews, heathens and heretics will join the Church.
"The son of perdition (the Antichrist), who will reign very few of times, will come at the end day of the duration of the world, at the times corresponding to the moment just before the sun disappears from the horizon...
"After having passed a licentious youth among very perverted men, and in a desert, she being conducted by a demon disguised as an angel of light, the mother of the son of perdition will conceive and give birth without knowing the father. In another land, she will make men believe that her birth was some miraculous thing, seeing that she had not appointed a spouse, and she will ignore that, she will say, how the infant she had brought into the world had been formed in her womb, and the people will regard it as a saint and qualified to the title.
"The son of perdition is this very wicked beast who will put to death those who refuse to believe in him; who will associate with kings, priests, the great and the rich; who will mistake the humility and will esteem pride; who will finally subjugate the entire universe by his diabolic means.
"He will gain over many people and tell them: "You are allowed to do all that you please; renounce the fasts; it suffices that you love me; I who am your God."
"He will show them treasures and riches, and he will permit them to riot in all sorts of festivities, as they please. He will oblige them to practice circumcision and other Judaic observances, and he will tell them: "Those who believe in me will receive pardon of their sins and will live with me eternally."
"He will reject baptism and evangelism, and he will reject in derision all the precepts the Spirit has given to men of my part.
"Then he will say to his partisans, "Strike me with a sword, and place my corpse in a proper shroud until the day of my resurrection." They will believe him to have really given over to death, and from his mortal wound he will make a striking semblance of resuscitation.
"After which, he will compose himself a certain cipher, which he will say is to be a pledge of salute; he will give it to all his servitors like the sign of our faith in heaven, and he will command them to adore it. Concerning those who, for the love of my name, will refuse to render this sacrilegious adoration to the son of perdition, he will put them to death amidst the cruelest torments.
"But I will defend my two Witnesses, Enoch and Elias, whom I have reserved for those times. Their mission will be to combat the man of evil and reprimand him in the sight of the faithful whom he has seduced. They will have the virtue of operating the most brilliant miracles, in all the places where the son of perdition has spread his evil doctrines. In the meanwhile, I will permit this evildoer to put them to death; but I will give them in heaven the recompense of their travails.
"Later, however, after the coming of Enoch and Elias, the Antichrist will be destroyed, and the Church will sing forth with unprecedented glory, and the victims of the great error will throng to return to the fold."
Hildegard elaborated on the life of Antichrist in her book Heptachronon:
"The Man of Sin will be born of an ungodly woman who, from her infancy, will have been initiated into occult sciences and the wiles of the demon. She will live in the desert with perverse men, and abandon herself to crime with so much the greater ardor, as she will think she is authorized thereby to by the revelations of an angel. And thus, in the fire of burning concupiscence she will conceive the Son of Perdition, without knowing by what father. Then she will teach that fornication is permitted, declaring herself holy and honored as a saint.
"But Lucifer, the old and cunning serpent, will find the fruit of her womb with his infernal spirit and entirely possess the fruit of sin.
"Now when he shall have attained the age of manhood, he will set himself up as a new master and teach perverse doctrine. Soon he will revolt against the saints; and he will acquire such great power that in the madness of his pride he would raise himself above the clouds; and as in the beginning Satan said: "I will be like unto the most high", and fell; so in those days, he will fall when he will say in the person of his son, "I am the Savior of the World!"
"He will ally himself with the kings, the princes and the powerful ones of the earth; he will condemn humility and will extol all the doctrines of pride. His magic art will feign the most astonishing prodigies; he will disturb the atmosphere, command thunder and tempest, produce hail and horrible lightning. He will move mountains, dry up streams, reanimate the withered verdure of forests. His arts will be practiced upon the elements, but chiefly upon man will he exhaust his infernal power. He will seem to take away health and restore it. How so? By sending some possessed soul into a dead body, to move it for a time. But these resurrections will be of short duration.
"At the sight of these things, many will be terrified and will believe in him; and some, preserving their primitive faith, will nevertheless court the favor of the Man of Sin or fear his displeasure. And so many will be led astray among those who, shutting the interior eye of their soul, will live habitually in exterior things...
"After the Antichrist has ascended a high mountain and been destroyed by Christ, many erring souls will return to truth, and men will make rapid progress in the ways of holiness."
Hildegard gave more details about the Antichrist in her Vision X:
"Nothing good will enter into him nor be able to be in him. For he will be nourished in diverse and secret places, lest he should be known by men, and he will be imbued with all diabolical arts, and he will be hidden until he is of full age, nor will he show the perversities which will be in him, until he knows himself to be full and superabundant in all iniquities.
"He will appear to agitate the air, to make fire descend from heaven, to produce rainbows, lightning, thunder and hail, to tumble mountains, dry up streams, to strip the verdure of trees, of forests, and to restore them again. He will also appear to be able to make men sick or well at will, to chase out demons, and at times even to resuscitate the dead, making a cadaver move like it was alive. But this kind of resurrection will never endure beyond a little time, for the glory of God will not suffer it.
"Ostensibly he will be murdered, spill his blood and die. With bewilderment and consternation, mankind will learn that he is not dead, but has awakened from his deathsleep.
"From the beginning of his course many battles and many things contrary to the lawful dispensation will arise, and charity will be extinguished in men. In them also will arise bitterness and harshness and there will be so many heresies that heretics will preach their errors openly and certainly; and there shall be so much doubt and incertitude in the Catholic faith of Christians that men shall be in doubt of what God they invoke, and many signs shall appear in the sun and moon, and in the stars and in the waters, and in other elements and creatures, so that, as it were in a picture, future events shall be foretold in their portents.
"Then so much sadness shall occupy men at that time, that they shall be led to die as if for nothing. But those who are perfect in the Catholic faith will await in great contrition what God wills to ordain. And these great tribulations shall proceed in this way, while the Son of Perdition shall open his mouth in the words of falsehood and his deceptions, heaven and earth shall tremble together. But after the fall of the Antichrist the glory of the Son of God shall be increased.
"As soon as he is born, he will have teeth and pronounce blasphemies; in short, he will be a born devil. He will emit fearful cries, work miracles, and wallow in luxury and vice. He will have brothers who are also demons incarnate, and at the age of twelve, they will distinguish themselves in brilliant achievements. They will command an armed force, which will be supported by the infernal legions.
"After the Son of Perdition has accomplished all of his evil designs, he will call together all of his believers and tell them that he wishes to ascend into heaven.
"At the moment of his ascension, a thunderbolt will strike him to the ground, and he will die.
"The mountain where he was established for the operation of his ascension, in an instant will be covered with a thick cloud which emits an unbearable odor of truly infernal corruption... At the sight of his body, the eyes of great number of persons will open and they will be made to see their miserable error.
"After the sorrowful defeat of the Son of Perdition, the spouse of my Son, who is the Church, will shine with a glory without equal, and the victims of the error will be impressed to reenter the sheepfold.
"As to the day, after the fall of Antichrist, when the world will end, man must not seek to know, for he can never learn it. That secret the Father has reserved for Himself."
Hildegard repeated much of the above in more detail in Scivias, Vision XI: 25-27, 33-41.
Saint Odile was born blind to Duke Attich (or Adalric), Lord of Alsace, France, in the 7th century. Her father sent her to the convent of Baume-les-Dames near Besancon, where she was miraculously healed by St. Erhard, Bishop of Ratisbon. Thereafter she became known as Odile ("Daughter of Light"). In thanksgiving, her father allowed Odile to convert the family castle into a nunnery. Odile lived there in piety until her death in 720.
Most of St. Odile's prophecies concerned her own time and local events, but one prophecy attributed to her is a detailed description of World War II, which was fulfilled in every detail. Here is her warning about World War III and the Antichrist:
"There will come a time when war will break out, more terrible than all other wars combined, which have ever visited mankind. A horrible warrior will unleash it, and his adversaries will call him Antichrist. All nations of the earth will fight each other in this war. The fighters will rise up to the heavens to take the stars and throw them on the cities, to set ablaze the buildings and to cause immense devastations. Oceans will lie between the great warriors, and the monsters of the sea, terrified by everything that happens on or under the sea, will flee to the deep. Battles of the past will only be skirmishes compared to the battles that will take place, since blood will flow in all directions. The earth will shake from the violent fighting. Famine and pestilence will join the war. The nations will then cry "Peace, peace", but there will be no peace. Thrice will the sun rise over the heads of the combatants, without having been seen by them. But afterwards there will be peace, and all who have broken peace will have lost their lives. On a single day more men will have lost been killed than the catacombs of Rome have ever held. Pyres will be erected greater than the greatestcity, and people will ascend the highest mountains to praise God, and nobody will want to make war anymore. Strange signs will appear in the skies: both horns of the moon will join the cross. Happy will be those who will have survived the war, since the pleasures of life will begin again, and the sun will have a new brilliance...
"Woe to those who, in those days, do not fear the Antichrist, for he is the father of those who are not repelled by crime. He will arouse more homicides and many people will shed tears over his evil customs. Men will set themselves one against the other and at the end will want to re-establish order. Some will try to do so, but this will not succeed and thus will end up even worse off than before! But if things will have reached the summit and if the hand of man can no longer do anything, it will be put in the hands of Him, who can send down a punishment so terrible that it will not have been seen before. God has already sent the Flood, but he has sworn never to send one again. What he will do will be something unexpected and terrible." (4)
The Seeress of Prague was a Bohemian orphan who traveled with gypsies throughout the Holy Land, the Orient, Italy, and Europe before settling down in her old age in Prague. The Seeress predicted many modern inventions, as well as the end of this civilization. She died in 1658. Her prophecies, made while in trance, were written down by her gardener. Here is a sample:
"In the Fog-land [England], a Virgin girl will become Queen [Victoria] and will bring her land Empire and Greatness. These blessing will remain for a long time. However, the coming Race will not be worthy of their Pay, and they will marry each other; following relationships within the Family will not make it possible to sustain this wealth, and this will then end after about 300 years, after which the Land of Fog will sink into the Ocean...
"In Germany speaks a Man [Hitler], whose sign is a strange Cross with Arms [swastika] , and he speaks to his Folk and promises them Might and Dominion. He aligns with the Axe-Bearer of the Eternal State [Mussolini], but this will bring him no luck.
"His Soldiers with steel Horses that move on Tracks will come to Prague. The people of the Moldaustadt [Prague] are guilty of greed. The Cross-Bearer feels sure of himself and looks with Pride over the City.
"But he feels he does not have enough power and moves further into the World. He gives the order and his Officers and Soldiers move thousands of miles to the North, South, East and West. They will melt under the black Sun [Africa], and freeze in the Snow blizzards of the Bear-Land [Russia]. The War will have no end for some time and from the Sky will fall Pitch and Sulfur. Great Cities will go up in Flames.
"Mankind is partially annihilated. They want to overcome God Himself. With bad hearts they will sow a Mushroom, whose Seed will fall from the Sky to Earth. Great is the Fear, for the Mushroom reaches to the sky and overshadows much of the land. Through this Poison Thousands will die a horrible Death.
"The Cross-Bearer also will find an End and for a Thousand Years they will try to find his Body.
"A small Box with round knobs will bring Mankind Joy and Desire into the smallest Rooms. Music, frolic and laughter come from this remarkable Thing, and people shall listen to the good and bad words.
"Darkness has entered into the Heart. The people are so strange. All knowledge is mischief that threatens the World. Everyone knows the Unholiness that moves through, but everyone hates, nobody wants to believe in God. They are building a Tower of Steel, filled with Water, and believe with this to rule the Stars. Because of their Boldness, Men will become carried away with presumptuousness and will have grief in difficulty. The People will come to suffer very heavily, because the Human Spirit feels it has conquered over the all, and the Nature is changed.
"I see a small cornered thing in their hands, which will give them information about everything they wish to know. On a white Surface, there appears a small box in which we can see People, Animals, Mountains and Valleys. Beautiful Music accompanies the Figures, and the People are happy over it. But all their joys will mean nothing.
"Tears will flow out of their Eyes and they will flow in a torrential Stream. God's Voice will sound from the Sky, and the People will fall to their Knees shaking.
"A Ball, propelled from Water, rolls over the Earth. It could bring Blessings, but it brings only Need.
"A colored Box will help Mankind, to open the Womb of the Earth. But Poison and Fire will be their harvest and it will be difficult for them to close the Womb. Glowing Air itself will become useless, and the Ice of the North will melt and the Land will become prosperous.
"A small Land will become large and then again a Man will be born, who will be great with the power of the All. Millions will applaud him and raise their Hands to him, and he will be strong, the trouble to banish. But even him a dark power will bring to an End, and a Plate made of heavy Steel will crush this Worm.
"Yet all at once Mankind will realize that they are fighting a desperate War, but somehow an unjust War will become a holy Quest. Later, but later than ever they will attain the Judgment of it all. Joyous and freer will men then be but also a great deal poorer. The Sheep of the world will learn in their Spirit, and they will ban Lies and Dogma, and the Work of their Spirit will take first place over Work with their Hands. Because of this the Fields will yield many times what today is thought to be great Blessing, and Mankind will a Day of Work in four hours.
"They will hold Rod in hand, which will bring joy with skillful use. It can also delay Death. Balls will be formed of the Food, which they will eat when they are hungry. But they will not become satisfied and full because the Bean makes their bodies even hungrier. Again there will be surprises, and they will think of totally remarkable things to help Mankind. On the Streets there will be Wagons, which are faster than anything else but which possess no Wheels. Out of Glass and Earth garments will be woven, and these will last a lifetime. The Night they will make to Day, and out of blown Glass pipes will come bright daylight.
"They will again mock God. Their crimes will disgust God, because they will be able to manufacture People artificially. These artificial Humans, however, are poor in Spirit, because they have only small brains, but they will be strong and resilient, so there will come a new Time of Slavery.
"New Religions will come, and there, where today stands the Statue of Holy Wenzel, a high Tower will crown a new Temple. Splendid will this Temple be, built with Gold and Silver.
"Again there are dark Times. In the Year in which two Fives are across Nineteen, on the Day of holy Veronika [Feb. 4] will Mankind Scream in Fear out into the World, and the End of Prague will certainly happen. The Earth will be raped and God will hold a horrible trial.
"Nothing compares previously to anything like this. Out of East there comes a Dragon, who looks gross. Out of his 9 Tongues and 99 Eyes there will shoot deadly lightning and out of his open Mouth there will blow a poisonous Breath. Prague, my dear Prague, you will find a unique but gruesome End. One Breath dissociates your Walkways, sweet and warm. The people will feel amazed. Thousands of People will lie to rest with horribly twisted Faces, and will freeze in spite of the Warmth. The End is at Hand. Ten dampened blows to the Church are in the air. Yellow dust clouds and poisonous Dusts will take the Breath of Man and Animal. In the City there is Fire everywhere. The Earth moves, deep Crevices open and draw into them the Dead and the Living. The Cemeteries open themselves and the Skeletons laugh a gruesome laugh. Everything sinks into the black depths.
"From Vysehrad comes a Fireball, Blunders fly through the Air and everywhere there is screaming, and a Fire Ocean. Everything that was the result of Men, lies in Disarray and Ashes. Life is wiped out. I only see pieces and Skeletons. Slowly the Clouds move away. There, where the Dome once stood, I see only a bloody Fireball. It is over, Prague, your destiny has fulfilled itself."
Apparently, the Chinese army will reach Prague, which will be attacked with poison gas and finally nuked. Before that time, humans will be cloned and the clones will be enslaved. (3)
The Italian Trinitarian tertiary and mystic Anna Maria Taigi was born in Sienna on 1769; she died in Rome in 1857. One day in the 1790s, a Servite priest who met her in the streets of Rome heard a voice within him telling him that she would be entrusted by God to his guidance and become a saint. Anna later went to that priest for confession after the birth her first child. Anna was the wife of a foul-tempered valet (Domenico Taigi), and raised their seven children and nursed her repulsively ill mother in a crowded house. Despite such circumstances, she was often in ecstasy and had prophetic gifts. A mystic sun surrounded by a crown of thorns appeared to her, and within it she foresaw distant events. However, she exercised her gift only when it was demanded by charity. She was consulted frequently by Popes Leo XII and Gregory XVI, and by Napolean Bonaparte's mother. Here is her account of a vision she received concerning our future:
"God will ordain two punishments: One, in the form of wars, revolutions and other evils, will originate on earth; the other will be sent from Heaven. I see above the earth an intense darkness which will last for three days and nights. Nothing will be visible and the air will vomit pestilence, which will claim principally but not exclusively the enemies of religion. During these three days, artificial light will be impossible. Only sacred candles can be lighted and will afford light. During this alarm, the faithful should stay in their houses and recite the Rosary and give Misericords to God. He who out of curiosity opens his window to look out or leave his house will fall dead on the spot.
"On this terrible occasion so many of these wicked men, enemies of His Church, and of their God, shall be killed by this divine scourge, that their corpses around Rome will be as numerous as the fishes, which a recent inundation of the Tiber had carried into the city. All the enemies of the Church, secret as well as known, will perish over the whole earth during that universal darkness, with the exception of some few, whom God will soon after convert. The air shall be infested by demons, who will appear under all sorts of hideous forms.
"After the three days of darkness, Saints Peter and Paul, having come down from heaven, will preach throughout the world and designate a new Pope. A great light will flash from their bodies and settle upon the cardinal, the future pontiff. Then Christianity will spread throughout the world. Whole nations will join the Church shortly before the reign of the Antichrist. These conversions will be amazing. Those who survive shall have to conduct themselves well. There shall be innumerable conversions of heretics, who will return to the bosom of the Church; all will note the edifying conduct of their lives, as well as that of other Catholics. Russia, England and China will come into the Church.
"France will fall into frightful anarchy. The French people shall have a desperate civil war, in which old men themselves will take up arms. The political parties having exhausted their blood and their rage, without being able to arrive at any satisfactory understanding, shall at the last extremity agree by common consent to have recourse to the Holy See. Then the Pope shall send France a special legate, in order that he may examine the state of affairs and the dispositions of the people. In consequence of the information received, His Holiness himself shall nominate a most Christian king for the government of France...
"Religions shall be persecuted, priests shall be massacred, the churches shall be closed, but only for a short time; the Holy Father shall be obliged to abandon Rome." (7-9)
The French nun Marie Julie Jehannet (born 1850) manifested stigmata on her hands and feet from age 23 until her death in 1900. During that entire period she lived without sleep, food or drink! Although she lay bedridden for several years in her old age, she always had the face of a young girl. She made the following prophecy in March 1891:
"There will a three-day Darkness in the entirety of nature; during the three Nights and two Days there will be an uninterrupted night.
"The lit Candles will be all the Light to be had. A single candle will last for three Days. Lightning will smash into those homes, but they will not wipe out the light of the candles. Neither the wind nor the storm nor earthquake will destroy the lighted candles.
"But in the Houses of the Godless and those who have not found God through all this, there will be bad spirits in the most horrible configurations imaginable and they will make the strangest sounds ever heard. Red clouds like blood will move across the heavens. The cracking and thunder will shake the Earth. Unbelievable lightning will shake the streets in a way that has never been seen. The Earth will shake to its Foundation. The Water of the Ocean will foam over the Land and will be tossed over the embankment. And the entire Earth will become a Cemetery. The Famine will then be great. This Crisis will happen very quickly, and the Punishment will be the same all over the World."
Another recorded version of the prophecy states:
"The earth will be like a vast cemetary. Corpses of the impious and of the just will cover it. The earth will tremble to its fundaments, then great waves will agitate the sea and invade the continents."
The shepherdess Melanie Calvat (1831-1940) was the daughter of a stonemason in La Salette, France. On September 19, 1846, Melanie, then 14 years old, andMaxime Giraud, age 11, were approaching a mountain stream near when they saw a ball of light downhill from them, looking "as though the sun had fallen there. A beautiful lady, all light and flowers," appeared out of the brilliant light and sat down on a stone in apparent great sorrow. The woman then levitated before Melanie and Maxime and addressed them with a prophetic message to the world, warning of a terrible future in which spirituality would decline and the clergy would degenerate. Then the Antichrist would come, followed by God's wrath:
"France, Italy, Spain and England will be at war. Blood will flow on the streets, Frenchmen will fight Frenchmen and Italian against Italian and in the end will come a war that will be terrible.
"For a period of time God will not remember Italy or France for they will have forgotten the Gospel. The evil ones will display all their malice and there will be murders even in houses. At the first blow of the sword of God which will fall, like lightning on humanity, the mountains and all nature will tremble because the disorder and the misdeeds of man will rise to the vault of heaven.
"Paris will be destroyed by fire and Marseilles will be inundated by the sea, other great cities will be destroyed by fire and razed to the ground. The just will have to suffer much: their prayers, penitence, and tears will rise to heaven; all the people of God will pray for pardon and sing misericords, and they will come to Me for My intercession and My help... There will be reconciliation between God and man and peace. They will serve, adore, and glorify Jesus Christ: love will blossom everywhere. The new rulers will be the right arm of the holy Church, which will be strong, humble, pious, poor, fervent, and a perfect imitator of the virtue of Jesus Christ. The Gospel will be preached everywhere and men will make great progress in the faith because there will be union between the workers for Jesus Christ and all who live in the fear of God.
"But this peace will not last for long; twenty-five years of plenty will be almost forgotten and the sins of men will be the cause of all the punishment which will once again be meted out to Earth.
"A forerunner of Antichrist will marshall an army drawn from all nations, united under his banner. He will lead them in a bloody war against those still faithful to the living God. He will shed much blood in eradicating the cult of the living God and by taking His place. Then there will be seen many types of punishment on Earth besides the diseases and hunger which will be universal. Wars will follow wars and the final one will be led by one of the ten kings of Antichrist who will have only one will and will be the only ones to rule in the world.
"Before this event the world will have apparent peace and people will think of nothing but pleasure and the bad ones will commit sins of all kinds. But the sons of the Holy Church, the Sons of Faith, My perfect imitators, will grow in the love of God and in all virtue, under the guide of the Holy Spirit. I will fight on their side until they arrive at the fullness of time."For the evil done by men even Nature will cry out and earthquakes will occur in protest even against those who have committed crimes on Earth. The Earth will tremble and you yourself will also tremble of you, who are dedicated to the service of Christ, yet inside only admire yourselves. Tremble! The Lord is on the point of giving you into the hands of your enemies, inasmuch as the holy places are contaminated by corruption. Many convents are no longer the houses of God, but pastures of "Asmodeus," that is of the devil, impurity, and their followers.
"Thus the time will be reached in which the Antichrist will be born of a Jewish nun, a false virgin who will have intimate relations with the ancient serpent, the master of luxury. His father will be a bishop. As soon as he is born he will have teeth and pronounce blasphemies; in a word he will be a born devil. He will emit fearful cries, work miracles and wallow in luxury and impurity. He will have brothers who are demons incarnate as he will be, but sons of evil, and at the age of twelve years they will distinguish themselves in brilliant victories. Almost all of them will be the head of an armed force, supported by the infernal legions.
"The seasons will change their characteristics, the Earth will be lit with a fiendish red light; the water and the fire will cause terrible seismic movements which will engulf mountains and cities.
"Rome will lose the Faith and become the seat of the Antichrist. The demons allied to Antichrist will operate on Earth and in the sky and Humanity will become worse. But God will not give up his truly faithful servants who are men of good will. The Gospel will be preached everywhere to all the people and the nations will know the truth.
"I make an urgent appeal to the whole universe; I call the true disciples of God who lives and reigns in the sky! I use my voice as the perfect imitator of the Word Incarnate, Christ, the only Savior of men. I warn my sons, those truly devoted to me, who are faithful to Me because they lead me to My Son, whom I carried in My arms and Who lives always in My Spirit. Lastly, I appeal to the apostles of the last days, the disciples faithful to Jesus Christ who wait for the rule Melanie will receive for them, who lead a life despising the world and themselves and who live in sight of a world in poverty and humility, in silence and in self-effacement, in continual prayer and in mortification, in love and in union with God in concealment and in suffering.
"The time has come that you should show yourselves to lighten the world. Go and show yourselves, my beloved sons. I am with you and in you. While your faith is the light which will help you in these days of disappointment, your zeal will give you fame in the glory of Christ.
"Fight, Sons of light, you small number who see, because the time of times, the final end, is near.
"The Church will be in the dark, the world will be convulsed, but in this confusion Enoch and Elijah will appear full in the spirit of God. They will preach, and in their words will be the power of God, and men of good will believe in God, and many spirits will be consoled, in virtue of the Holy Spirit they will make great progress and condemn the diabolical errors of Antichrist.
"Woe to the inhabitants of the Earth. There will be sanquinary war, hunger, pestilence and epidemics, terrible rains of insects, thunder which will shake entire cities, earthquakes which will make entire regions uninhabitable. Voices will be heard in the air, and men will strike their heads against the wall, wishing for death, but this will bring them, for their part, terrible torture. Blood will flow everywhere. Who could ever report victory unless God shortened the time of trial?
"Enoch and Elijah will be put to death; pagan Rome will be destroyed and fire will fall from heaven destroying three cities. The sun will be blackened and only the Faith will survive.
"The time is at hand. The abyss is opening: the king of darkness is watching, the beast is watching with his subjects who will proclaim him "savior of the world." He will rise into the air superbly to reach the sky, but the breath of Archangel Michael will kill him. He will fall back and the earth will shake without ceasing for three days. It will then open its womb full of fire and the best and his followers will be allowed into the eternal abyss of inferno. Then water and fire will purify the earth to destroy all human pride and everything will be renewed.
"If humanity is converted, stones and rocks will become fertile and produce grain, and the fields will give abundant harvest." (4)
On May 13, 1917, in a field called Cova da Iria near the Portuguese village of Fatima, "a beautiful lady from Heaven", shining like the sun and standing on a cloud over a beech tree, appeared to three children: Lucia Dos Santos (age 10) and her two cousins, Francisco (9) and Jacinta Marti (7). Lucia saw and heard the Madonna and spoke with her. Jacinta also saw and heard her, but did not speak, and Francisco only saw the Virgin. The radiant being spoke with the children for several minutes, and asked them to meet her again at the same place on the 13th of each month until October. Then, she promised, she would identify herself. (4, 9, 13, 14)
The Madonna reappeared six times in all, and the reports of the events drew increasing crowds of spectators. About 50 persons attended on June 13, and nearly 70,000 were present on October 13. Many witnesses saw a bright cloud over the beech tree, but only the three children could see and hear the woman.
At the behest of a group of political activists and doubters who wished to "put an end to the nonsense," the civil prefect of Outrem seized, interrogated and threatened the children for two days in the hope of forcing a confession of fraud from them. Though the children had been prevented from meeting the Madonna on August 13, she appeared to them on August 19 at Valinhos, near the site of her first appearance. The Madonna then told them that she would appear a final time on October 13, and then produce a miracle.
On that day the Madonna transmitted the prophecy known as the Secret of Our Lady of the Rosary. It was a rainy day, but newspaper journalists who were eyewitnesses reported that the rain stopped suddenly and the sun reappeared. In the words of A. Garret, a professor at Coimbra University, the sun looked like "a burnished wheel cut out of mother of pearl. This disc spun dizzily around... It whirled upon itself with mad rapidity, then advanced, blood red, towards the Earth, threatening to crush us with its weight." Terrified spectators fell to their knees in prayer. The sun returned to normal, then twice again repeated the prodigy. In addition, the rain-soaked clothes of the audience dried out during the brief time of the solar phenomenon.
The Secret of Our Lady of the Rosary is a three-part prophecy that she ordered to be kept secret for 25 years or until the death of Lucia, whichever came first. Francisco and Jacinta died in the influenza pandemic that ravaged Europe in 1918 and 1919. Lucia became a Dorothe Sister, and in 1948 she became a Barefoot Carmelite in a closed convent at Coimbra. Lucia learned to write, and recorded the text of the secret prophecy. This was kept in the Bishopric of Leiria until 1943, when Pope Pius XII revealed the first two parts through the agency of Cardinal Schuster. The final, secret part of the prophecy was opened by Pope John XXIII and several cardinals in 1960, according to the Madonna's directions, but it was not revealed to the public. The first section is a vision of Hell. The second part predicts World War II. The following segment was published with Papal approval:
"If you do what I tell you, many souls will be saved and we shall have peace. The war is coming to an end; but it does not cease to offend the Lord, and another, more terrible one will break out. When you see a night lit up by an unknown light, you will know that it the great sign that God gives you of the next punishment of the sins of the world with war, famine, and persecution against the Church and against the Holy Father.
"In order to prevent this, I have some to intercede for the consecration of Russia to my Immaculate Heart and the communion of the first Sabbaths.
"If you carry out my demands, Russia will be converted and there will be peace. Otherwise the errors will be spread around the world, provoking war and persecution against the Church; many good people will become martyrs, the Holy Father will suffer much; many nations will be suppressed...
"But in the end my Immaculate Heart will triumph, the Holy Father will consecrate Russia for me, which will be converted and the world will be granted a period of peace..."
The "great sign", "a night lit up by an unknown light," occurred on January 25, 1938. It has been explained as an unusual aurora borealis. World War II began soon afterward.
The secret section of the prophecy of Our Lady of the Rosary was leaked by Pope John XXIII to certain Roman Catholic officials and world leaders of the USA, USSR, and Britain. On October 15, 1963, the German journal News Europe published the alleged text of the secret portion of the Fatima Prophecy. The text cannot be verified, but it is widely accepted as being genuine:
"Have no fear, little one. I am the Mother of God who speaks to you and asks you to publish the message I am going to give you to the whole world. You will find strong resistance while you do so. Listen well and pay attention to what I tell you.
"Men must be set on the right road once more. With suppliant humility, men must seek forgiveness for sins committed already and for sins which will be committed. You wish me to give you a sign, so that everyone will accept My Words, which I am saying through you, to the human race. I have seen the Prodigy of the Sun and all believers, unbelievers, peasants, countrymen, wise men, journalists, laics and priests, all have seen it. And now I proclaim in my name: A great punishment shall fall on the entire human race, not today and not tomorrow, but in the second half of the 20th century! I have already revealed to the children Melanie and Maximime at La Salette, and today I repeat it to you for the human race has sinned and has trampled down the Gift which I have made. In no part of the world is life in order, Satan rules in the highest position, laying down how things should be done. He will effectually succeed in bringing his influence right up to the top of the Church; succeed in seducing the spirits of the great scientists who invent thearms. And if humanity opposes me I shall be obliged to free the arm of My Son. Now I see that God will punish man with a severity that has not been used since the Flood.
"The time of times will come and everything will come to an end if humanity is not converted, and if things remain as they are now or get worse, the great and powerful men will perish just as will the small and weak.
"For the Church, too, the time of its greatest trial will come. Cardinals will oppose cardinals and bishops against bishops. Satan will march in their midst and there will be great changes at Rome. What is rotten will fall, never to rise again. The Church will be darkened and the world will shake with terror. The time will come when no king, emperor, cardinal or bishop will await Him who will, however, come, but in order to punish according to the designs of my Father.
"A great war will break out in the second half of the 20th century. Fire and smoke will fall from heaven, and waters of the oceans will become vapors, the scum will arise in a confused manner, and everything will sink down. Millions and millions of men will perish while this is going on and those who survive will envy the dead. The unexpected will follow in every part of the world, anxiety, pain and misery in every country. Have I seen it? The time is getting ever nearer and the abyss is getting wider without hope. The good will perish with the bad, the great with the small, the Heads of the Church with their faithful, and the rulers with their people. There will be death everywhere as a result of the mistakes of the unfeeling and the partisans of Satan, but when those who survive all these happenings are still alive, they will proclaim God once again and His Glory, and will serve Him as in the time when the world was not so perverted.
"Go, my little one and proclaim it. For that purpose I shall always be at your side to help you."
The following version of the third prophecy of Fatima has been in circulation since about 1985, and published in various newspapers and magazines :
"A great plague will befall mankind in the year 2000. Nowhere in the world will there be order, and Satan will rule the highest places, determining the way of things. Satan will even succeed in asserting himself at the top of the Church.
"He will succeed in seducing the spirits of the great scientists who invent arms, with which it will be possible to destroy a large part of mankind in a few minutes. Satan will have in his power the leaders who command the people and who will incite them to produce enormous quantities of arms.
"God will punish man more thoroughly than with the Flood. There will come the time of all times and the end of all ends. The great and the powerful will perish together with the small and weak.
"Even for the Church, it will be the time of its greatest trial. Cardinals will oppose cardinals, bishops will oppose bishops. Satan will walk in their midst and in Rome there will be great changes. The Church will be darkened and the world will be shaking with terror.
"A huge war will erupt: fire and smoke will fall from the sky. The waters of the ocean will become mist, and the foam will rise to tremendous heights and everyone will drown.
"Millions and millions of men will die from hour to hour. Whoever remains alove will envy the dead. Everywhere one turns one's glance there will be anguish and misery, ruins in every country.
"The time draws nearer, the abyss widens without hope. The good will perish with the bad, the great with the small, the princes of the church with the faithful, the rulers with their people.
"There will be death everywhere because of the errors committed by the crazed and the followers of Satan, who will then and only then rule the world.
"At the last, those who survive will at every chance newly proclaim God and His glory and they will serve Him as when the world was not so perverted."
On her death-bed (February 1920), Jacinta told Mother Godinho:
"There is a secret of Heaven and one of earth, and the latter is terifying. It will seem as though it were already the end of the world. And in this cataclysm everything will be separated from the sky, which will turn white as snow."
Since 1970, Our Lady has been appearing to Veronica Lueken, "The Seeress of Bayside" (NY), who transmits the Madonna's messages. On June 8, 1974, Jacinta also channeled a message through Veronica:
"It is true that I gave a final message [to Mother Godinho], but I, too, could not give the date --- only to warn the world that a great Warning would come to mankind. It would be a great cataclysm Warning, and then there would be a great Miracle. And after that, if nothing changes and man continues to offend the Father, He would have to start this terrible, terrible trial. For there will be a great War and there will be a great, terrible chastisement."
Our Lady also sent the following prophetic messages through Vronica Leuken:
"All who remain in the light of grace will have no fear. They will pass through this great Warning without suffering." (April 5, 1975)
"There will be a tremendous explosion, and the sky shall roll back like a scroll. This force shall go within the very core of the human. He will understand his offenses to his God." (June 12, 1976)
"As the day follows night, so shall this Warning follow soon. Beware of the sunrise! Do not look up to the sky --- the flash! Close your windows; draw your shades; remain inside. Do not venture outside your door, or you will not return... Keep blessed candles, water, food within your homes. The candles of those who have remained in the state of grace shall not be extinguished, but the candles in the homes of those who have given themselves to Satan shall not burn!"
The Madonna's comment about sacred candles repeats the same notion in the prophecies of Sister Palma Maria, Marie Dehenny, Anna Taigi, and Marie Jehannet.
In June 1961, The Virgin Mary appeared to four young girls near the village of Garabandal in northwest Spain; she continued to visit them over four years. The apparition gave the girls numerous general lectures urging repentance, and foretold them of a miraculous sign that will appear some day. It is known that the event will occur between March-May 8-16 on a Thursday at 8:30 p.m. It will appear within a year of the Warning foretold by Our Lady of Fatima. The seer Conchita will know of the event 8 days in advance. It will happen on the feast day of a Eucharist martyr, and will coincide with a "great event" of the Catholic Church. The local bishop also will learn of the impending sign, and will allow priests to go to Garabandal. Conchita said this about the event:
It will be visible to all those who are in the village and surrounding mountains; that the sick who are present will" be cured and the incredulous will believe. It will be the greatest miracle that Jesus will have performed for the world. There won't be the slightest doubt that it comes from God and that it is for the good of mankind. A sign of the Miracle, which it will be possible to film or televise, will remain forever."
The Irish archbishop St. Malachi (also known as Maelm Haedoc Va Morgair) was born in 1095 at Armaugh, Ireland. He died in 1148. St. Malachi was gifted with miracles and prophecy. In 1132 he succeeded to archbishopric of Armagh, but resigned in 1138 to take a journey to Rome to visit Pope Innocent III. En route, he visited St. Bernard (who later wrote St. Malachi's biography) at Clairvaux, France. There he wrote his famous prophecy predicting 112 individual Popes by name from Celestine II (1143-1144) to the very end of the Papacy. The Benedictine monk Arnold de Wion found the original manuscript in the library of the Vatican and included it in his book Lignum Vitae (1595). The series includes many accurate descriptions of the popes in two or three word phrases. Those of the 20th century are translated from Latin as follows. (2, 11, 12)
Lumen in Coelo (Light in Heaven): the 101st in St. Malachi's series was Pope Leo XIII, whose Pecci family coat-of-arms bears a comet.
Ignis Ardens (Ardent Fire): Pope Pius X (1903-1914).
Religio Depopulata (Religion Depopulated): Benedict XV (1914-1922); during World War I, depopulation was the order of the day.
Fides Intrepida (Intrepid Faith): Pope Pius XI (1922-1939).
Pastor Angelicus (Angelic Shepherd): Pope Pius XII (1939-1958).
Pastor et Nauta (Shepherd and Pilot): Pope John XXIII (1958-1963) was the patriarch ("Shepherd") of the port city of Venice (hence "Pilot") before he was elected Pope.
Flos Florum (Flower of Flowers): Pope Paul VI (1963-1978); his family coat-of-arms has a floral crest of the fleur-de-lys.
De Medietate Lunae (Middle of the Moon), number 108: The 33-day reign of Pope Paul Ispanned two full moons; he died during the half-moon phase ("Middle of the Moon") in 1979.
De Labore Solis (Labor of the Sun): Pope John Paul II was born during a total eclipse of the sun.
De Gloria Olivae (Glory of the Olive), number 110, will be the penultimate Pope, according to St. Malachi.
Peter Romanus (Peter of Rome); St. Malachi gave more details about the last Pope:
During the final persecution of the Holy Roman Catholic Church there will sit upon the throne Peter the Roman, who will pasture his flock in the midst of many tribulations. With these passed, the city of the hills will be destroyed, and the awful judge will judge the peoples.
Another series of papal prophecies was made by the Monk of Padua. His predictions existed in manuscript form before 1790, but were not published until 1889. The prophecies relate to the last 20 popes and actually names them. However, the names are not in accord since the ascension of Benedict XV in 1914. The Monk of Padua expected him to take the name of Paul VI, but Benedict did not oblige him.
The Monk wrote of Pope John Paul I (whom he named Pius XII), that "From the half-moon proceeds this Pope sent to Rome by the Divine Doctor. Hail, O our well-beloved Father, Pius IX, the most Holy Mediator, future victim!" In his book In God's Name (1984), David Yallup claimed that Pope John Paul was poisoned with digitalis (to give the appearance of a heart attack) because he planned to press an investigation of the Vatican Bank's links to the Propaganda Due (P-2) Masonic Lodge and a network of front companies in Europe and South America, whereby millions of dollars were channeled for secret purposes. No autopsy was performed, and the body was quickly embalmed. The Pope also was preparing to liberalize the Church's position on birth control, and he planned to remove several high officials, among them Archbishop Paul Minkus (president of the Vatican Bank).
The Monk of Padua wrote this about Pope John Paul II:
"Thanks to an excellent work of the sun, the earth has nourished the devoted flock of a most holy shepherd --- our very Holy Father, Gregory XVIII, a priest altogether admirable."
The next Pope (St. Malachi's De Gloria Olivae) was named Leo XIV:
"Oh, what a messenger of peace of the glory of the olive tree, of the Lord, oh, what a protector, all filled with goodness! -- the Pope, Leo XIV, energetic monarch, a glorious reign."
The monk's predictions end there, without mention of St. Malachi's "Peter Romanus".
St. John Capistran of Italy (1385-1456) began his social career as a lawyer. In 1412 he was appointed governor of Perugia by the King of Naples. After an unconsummated marriage, he obtained a dispensation to enter religion, and received the priesthood in 1425. He was a phenomenal success as a preacher. He also wrote many books, including this prophecy of the last eight popes:
"The ox shall again be full of life and his trumpets shall resound with sweet lowing.
A great city beast shall succeed and devour the pastures of the little ones.
He shall come from the North wind, enter into the sanctuary and the Church will renew her seed.
He shall explain the ten heads of the dragon and he shall destroy in the Holy Land the Author of Wickedness.
The people will be dying with hunger when he is created who will divide and give to the poor.
The Tree shall give forth its fruits, but the destroying beast shall devour them.
The brightness of the exposed countenances shall be lifted, and the faces of the proud shall fall before the face of the oppressor.
There shall be signs of the sun and moon when there shall be created a man stronger than any prince, and he shall renew the face of the Church. At this time the Antichrist shall have been trodden underfoot and all the world shall enjoy the faith and peace of the Most High."
In 1909, during an audience for the general chapter of the Franciscan Order, Pope Pius X suddenly fell into a trance. The audience waited in reverent silence. When he awoke, the Pope cried out:
"What I see is terrifying! Will it be myself? Will it be my successor? What is certain is that the Pope will quit Rome, and in leaving the Vatican he will have to walk over the dead bodies of his priests.
"Do not tell anyone this while I am alive."
Just prior to his death (August 20, 1914), Pope Pius X had another vision:
"I have seen one of my successors, of the same name, who was fleeing over the bodies of his brethren. He will take refuge in some hiding place; but after a brief respite he will die a cruel death.
"Respect for God has disappeared from human hearts. They wish to efface even God's memory. This perversity is nothing less than the beginning of the last days of the world."
St. Giovanni (John) Bosco (1815-1888) was the founder of the religious orders of the Salesians and the Salesian Sisters. Don Bosco, as he was familiarly known, devoted himself to counseling and educating homeless children, and he has been their patron saint since he was ordained in 1934. St. John was gifted with prophecy, concerning which he said, "Do not call me a prophet until the things I have foretold have come to pass."
His predictions especially concern the Catholic Church and the Papacy, which will be forced to evacuate Rome when "Cossack horses will drink from St. Peter's fountain." The following is his most famous prophecy:
"War comes from the south, peace from the north. French laws no longer recognize the Creator, but the Creator will make himself recognized and will visit her thrice with the rod of his wrath. In the first visit he breaks her pride by conquest, plundering ruined harvest and butchery of men and beasts.
"In the second visit the great prostitute of Babylon, which makes decent people sigh and call the Brothel of Europe, will be left without a leader and will be a victim of disorder.
"Paris! Paris! Instead of arming yourself in the name of the Lord, you fortify with Houses of Immorality. They will be destroyed by you yourself. Your idol, the Pantheon, will be burnt to ashes in order that this may come true: "violence, uttereth lies against me." Your enemies will reduce you to want, to hunger, to fear, and will make you the abomination of nations. Ah, woe to you, if you do not recognize the hand that strikes you! I want to punish immorality, the despising of, and the contempt for My Law, says the Lord.
"In the third visit you will fall into the hands of foreigners. Your enemies standing afar offwill behold your palaces in flames. Your homes will become a heap of ruins with the blood of your heroes who are no more.
"But there will come a great warrior from the North carrying a banner and on the right hand that supports it is written: "The Irresistible Hand of the Lord." At that very moment there went out to meet him the Venerable Old Man of Lazio, holding aloft a brilliantly glowing torch. The banner then increased in size and turned from black to snow-white. In the middle of the banner, in letters of gold, there was written the name of Him who is able to do all things. The warrior with his men bowed and shook hands with the Venerable Old Man.
"Now Heaven's voice is addressed to the Shepherd of shepherds. You are now in conference with your advisors. The enemy of the good does not stand idle one moment. He studies and practices all his arts against you. He will sow discord among your consultors; he will raise up enemies amongst my children. The powers of the world will belch forth fire, and they would that the words be suffocated in the throats of the custodians of my law. That will not happen, they will do no harm but to themselves. You must hurry. If you cannot untie the knots, cut them. If you find yourself hard pressed, do not give up but continue until the head of the hydra of error is cut off. This stroke will make the world and Hell beneath it tremble, but the world will be safe and all the good will rejoice. Keep your consultors always with you, even if only two. Wherever you go, continue and bring to an end the work entrusted to you. The days fly by, your years will reach the destined number; but the great Queen will ever be your help, as in times past, so in the future She will always be the exceeding great fortress of the Church.
"Ah, but you, Italy, land of blessings! Who has steeped you in desolation! Blame not your enemies, but rather your friends. Can you not hear your children asking for the bread of faith and finding only those who smash it to pieces? What shall I do? I shall strike the shepherds, I shall disperse the flock, until those sitting on the throne of Moses search for good pastures and the flock listens attentively and is fed.
"Of the flock and over the shepherds My hand will weigh heavy. Famine, pestilence, and war will be such that mothers will have to cry on account of the blood of their sons and of their martyrs dead in a hostile country.
"And to you, Rome, what will happen! Ungrateful Rome, effeminate Rome, proud Rome! You have reached such a height that you search no further. You admire nothing else in your Sovereign except luxury, forgetting that you and your glory stands upon Golgotha. Now he is old, defenseless, and despoiled; and yet at his word, the word of one who was in bondage, the whole world trembles.
"Rome! To you I will come four times.
"The first time, I shall strike your lands and the inhabitants thereof.
"The second time, I shall bring the massacre and the slaughter even to your very walls. And will you not yet open your eyes?
"I shall come a third time and I shall beat down to the ground your defenses and the defenders, and at the command of the Father, the reign of terror, of dreadful fear, and of desolation shall enter into your city.
"But My wise men have now fled and My law is even now trampled underfoot. Therefore I will make a fourth visit. Woe to you if My law shall still be considered as empty words. There will be deceit and falsehood among both the learned and the ignorant. Your blood and that of your children will wash away your stains upon God's law. War, pestilence and famine are the rods to scourge men's pride and wickedness. O wealthy men, where is your glory now, your estates, your palaces? They are the rubble on the highways and byways.
"And your priests, why have you not run to "cry between the vestibule and the Altar," begging God to end these scourges? Why have you not, with the shield of faith, gone upon the housetops, into the homes, along the highways and byways, into every accessible corner to carry the seed of My word? Know you that this is the terrible two-edged sword that cuts down My enemies and breaks the Anger of God and of men?
"These things must come one after another. They are inexorable.
"Things are happening too slowly.
"But the August Queen of Heaven is present.
"The power of the Lord is in His hands. He scatters His enemies as a cloud. The Venerable Old Man attires himself in all his ancient raiment.
"There will come a violent hurricane.
"Iniquity is consummated. Sin will have its end. And before two full moons of the month of flowers will have run their course, the rainbow of peace will rise above the earth.
"The Great Minister will see the bride of his King arrayed in festive fashion.
"Throughout the world the sun will appear so luminous that the likes of which never has been seen since the tongues of fire descended on the Cenacle until this day, nor will such a sun ever be seen again until the very last of days.
"It was a dark night. Men could no longer tell which way to take in order to return to their homes. Suddenly there appeared in the heavens a very bright light that illuminated the steps of the travelers as though it was midday. At that moment there was seen a host of men and women, of young and old, of nuns, monks and priests with the Holy Father at the head. They were going out from the Vatican and were arranging themselves in line for a procession.
"And then there came a furious storm which clouded that light somewhat and made it appear that light and darkness were engaged in battle. In the meantime they arrived at a little square covered with dead and wounded, some of whom cried aloud and asked for help.
"Very many were dropping out of the line of procession. After having walked for a time that would correspond to two hundred risings of the sun they realized that they were no longer in Rome. Struck with fear they all ran to the Holy Father to defend him personally and to attend to his wants. Instantly two angels were seen carrying a banner; they presented it to the Holy father and said: "Receive the banner of He Who fights and scatters the strongest armies of the world. Your enemies are dispersed. Your children with tears and sighs beg you to return."
"Looking at the banner one could see written on one side, "Queen conceived without sin," and on the other side, "Help of Christians."
"The Holy Father joyfully took the banner, but looking closely at the small number of those who remained with him, he becamevery sad.
"The two angels add: "Go quickly and console your children. Write your brothers dispersed throughout the world that there must be a reform in the morals of men. That cannot be obtained except by distributing to the people the bread of the Divine Word. Catechize the children, preach the detaching of the heart from the things that are of the earth. The time has come," concluded the two angels, "when the poor shall evangelize the people. Vocations will come from among those working with the spade, the ax, the hammer to the end that they fulfill the words of David: God has raised up the poor from the land in order to place them on the thrones of the princes of His people."
"Having heard that, the Holy Father began the march. The farther he went the greater did the procession behind increase. When finally he set foot in the Holy City, he wept bitter tears for the distress in which he found the people and the large number now missing. As he entered St. Peter's he intoned the "Te Deum" to which a choir of angels replied singing: "Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace to men of good will."
"With the end of the hymn there came an end to the thick darkness and the sun shone with a brightness all its own.
"The cities, the towns, and villages were thinly populated. The land had been leveled down as if by a hurricane, by a tempest, and a hail storm. People went from one to another saying in tones of great emotion: "There is a God in Israel."
"From the beginning of the exile until the singing of the "Te Deum", the sun rose in the East two hundred times. The time that passed for the fulfilling of these things corresponds to four hundred risings of the sun."
In 1783, a manuscript of prophecy believed to be the work of an anonymous monk in the mid-17th century was found among the papers of a notary who had administered the monastery of Premol near Genoble, France. The prophecy is broad in scope, stretching from the French Revolution to the end of civilization as we know it. Among the predicted events that remain to be fulfilled are the destruction of Paris, Israel, and Rome, the escape of the Pope, and the advents of the Grand Monarch of Europe and the Angelic Pope. The following section of the prophecy is excerpted from Liber Mirabilis, published by Adrian Peladon:
"The spirit conducted me into the heavens and said to me: "It is written that the Archangel Michael will do battle with the Dragon before the Triangle of God.
"Then the spirit added: "Open the doors to your understanding; the Archangel and the Dragon are the two spirits that will contend for the kingdom of Jerusalem; and the triangle is the glory of the Almighty...
"...Is such a sacrifice not enough to appease your wrath, O Lord? But no, what then is this noise of arms? These cries of war and fear? What do the four winds bring? Ah! The dragon has appeared in all countries and has brought terrible confusion everywhere. There is war everywhere.
"Individuals and nations rise against each other. Wars! Wars! Civil wars, foreign wars! What terrifying clashes! Everything is dead or in mourning; and famine stalks the earth.
"The general revolution has followed. In these future happenings will Paris be destroyed? Jerusalem! Jerusalem! Save yourself from the fire of Sodom and Gomorrah, and from the sack of Babylon. Why, Lord, do you not stop all this with Your Arm? Is the fury of men not enough without flaming ruin?
"Must the elements also serve as an instrument of thine wrath? Stop, O Lord, stop! Thy cities are already crumbling by themselves. The elements are set loose. Cities are destroyed by fire.
"Mercy, pardon for Zion! But thou are deaf to our cries, and the mountain of Zion comes crumbling down with a deafening roar!
"The Cross of Christ now surmounts only a heap of ruins.
"And it is here that I see the king of Zion abandon his staff and his triple crown and, shaking the dust of these ruins from his feet, make haste to flee toward other shores. And that is not all, O Lord; your Church is rent asunder by her own children!
"The children of Zion are divided into two camps --- one faithful to the fugitive pontiff, and the other inclined or disposed to the government of Zion respecting the Sceptre, but breaking in pieces the triple crown.
"And I saw out of the Orient a significant young Man; he rode on a Lion and held a flaming Sword in his hand. And France sang in front of him. And on his Path, many people fell before him, because the Spirit of God was with him. He rode into the ruins of Rome, and laid his Hand in the Hand of the pope.
"And the one places the mutilated tiara upon the ardent head, determined to institute reforms that the opposing faction rejects; and confusion reigns in the sanctuary...
"But my spirit wanders and my eyes become obscured at the sight of this terrible cataclysm. But the Spirit said to me that the man who hope in God does penance, because the all-powerful and merciful God will draw the world out of confusion and a new world will commence. Then the Spirit said to me: "Here is the beginning of the end of Time which begins!" And I awoke terrified."
38. The Angelic Pope & Great Monarch ~
A large corpus of prophetic literature deals with a "Grand Monarch" and "Angelic Pope". Some critics have dismissed these as wishful thinking and political propaganda. Many such predictions are just that, but the consensus of these visionary scenarios, spread over a period of 1500 years, is remarkably consistent. Perhaps an interim of enlightened, absolutemonarchy would be an elegant solution to the crisis of leadership in modern times; it is a reasonable hope. No such characters are mentioned in Biblical prophecy, except perhaps in Daniel 12:1. Prophecies of the Grand Monarch began to appear within a few centuries after Christ, and served to support the notion of divine right of kings. However, he is not present on the stage of current affairs; perhaps he is waiting in the wings.
During the 12th century, the Papacy rose to its pinnacle as a universal religious authority and political power, in gross contradiction to the spiritual ideal of poverty and simplicity. The contrast between the opulent popes and the people's hopes for more saintly pontiffs gave rise to a powerful new apocalyptic dream of the "Pastor Angelicus" (Angelic Pope). There are no references to an enlightened Pope in the Bible, but he became a psychic necessity after the 13th century and has continued to manifest in prophecy since then.
Also during the 13th century, the Pope began to become identified with the Antichrist, and for good reason. For example, the inscription on the Pope's miter reads "VICARIUS FILII DEI" (Vicar of the Son of God). In the Latin gematria (according to which each letter has a numeric value), the inscription equals 666, the Number of the Beast in St. John's Revelation. The words "Mystery Babylon" and the Roman numerals DCLXVI (666) also appear on the Golden Carp hat which the Pope wears.
The idea of the Angelic Pope and the Antichrist-Pope caught on soon after the holy Benedictine hermit Peter Morrone was chosen as Pope (against his will) two years after the death of Nicholas IV in 1292. The cardinals could not agree on the successor, until Morrone was chosen "either by desperation or by revelation". He took the name Celestine V. The hermit was quite unfit for the arduous task of the Papacy and abdicated within six months. While acting as Pope, he built a hut for himself within the papal palace at Napoli and lived there in holy poverty. This gave rise to the popular opinion that he was the Angelic pope. His successor Boniface VIII (1294-1303) imprisoned Celestine V and was one of the worst men ever to hold papal office. This further inspired contemporary predictions of super-holy popes and the Great Monarch. Several of the following prophecies concern these characters.
39. St. Cataldus of Tarentino ~
St. Cataldus was a scholar, born ca. 500 AD at Rathan in Mamonia, Ireland near the great monastery of Lismore. Inspired with missionary zeal at a young age, he went on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. On his return he was shipwrecked on Tarentum at the heel of Italy. He preached fervently to the local people and worked many miracles, thus bringing them all to repentance. He is now the patron saint of the place. Cataldus is attributed with this prophecy:
"The Great Monarch will be in war till he is forty years of age; a king of the House of Lily, he will assemble great armies and expel tyrants from his empire. He will conquer England and other island empires. Greece he will invade and be made king thereof. Colchis, Cyprus, the Turks and barbarians he will subdue and have all men worship the Crucified one. He will at length lay down his crown in Jerusalem."
The Blessed Rabanus Megentius Maurus, Benedictine Abbot of Fulda and Archbishop of Mainz (b. 776, d. 856), was a well-known teacher and writer, and one of the most learned men of his time. He reviewed the prophetic literature of his period and reported thus:
"Our principal doctors agree in announcing to us that towards the end of time one of the descendants of the kings of France shall reign over all the Roman Empire; and that he shall be the greatest of the Empire; and that he shall be the greatest of the French monarchs, and the last of his race.
"After having most happily governed his kingdom, he will go to Jerusalem, and depose on Mount Olive his sceptre and crown. This shall be the end and conclusion of the Roman and Christian Empire."
Saint Caesarius (469-542) served as Archbishop of Arles from 502 to 542, and he was the papal vicar for Gaul and Spain at the same time. He is considered to be one of the truly relevant writers of the patristic age. In his book Mirabilis liber prophecias revelationes, he correctly predicted the French Revolution. He also gave this prophecy of the Great Pope and Grand Monarch:
"When the entire world, and in a special manner France, and in France more particularly the provinces of the north, of the east, and above all, that of Lorraine and Champagne, shall have been a prey to the greatest miseries and trials, then the provinces shall be succored by a prince who had been exiled in his youth, and who shall recover the crown of the lilies.
"This prince shall extend his dominion over the entire universe. At the same time there will be a great Pope, who be most eminent in sanctity and most perfect in every quality. This Pope shall have with him the Great Monarch, a most virtuous man, who shall be a scion of the holy race of the French kings. This Great Monarch will assist the Pope in the reformation of the whole earth. Many princes and nations that are living in error and impiety shall be converted, and an admirable peace shall reign among men during many years, because the wrath of God shall be appeased through their repentance, penance, and good works. There will be one common law, only one faith, one baptism, one religion. All nations shall recognize the Holy See of Rome, and shall pay homage to the Pope. But after some considerable time fervor shall cool, iniquity shall abound, and moral corruption shall become worse than ever, which shall bring upon mankind the last and worst persecution of the Antichrist, and the end of the world.
"There shall be a great change and as great an effusion of blood as in the time of the Gentiles: the Universal Church and the whole world shall deplore the ruin and capture of that most celebrated city, the capital and mistress of France; the altars and temples shall be destroyed; the holy virgins after experiencing many outrages, shall fly from their monasteries: the pastors of the Church shall abandon their pulpits and the Church itself be despoiled of all temporalities.
The legendary Celtic magus Merlin Ambrosius supposedly brought the stones of Stonehenge from Ireland to Salisbury Plain by magical levitation, and counseled King Arthur. He has had over 100 pseudo-epigraphic Latin and vernacular texts attributed to him. Most of those texts were produced in Italy. The best representation of such writings is Les Prophecies de Merlin, composed in Venice by an anti-imperialist Franciscan circa 1275. The ascribed prophecies were proscribed by the Council of Trent. The following excerpts pertain to the Grand Monarch:
"There will come a German Anti-Pope. Italy and Germany will be sorely troubled. A French King will restore the true Pope.
"After the destruction of England by seven kings there shall come a dreadful dead man, and with him a Royal Great Monarch of the best blood in the world and he shall set England on the right way and put out all heresies. He shall be the last King over England.
"When the tail of Virgo shall enter Leo, and Scorpio shall ascend the back of Sagittarius, the northern kingdoms shall end in lust; and the power of the Island Monarchies shall be harnessed.
"Cruel wars shall be scattered by the wind -- whose beginnings were by a staff: their growth and continuance by bastards -- and gulled by a revengeful hail...
"Those on whom these things shall come, for grief and sorrow pine away. A prince of royal stock shall come forth, crowned from the northern parts --- to his own people unexpected, but desired by foreigners --- who, because he shall bear a "rampant lion" shall therefore be called a lion. He shall advance his conquering armies against his enemies and by woeful successes shall harness the territories of neighbor Princes. He shall exceed Alexander the Great in virtue and Cyrus in success. He shall cross the sea and be saluted Emperor by many kings. A certain ancient city he shall lay level with the ground.
"In the meanwhile a powerful Prince out of the East shall provoke him to battle. Against whom the Lion shall march with all his forces and pitching his camp on the side of the Euphrates, shall await him. If the prince shall come over the river the Lion shall be overcome; but the Lion shall cross the river with his army and give his enemy a bloody defeat and be master of all the East.
"Whilst these things are happening, divers petty kings from India shall break into Syria with mighty armies. provided for battle, they shall wait for the Lion about the Valley of Jehosephat, where they shall, by him, be all wholly cut off. Not long afterwards the Lion himself will die in eminent piety, after having established the Kingdom of the Fugitives...
"There will be a Pope who will not dare so much as look at Rome. Similarly, one thing the Romans must understand, among others, is that before the death of the Pope, our Lord will make him suffer such disgrace that there will be nothing to compare with it. It is likewise necessary that the Romans know, among other things, that from that time on will begin their destruction, step by step, and that it will be because of their sins...
"Merlin saith that in England shall be seen many strange things, as preaching of traitors, great rain and wind, great hunger among the common people, great oppression of blood, great imprisonment of many men and great battle; so that there will be few or no quiet places to abide in; the Prince shall forsake men of the Church, Lords shall forsake righteousness... Religious men shall be thrust out of their houses; the common people for fear shall not know which way to turn; parents shall be hated by their children; men of worship shall have no reverence of their inferiors; chastity will be broken by maids, wives and widows, religious men and virgins, with more ill than I can tell of, from the which God will defend us."
Pope Leo VI (Leo the Philosopher) reigned for 7 months and 10 days during the second half of the 9th century; he died in 911. Little is known about him, but he is credited with the authorship of The Oracles of Leo the Wise, an illustrated 12th century Byzantine prophecy of future emperors, including the Last World Emperor:
"There will arise an imperial deliverer --- an oriental Frederick --- who will save the kingdom and the people. He will come from the Mohammedans over whom he will rule --- adorned with all virtue --- poor but needing nothing --- two angels in the form of eunuchs will accompany him --- mankind will accept him as their ruler. He will conquer the Arabs --- no taxes after 12 years. Immediately after, there will set in a period of darkness, crime and revolution."
The Sibylline Oracles include these mentions of the Grand Monarch and the Angelic Pope:
"A star shall arise in Europe over the Iberians, toward the great house of the North, whose beams shall unexpectedly enlighten the whole world. This shall be in a most desired time, when mortal men, being weary of armies, with joint consent embrace peace. Almost at the same time as this star, a light as ancient as the former, of the same age, burning with far more eager flames, shall extend his government to the coasts of the Antipodes. France shall first be yoked by this king or Prince. Britain shall humbly cast herself at his knees. Italy, pausing with greater deliberation upon high enterprises, shall contribute to him her languishing right hand. But this very light shall hide itself in the clouds of the gods long before his time with the mighty desire of mortal men...
"The destruction of the world will occur when faith in godliness shall perish from men, and justice is hidden away in the world, and men become renegades and, living on unholy enterprises, commit deeds of shame, and acts, dastardly and evil; and no man takes account of the godly, but even in their senselessness, fond fools, they destroy themselves, rejoicing in acts of violence, turning their hands to deeds of bloodshed.
"Now I will tell thee a very evident sign, that thou mayst understand when the end of all things is coming on the earth. When swords in the starlit heaven appear by night toward dusk and dawn, and straightaway dust is carried from heaven to earth, and the moon's rays shine forth and come back to earth, and a sign comes from the rock with dripping streams of blood, and in a cloud ye shall see a battle of foot and horse, as a hunt of wild beasts, like unto misty clouds, this is the consummation of war which God, whose dwelling is in heaven, is bringing to pass. From the sunrise God will send a king who shall give every land relief from the bane of war: some he shall slay and to others he shall consecrate faithful vows. Nor shall he do all these things by his own will, but in obedience to the good ordinances of the mighty God. And again the people of the mighty God shall be laden with excellent wealth, with gold and silver and purple adornment. The land shall bear her increase, and the sea shall be full of good things. And kings shall be weary of repelling evil one against another with wrath. Envy is no good thing for miserable souls.
"The Lion Monarch shall be made famous unto all and shall subvert kingdoms, peoples and nations. Then God shall send a King from the sun, who shall cause all the people of the earth to cease from disastrous war. He will take away the intolerable yoke of slavery which is placed upon our necks, and he will do away with impious laws and violent chains. When he shall come there shall be fire and darkness in the midst of the black night."
Abbot Joachim Merlin (born circa 1480, died 1541) was a canon of Notre Dame; in 1529 he became the grand penitentiary after being imprisoned for two years in the court of Francis I, and he was exiled in Nantes for a year because of his opposition to the Lutherans. Upon his return to Paris in 1530 he became the vicar-general. The following lengthy prophecy of his is about the Great Pope:
"After many prolonged sufferings endured by Christians, and after a too great effusion of innocent blood, the Lord shall give peace and happiness to the desolated nations. A remarkable pope will be seated on the pontifical throne, under the special protection of the angels. Holy and full of gentleness, he shall undo all wrong, he shall recover the states of the Church, and reunite the exiled temporal powers. He shall be revered by all people, and shall recover the kingdom of Jerusalem. As the only Pastor he shall reunite the Eastern to the Western Church, and thus only one faith will be in vigor. The sanctity of this beneficent Pontiff will be so great that the highest potentates shall bow before his presence. This holy man shall crush the arrogance of religious schism and heresy. All men will return to the primitive Church, and there shall be only one pastor, one law, one master --- humble, modest, and fearing God. The true God of the Jews, our Lord Jesus Christ, will make everything prosper beyond all human hope, because God alone can and will pour down on the wounds of humanity the oily balm of sweetness.
"The heavens proclaim the glory of God, and the faithful are in joy and happiness, because the Lord has vouchsafed to be merciful to them. He shall invite his elect to the banquet of the Lamb, where melodious canticles and harmonious concerts will be heard.
"The power of this Pontiff's holiness will be so great as to be able to check the fury and impetuosity of threatening waves. Mountains shall be lowered before him, the sea shall be dried up, the dead shall be raised, the churches shall be reopened and altars erected.
"It should be known that there will be two heads, one in the East, and the other in the West. This Pope shall break the weapons and scatter the fighting hordes. He will be the joy of God's elect. This angelic pope will preach the gospel in every country. Through his zeal and solicitude the Greek Church shall be forever reunited to the Catholic Church.
"Before, however, being firmly and solidly established in the Holy See, there will be innumerable wars and violent conflicts during which the sacred throne shall be shaken. But through the favor of divine clemency, moved by the prayers of the faithful, everything will succeed so well that they shall be able to sing hymns of thanksgiving to the glory of the Lord.
"This holy Pope shall be both pastor and reformer. Through him the East and West shall be in everlasting concord. The city of Babylon shall then be the head and guide of the world. Rome, weakened in temporal power, shall forever preserve her spiritual dominion, and shall enjoy great peace. During these happy days the Angelic Pope shall be able to address to Heaven prayers full of sweetness. The dispersed nation shall also enjoy tranquillity. Six and a half years after this time the Pope will render his soul to God. The end of his days shall arrive in an arid province, situated between a river and a lake near the mountains...
"At the beginning, in order these happy results, having need of a powerful temporal assistance, this holy Pontiff will ask the cooperation of the generous monarch of France. At that time a handsome monarch, a scion of King Pepin, will come as a pilgrim to witness the splendor of this glorious pontiff, whose name shall begin with "R."... A temporal throne being vacant, the Pope shall place on it this king whose assistance he shall ask.
"When a monster shall appear in the sky, thou shalt find a ready escape towards the east, and after nine years thou shalt render thy soul to God.
"A man of remarkable sanctity will be his successor in the Pontifical chair. Through him God will work so many prodigies that all men shall revere him, and no person will dare to oppose his holy precepts. He shall not allow the clergy to have many benefices. He will induce them to live by tithes and offerings of the faithful. He shall interdict pomp in dress, and all immorality in dance and songs. He will preach the gospel in person, and exhort all honest ladies to appear in public without any ornament of gold or precious stones. After having occupied the Holy See for a long time he shall happily return to the Lord.
"His three immediate successors shall be men of exemplary holiness. One after the other will be models of virtue, and shall work miracles, confirming the teaching of their predecessors. Under their government the Church shall spread, and these Popes shall be called the Angelic Pastors."
Barthalomew Holzhauser was a parish priest and an ecclesiastical writer. He was born in 1613 at Laugna in Bavaria, and died in 1658. Holzhauser came from a very large, poor family, but eventually he managed to gain an education and became a theologist. He served as a pastor and a dean, and founded a religious community. (6)
Holzhauser was renowned for his extraordinary cures. He wrote several books, including his Visions (1646). Several of the ten visions have been fulfilled. The following describes a Great Monarch and Holy Pope, and a period of status consolationis, lasting from the Holy Pope to the Antichrist. It is followed by the status desolationis, lasting from the Antichrist till the end of the world:
"[After a world war] will come a new period, in which two mighty ones will face each other. The wrangle between these two will begin in the second half of the twentieth century. It will overthrow mountains and silt up rivers. A great change will come to pass, such as no mortal man will have expected; Heaven and Hell will confront each other in this struggle, old states will perish and light and darkness will be pitted against each other with swords, but it will be swords of a different fashion. With these swords it will be possible to cut up the skies and split the earth. A great lament will come over all mankind and only a small batch will survive the storm, the pestilence and the horror. And neither of the two adversaries will conquer nor be vanquished. Both mighty ones will lie on the ground, and a new mankind will come into existence. God possesses the key to everything. Blessed is he who will then be able to praise him, having obeyed all his commandments. And the great monarch of the world will create new laws for the new mankind and will cause a new age to begin, in which there will be only one flock and one shepherd, and peace will be of long, long duration, for the glory of God in heaven and on earth...
"When everything has been ruined by war; when Catholics are hard pressed by traitorous co-religionists and heretics; when the Church and her servants are denied their rights, the monarchies have been abolished and their rulers murdered... Then the Hand of Almighty God will work a marvelous change, something apparently impossible according to human understanding. There will rise a valiant monarch anointed by God. He will be a Catholic, a descendant of Louis IX, yet a descendant of an ancient imperial German family, born in exile. He will rule supreme in temporal matters. The Pope will rule supreme in spiritual matters at the same time. Persecution will cease and justice shall rule. Religion seems to be suppressed, but by the changes of entire kingdoms it will be made more firm.
"He will root out false doctrines and destroy the rule of Moslemism. His dominion will extend from the East to the West. All nations will adore God their Lord according to the Catholic teaching. There will be many wise and just men. The people will love justice, and peace will reign over the whole earth, for divine power will bind Satan for many years until the coming of the Son of Perdition.
"The reign of the Great Ruler may be compared with that of Caesar Augustus who became Emperor after his victory over his enemies, thereby giving peace to the world, also with the reign of Constantine the Great, who was sent by God, after severe persecution, to deliver both the Church and State.
"On account of a terrible war Germany will wail, France will be the cause of all the woe, Germany will be terribly wounded, all will be impoverished. England shall suffer much. The King shall be killed.
"After desolation has reached its peak in England, peace will be restored and England will return to the Catholic faith with greater fervor than before.
"The Great Monarch will have the special help of God and be unconquerable.
"The Fifth Epoch of time dates from the reign of Charles V until the reign of the Great Monarch.
"The Sixth Age of the Spirit commences with the powerful Monarch and the Holy Pontiff... and will last until the appearance of the Antichrist. This will be an age of consolation in which God will console His Spirit of the affliction and the great tribulation of the preceding age. All the nations will be united in the Catholic faith. The sacerdocy will flower more than ever, and men will seek the kingdom of God in all solicitude.
"The Lord will give good pastors to the Church. Men will live in peace, each in his own field. They will be reconciled with the one God. They will live in the shadow of the powerful Monarch and of his successors.
"Many saints and doctors will flourish in the earth. Men will love reason and justice. Peace will reign in all the universe, because the divine power will bind Satan for many years, until the son of perdition will rave anew.
"The Sixth Epoch of the World, which commences with the emancipation of the people of Israel and the restoration of the Temple and of the city of Jerusalem, will endure until the advent of Jesus Christ.
"For likewise, in this epoch, the people of Israel will be consoled to a very high degree by the Lord, our God, who will deliver them from the captivity of Babylon. The kingdoms, the nations, and the people will submit to the Roman Empire, furiously vanquished by the very powerful and very illustrious monarch who will govern during fifty-six years, rendering the peace of the universe and reigning alone until the advent of Jesus Christand even after him. Thus, in the Sixth Age, God will delight his Church with the greatest prosperity.
"For, although, in the Fifth Age, we saw everywhere the most deplorable calamities: whereas all is devastated by war; that the Church and its members are rendered tributaries; that the subjects are tormented and that all men conspire to erect republics: man himself will be so astonishingly changed by the hand of God, such that no one can imagine humanity. For the powerful monarch, who will come like an envoy of God, will destroy the republics thoroughly in climax; he will subdue all to his will and will employ his zeal in favor of the true Church of Christ. All the heresies will be relegated to hell. The empire of the Turks will be broken and this monarch will reign in the orient and in the occident. All the nations will come and adore the Lord their God in the true Catholic and Roman faith.
"Now the Great Monarch also will dominate over all the beasts of the earth, that is to say over the barbarian nations, over the rebellious peoples, over the heretic republics and over all men dominated by their evil passions.
"It is in that age that the relation of the sixth Spirit of the Lord will be known, that is to say the Spirit of Wisdom that God diffuses over all the surfaces of the globes in those times. For men will fear the Lord their God, they will observe the law and serve it with all their heart. The sciences will be multiplied and complete on the earth. The Holy Scriptures will be unanimously understood, without controversy and without the errors of heresies. Men will be enlightened, so much as in the natural sciences and in the celestial sciences.
"Finally, the Sixth Church, the Church of Philadelphia, is the type of this sixth age, for Philadelphia signifies friendship of brothers, and again guarding the heritage in union with the Lord. Now all these characters convene perfectly in the sixth age, in which they will have love, concord and perfect peace and in which the powerful Monarch will have to consider almost the entire world as his heritage. He will deliver up the earth, with the aid of the Lord his God from all his enemies, of ruin and of all evil."
Saint Francisco de Paola of Italy (1416-1507), founder of the order of Minim friars, was a miracle worker whose spiritual graces included prophecy. In that wise, St. Francis foretold the rise of a great Christian military leader out of Italy sometime in the future:
"The great leader of the holy militia of the Holy Spirit shall overcome the world, and shall possess the earth so completely that no king or lord shall be able to exist, except that he belongs to the sacred host of the Holy Ghost. These devout men shall wear on their breasts, and much more within their hearts, the sign of the living God, namely, the Cross.
"The first members of this holy order shall be natives of the city where iniquity, vice and sin abound. However, they shall be converted from evil to good; from rebels against God they shall become most fervent and most faithful in His divine service. That city shall be cherished by God and by the Great Monarch, the elect and the beloved of the Most High Lord. For the sake of that place all holy souls who have done penance in it shall pray in the sight of God for that city and its inhabitants. When the time shall come of the immense and most right justice of the Holy Spirit, His Divine Majesty wills that such city become converted to God, and that many of its citizens follow the great prince of the holy army. The first person that will openly wear the sign of the living God shall belong to that city, because he will through a letter be commanded by a holy hermit to have it impressed upon his heart and to wear it externally on his breast.
"That man will begin to meditate on the secrets of God, about the long visitation which the Holy Spirit will make and the dominion that he will exercise over the world through the holy militia. O! happy man, who shall receive from the Most High the greatest privileges! He will interpret the hidden secrets of the Holy Ghost, and he shall often excite the admiration of men by his revealed knowledge of the internal secrets of their hearts. Rejoice, my Lord, because that Prince above other princes, and King over other kings, will hold you in the greatest veneration, and after having been crowned with three most admirable crowns, will exalt that city, will declare it free, and the seat of the Empire, and it shall become one of the first cities in the world...
"He shall be a first-born son; in his childhood he will be like a saint; in his youth, a great sinner; then he will be converted entirely to God and will do great penance; his sins will be forgiven him, and he will become a great saint.
"He shall be a great captain and prince of holy men, who shall be called "the holy Cross-bearers of Jesus Christ," with whom he shall destroy the Mahometan sect and the rest of the infidels. He shall annihilate all the heresies and tyrannies of the world. He shall reform the church of God by means of his followers, who shall be the best men upon earth in holiness, in arms, in science, and in every virtue, because such is the will of the Most High. They shall obtain the dominion of the whole world, both temporal and spiritual, and they shall support the Church of God until the end of time.
"God almighty shall exalt a very poor man of the blood of Emperor Constantine, son of St. Helena, and of the seed of Pepin, who shall on his breast wear a red Cross. Through the power of the Most High he shall confound the tyrants, the heretics, and infidels. He will gather a grand army, and the angels shall fight for them; they shall kill all God's enemies.
"From the beginning of the world, after the creation of man, and to the end of human generations, there have been and there shall be seen wonderful events upon the earth. Four hundred years shall not pass when his Divine Majesty shall visit the world with a new religious order much needed, which shall effect more good among men than all other religious institutions combined. This religious order shall be the last and the best in the Church; it shall proceed with arms, with prayer, and with hospitality. Woe to tyrants, to heretics, and to infidels, to whom no pity shall be shown, because such is the will of the most high! An infinite number of wicked men shall perish through the hands of the Cross-bearers, the true servants of Jesus Christ. They shall act like good husbandmen when they extirpate noxious weeds and prickly thistles from the wheat field. Those holy servants of God shall purify the earth with the deaths of innumerable wicked men.
"How spiritually blind are those persons who, having no thought about things of God, fix their end in earthly objects. Wretched men! by far worse than the very beasts which are guided by their sense, because they cannot reason, they become brutalized. Hence they shall ever be in confusion. Let, therefore, the princes of this world be prepared for the greatest scourges to fall upon them. But from whom? First from heretics and infidels, then from the holy and most faithful Cross-bearers elected by the Most High, who, not succeeding in converting the heretics with science, shall have to make vigorous use of their arms. Many cities and villages shall be in ruins, with the deaths of an innumerable quantity of bad and good men. The infidels also shall fight against Christians and heretics, sacking, destroying, and killing the largest portion of Christians. Lastly, the army, styled "of the Church," namely, the holy Cross-bearers, shall move, not against Christians or Christianity, but against those infidels in pagan countries, and they shall conquer all those kingdoms with the death of a very great number of infidels. After this they shall turn their victorious arms against bad Christians, and destroy all the rebels against Jesus Christ. These holy Cross-bearers shall reign and dominate holily over the world until the end of time... But when shall this take place? When crosses with the stigmas shall be seen, and the crucifix shall be carried as the standard... This standard will be admired by all good Catholics; but at the beginning it will be derided by bad Christians and by infidels. Their sneers shall, however, be changed into mourning when they shall witness the wonderful victories achieved through it against tyrants, heretics, and infidels... That man (the leader of the Crucifers) will be a great sinner in his youth, but like St. Paul he will be drawn and converted to God. He shall be the founder of a new religious order different from all the others. He shall divide it into three classes, namely: (1) Military knights, (2) Solitary priests, (3) most pious hospitalers. This shall be the last religious order of the Church, and it will do more good for our holy religion than all other religious institutes. By force of arms he shall take possession of a great kingdom. He shall destroy the sect of Mahomet, extirpate all tyrants and heresies. He shall bring the world to a more holy mode of life. There will be one fold and one Shepherd. He shall reign until the end of time. In the whole earth there shall be only twelve kings, one emperor, one pope. Rich gentlemen shall be few, but all saints."
Abbe Souffrant, the Cure of Maumusson (d. 1828), left us this prophecy:
"Before the Grand Monarch, terrible misfortunes are to arrive. The blood will flow in torrents, in the north and the south; the west will be spared because of its faith. But the blood will color so much to the north and to the south, that I see it flow like rain in a day of great storm, and I see the horses in blood up to their bridles. Paris will be destroyed, so much destroyed that the plow will pass it by...
"The Grand Monarch will do things so astonishing and so marvelous that the most unbelieving will be forced to recognize the finger of God. In his reign all justice will be rendered.
"God will use the Grand Monarch in order to exterminate all the heretic sects, all the superstitions, and to spread, in concert with the holy Pontiff, the Catholic religion in all the universe, except in Palestine, land of malediction. After the crisis, he will have a General Council, despite the oppositions made by the clergy itself. Afterwards there will be but one flock and one pastor, because all the infidels and the heretics (but not the Jews, whose mass will not convert until after the death of the Beast) will enter into the Latin Church, whose triumph will continue up to the destruction (persecution) of the Antichrist.
"Toward the end of the usurper's reign, the Pope will die and he will have for his successor a young Pope, and it will be under him that the restoration will take place.
"Some time before this restoration, it will be necessary to sustain an alien war; for that there will be a great levy of men, all the ones of eighteen to thirty years will be gone.
"All the forces of government are gripped by this alien power; the interior of France will revolt. The civil crisis will be directed above all against religion... the shock will be terrible. They will battle from the south to the north during several weeks, and the last fifteen days, day and night. However, this crisis will not be long, but in it will perish more men than in the few times in ninety-three... it will make a smell over all the great cities.
"The powers seeing this disorder in France, will arm not in favor of the legitimate, but in the purpose of sharing France, for the English will betray.
"The Emperor of Russia will come as far as the Rhine, but an invisible hand will stop him; he will recognize the hand of God, and so he will be made Catholic.
"At the moment one will believe all is lost, all will be won, for one will turn around by the way of God... Heaven will declare it in the favor of France; she will return the victory, but this will be attributed to the Lord, and not to men. The thing will be so surprising that the most vulgar will call it a miracle. And the Restoration will take place.
"The Great Ruler will perform such great and noble deeds that the infidels will be forced to admit the workings of God's providence. Under his reign the greatest abundance will be practiced and the earth will bear in overabundance.
"Between the cries "Everything is lost" and "Everything is saved," there will be scarcely any interval."
In 1857, the Limoge Mother Josefa of Bourg, who was the founder of the Congregation of the Sisters of the Savior, recorded this prophecy concerning the Great Pope and the Grand Monarch:
"The chastisements of God will fall upon us in diverse manners. The plague, the trouble, the spilled blood. There will be in our France a frightful reversal! Nevertheless those days will be abrogated in favor of the just. God will elevate to the throne a model king, a Christian king. The son of Saint Louis will love religion, goodness, justice. The Lord will give him the light, the wisdom, and the power. He has prepared for it long beforehand and it will come to pass in the crucible of proof and suffering, but he is going to recall the exiles.
"He, the Lord, will take him by the hand, and at the fixed day he will be placed on the throne. His destiny is to repair and regenerate; the consoled religion will flourish again, and all the people praise the reign of the heaven-sent Prince; but afterwards the evil will take over and endure more or less until the end of time. The light of On High has not been given to me for the last events of the world called the apocalypse."
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries the British occultist Louis Hamon, who is best remembered by his professional name Cheiro, won international fame and honor for his uncanny skill in predicting future events by means of astrology, cheiromancy (palmistry), and gematria (numerology).
He was born near Dublin, Ireland in 1866 and was christened William Hohn Warner. He changed his name to Louis Hamon and assumed the title of Count and the mystic name Cheiro (from the Greek word for hand) when he entered into the professional practice of palmistry at the age of 24. Cheiro made many highly accurate prognostications for famous people during his successful 46-year career as a palm reader.
In 1900 he was awarded the Order of the Lion and Sun by the Shah of Persia after the psychic saved the monarch's life by foiling an assassination attempt during a visit to the Paris Exhibition.
Cheiro correctly predicted more than a dozen significant historical events, including: the death of Lord Horatio Kitchener, the imprisonment of Oscar Wilde, the career of British Prime Minister Arthur Balfour, the presidency of Grover Cleveland, the Russian Revolution, the Chinese Revolution, the death of Rasputin, the outbreak of the Boer War and World War One, the Great Depression, India's independence from Britain, the partitioning of India and Pakistan, the return of the Jews to Palestine and the establishment of Israel, and Franco's dictatorship of Spain.
Several of Cheiro's prophecies remain to be fulfilled: a dictatorship will control France; a political union of China and Japan will control Asia; London will be destroyed by Soviet warplanes; New York City will be destroyed by an earthquake; Armageddon will occur when Russia, Libya, Ethiopia, and Iran invade Israel.
The "forest-prophet" Mathias Lang (also known as Muhlhias and Stormberger) lived in Bavaria from 1753 to 1820. Lang could not read or write, so his predictions went far beyond his educational horizon when he spoke of telephones, electricity, railroads, airplanes, and the atomic bomb. People mocked Lang during his lifetime, but history has proven the accuracy of many of his predictions, such as this one, made before thefirst World War:
"When the iron road passing through the forest is built and the iron hound passes the deserted bay, afterwards, when the wagon without horse and shaft travels and people fly like birds in the sky, and when the silver fish flies over our forest... then is the war year. "
The Kaltenberg-Deggendorf railway, the "iron road" through the Bavarian forest, was opened on August 1, 1914. The "iron hound" is less clear, but the "wagon without horse and shaft" is of course the automobile. The "silver fish" is a fair description of the Zeppelin, which flew over the Bavarian forest in 1914, just before the war began.
Mathias Lang also accurately predicted World War Two. He spoke of our future in these terms:
"After the Great War there will be no peace. The people will rise and all will fight against each other... The rich and noble will be killed. The World War will not make people better but much worse... Tell your children that their children will live to see the time when the earth will be cleared. God will do away with people because there will be no charity among men. Religious faith will decline; priests will not be respected; people will be intent only on eating and drinking; there will be many immensely rich people and large amounts of paupers; great wealth will not endure long, for the red caps will come. People will hide in forests and many will go into exile. After this civil conflict and general clearing people will love each other as much as previously they hated one another.
"After World War II, people will think that peace has arrived, but it will be an interval only. One day a third World War will start, more awful than the preceding ones.
"When women walk around in pants, and men have become effeminate, so that one will no longer be able to tell men from women, then the time is near.
"People will build houses everywhere, high houses, low houses, one after another. When everyone builds, when everywhere buildings rise, everything will be cleared away.
"There will be a holy Sign in the heavens, that a very severe Master will come and take off the Skin of the People. He will not rule very long, then when all that has happened as I said, then comes the great Clearing Away.
"The Bavarian land will be devastated, and the land of Bohemia [Czechoslovakia] will be cleaned out as by a broom. Over all these places and over the Bohemian mountains will come the Reds... not the French, but the Reds.
"It will happen overnight. While many people sit together in a guest house, outside the soldiers will draw near over the bridge. The mountain will be black with its people, and all will flee, each man will run through the forest. He who has two loafs of bread and loses somebody, he should let them lie and move on, so that he will come through with one loaf.
"However, when you see the horror of the devastation, of which the Prophet Daniel has spoken, then flee as in Judea, to the mountain, and who is on the road, and who is in the field, do not turn around to fetch your garment.
"The people who hide in Falkenstein will be spared.
"The People will be sick and nobody can help them. Those who will make it must have an iron head. Those that have hidden during the great Clearing Away will say to every strange Person, "Brother, where have you stayed hidden --- Sister, where have you hidden yourself?" Then when people stand on top of the mountain, they will see no light in the whole forest.
"And when one looks over the Danube and sees a cow, one should hang a golden bell on her.
"The shepherds will walk around and put sticks in the ground and say, "This is where Rabenstein was, here where Straubing stood."
"Then afterward a good time will come, that which is "Loved by Jesus Christ," and holy men will do wonders. Once people have their faith again, a long period of peace will follow. Those who are still alive will be given housing and as much land as they need. And the more hands one has, the more you will count.
"Then there will be a shortened summer; winter and summer will not be distinguishable. Although everything around the Danube is wasted and dead, there will be people living in the woods and they will build houses in the woods --- beautiful houses, in fact, because all bad things are over and all difficulties have been surpassed. And soon the nettles will grow out of the old buildings. And the forest will grow again without war and death."
Another prediction of World War Three brought much ridicule to Lang during the 19th century. He said that a road would be built over Pragel Pass between Straubing and Pilnersberg, and on it would march the invaders, the "red caps." The region Lang spoke of was so wild and inhospitable at that time that Lang's contemporaries could not imagine anyone living in that area, let along building a road there. Yet in 1972, construction was begun on a road over Pragel Pass, and today we can be certain that Lang was referring to Russians as the "Red" invaders. (3, 5)
The Serbian peasant Mitar Tarabich (1829-1899) received numerous visions throughout his life. The priest Zaharije Zaharich (1836-1918), who was Tarbich's godfather, recorded them. Tarabich accurately predicted local Serbian political events, and World Wars One and Two. The following prophecy concerns Serbia after World War Two, and the near future:
"After the Great War, peace will reign all over the world. Many new states will appear... black, white, red and yellow. An international court is formed, which does not alow countries to fight each other. This court will be above all kings. Where a war starts, the Court will judge justly, trying to transform hatred and butchery into love and peace. The lucky ones who live to see these times will be more than happy.
"After a while some great kings, as well as some small ones, will start to fake their respect for the Court, while doing whatever they please... Many small wars will begin because of this... Thousands upon thousands will de, but there will be no big wars.
"There will be a few wars around the Kingdom of Israel, but sooner or later the peace will come even there.
"In these wars, brothers fight brothers; then they make peace and kiss each other, but their hatred remains...
"All these small wars are initiated by the great kingdoms because of their wickedness and malice. Those who fight and butcher each other do it because of their blind stupidity.
"In our country, the time of peace and prosperity will last for a long time. Many a generation will be born to live and die in peace, knowing about war only through wise books, words and different strange apparitions [television?].
"Our kingdom will be strong and well-loved and respected by everybody. People will eat only 'white' bread, and whole wheat just when they want to. Everybody will ride around in carts with no oxen. People will travel in the sky, looking down upon our land as if theyhad climbed on the doubled Tara mountain.
"Down in Uzice, and all around these mountains, many factories will be built, and people will leave the land and come to work in them. For a long time they will love it, but then they will remember their land and go back to it.
"Serbia will prosper best while the man with blue eyes on a white horse governs --- one who will come to Serbia, bringing some kind of new religion. He will.. lose his leg. From this wound he will die, not because of his great age. [Tito, who died in 1981 after the amputation of his leg]
"After him, our land will be governed by some kind of commission, but it will never be as it was.
"Even though the people in our kingdom will forget about misery and hunger and will live in great wealth, brother will start to hate and think evil of brother.
"On our borders and over them, a new nation will appear. They will grow like grass after a deluge; they will be good and honest, and they will answer our hatred with reason. They will take care of each other like brothers. And we, because of our madness, shall think that we know everything and that we can do anything, and we shall baptise them with some new fate of ours, but all that will be in vain --- because they will believe only in themselves and in nobody else. Big trouble will become of it, because this nation will be brave. [The Bosnian war of the 1990s]
"Many summers this trouble will last, and nobody will be able to stop it because that nation will grow like grass. One who will be born many summers after you [Zaharic] will be honest and intelligent; he will deal with them in peace.
"We shall live in peace --- they there, us here and there.
"You see, my godfather, when the world starts to live in peace and abundance after the Second Big War, all of that will be just a bitter illusion, because many will forget God and they will worship only their own human intelligence...
"Men will build a box and within will be some kind of gadget with images, but they will not be able to communicate with me already dead, even though this image-gadget will be as close to this other world as hairs on the human scalp are close to each other. With the help of this gadget, man will be able to see everything that is happening all over the world.
"People will drill wells deep in the ground and dig out gold ["black gold", oil] which will give them light, speed and power, and the Earth will shed tears of sorrow because there is much more gold and light on its surface than in its interior. The Earth will suffer because of these open wounds.
"Instead of working in the fields, people will dig everywhere, in right and wrong places, but the real power will be all around them, not being able to tell them, 'Come on, take me, don't you see that I am here, all around you?' Only after many a summer, people will remember this real power,, and then they will realise how stupid it was to dig all those holes. This power will also be present in people but it will take a long time before they discover it and use it.
"Thus man will live for a long, long time, not being able to know himself. There will be many learned men who will think through their books that they can know and do everything. They will be the great obstacle for this [self-] realization, but once people get this knowledge then people will see what kind of delusion it was when they listened to their learned men. When that happens, people will be so sorry that they didn't discover it before, because this knowledge is so simple.
"People will do many stupid things, thinking that they know and can do everything, not knowing anything.
"Wise men will appear in the Orient and their wisdom will cross all seas and frontiers but people will not trust this wisdom for a long time, and this real truth they will proclaim for a lie.
"Their souls will not be possessed by the Devil, but by something much worse. They will believe that their delusion is the real truth, although there will be no truth in their heads.
"Here at home it will be the same as all over the world. People will start to hate clean air and this divine freshness and all divine beauty and will hide in rankness. Nobody will force them to do that, but they will do it of their own free will.
"Here in Kremna, many a field will become a meadow and many a home will be abandoned, but then those who have left will come back to heal themselves by breathing fresh air.
"In Serbia it will not be possible to distinguish a man from a woman. Everybody will dress the same. This calamity will come to us from abroad but it will stay with us the longest. A groom will take a bride, but nobody will know who is who.
"People will be lost and more and more senseless day by day. Men will be born not knowing who was their grandfather and great-grandfather. People will think that they know everything, but not a thing will they know.
"The Serbs will separate from each other, and they will say, 'I am not a Serb, I am not a Serb.' The unholy one will infiltrate this nation and bed with Serbian sisters, mothers and wives. He will sire such children that among the Serbs, since the beginning of the world, these will be the worst of offspring. Only weaklings will be born, and nobody will be strong enough to give birth to a real hero.
"At one time we shall disappear from this land of ours. We shall go to the north, and then realizing our stupid deed we shall return. When we come back, we shall wise up and chase away the unholy one, not to see him, in God's name, ever again.
"The whole world will be plagued by a strange disease, and nobody will be able to find a cure. Everybody will say, 'I know, I know, because I am learned and smart', but nobody will know anything. People will think and think, but they will not be able to find the right cure, which will be with God's help, all around them and in themselves.
"Men will travel to other worlds to find lifeless deserts there, and still, God forgive him, he will think that he knows better than God himself. There, except the eternal peace of God, he will see nothing, but he will sense with his heart and soul all of God's beauty and power. People will drive in rigs upon the Moon and stars. They will look for life, but life similar to ours they will not find. It will be there, but they will not be able to understand it and see that it is life...
"The more people will know, the less they will love and care for each other. Hatred will be so great between them that they will care more for their different gadgets than for their relatives. Man will trust his gadget more than his first neighbor...
"Among people of a nation far in the north, a little man will appear who will teach men about love and compassion, but there will be many Judases and hypocrites around him so that he will have many ups and downs. Not one of these hypocrites will want to know what is real human grace, but his wise books will remain, and all the words he will say, and then people will see how self-deceived they were.
"Those who will read and write different books with numbers will think that they know the most. These learned men will let their lives be led by their calculations, and they will do and live exactly how these numbers tell them. Among these learned men there will be good and evil men. The evil ones will do evil deeds. They will poison air and water and spread pestilence over the seas, rivers and earth, and people will start to die suddenly of various ailments. Those good and wise will see that all this effort and hard work is not worth a penny and that it leads to the destruction of the world; and instead of looking for wisdom in numbers, they will start to seek it in meditation.
"When they start to meditate more, they will be closer to God's wisdom, but it will be too late because the evil ones will already ravage the whole Earth, and men will start to die in great numbers. Then people will run away from the cities to the country and look for the mountains with three crosses, and there, inside, they will be able to breathe and drink water. Those who escape will save themselves and their families, but not for long because a great famine will appear. There will be plenty of food in towns and villages, but it will be poisoned. Many will eat because of hunger and die immediately. Those who will fast to the end will survive because the Holy Ghost will save them and they will be close to God...
"The greatest and the angriest will strike against the mightiest and the most furious! When When this horrible war starts, woe to those armies armies that fly over skies; better off will be those who fight on ground and water.
"People waging this war will have their scientists who will invent different and strange cannon-balls. When they explode, these cannon-balls, instead of killing, will cast a spell over all that lives --- people, armies and livestock. This spell will put them to sleep, and sleep they will instead of fight; and after, they will come back to their senses.
"We will not fight in this war, but others will do battle over our heads. Burning people will fall from the sky over Pozega.
"Only one country at the end of the world, surrounded by a great sea, as big as our Europe, will live in peace, without any troubles... Upon it or over it, not a single cannon-ball will explode![Probably Australia]
"Those who will run and hide in the mountains with three crosses will find shelter and will be saved, to live after in abundance, happiness and love, because there will be no more wars..."
Alois Irlmaier was a dowser and well digger who lived in Freislassing, Bavaria. He was famous for his psychic abilities, and after World War II, many people sought his clairvoyant skills to locate their families and friends. Because of his fame, Irlmaier had a few enemies and was ridiculed and accused of being a warlock. But after appearing in court, the charges were dismissed, Irlmaier told the judge exactly what clothes the judge's wife was wearing that day and what she was doing. Even though he had never seen her, he proved to be completely correct, and the judge released him. (3, 5)
The future appeared to Irlmaier as in a movie, with only numbers appearing veiled, coded, or incomplete. He predicted his own death in July 1959. His last words were: "I am glad that I can go now, because I won't have to experience what I see." Here are his accounts of the extraordinary visions he received:
"The Third Great War comes, when three high-ranking men will be killed.
"While the Bavarians sit at a card game in Wirthaus, the strange soldiers will look into the windows and doors.A totally black column of people will come from the East. Everything goes quite quickly. From the Golden City (Prague) it moves out. The first worm goes from the blue waters of the Danube northwest to the Swiss border. By Regensberg there stands no more bridge over the river, but southerly from the blue water they will not come. The second great push will come over Saxony westward against the Ruhr. The third army column from the northwest will go westward over Berlin. It all goes very quickly and fast. From the Danube to the coast will be controlled by the Grays. Two fleeing refugee groups will cross the river; the third is lost and encircled by the enemy. Munich, South Bavaria, and Austria need not have fear.
"The enemy headquarters will be a red-roofed monastery, whose altar faces north [Freyung?].
"I see the earth like a ball in front of me, above which only white clouds fly. Ten thousand doves rise out of the sand [Africa] and fly over us, but they do not drop down. But there where the headquarters of the others are, they throw black boxes, 25 centimeters high; there everything is wiped out.
"Then the movement moves to the north and cuts off the third army.
"Then it rains a yellow dust in a line. The golden line. The Golden City of Prague will be destroyed; it starts there. It continues in a straight line to the sea by the bay [Hamburg, Lubeck, or Stetin].
"The tanks drive, but those who sit inside are covered with death. There where it falls, nothing will live. No trees, no flowers, no animals, no grass. Everything will wither and turn black. The houses will stand.
"What it is, I don't know and cannot say. It is a long line. He who crosses it dies. The soldiers of the east cannot cross to the West, and the soldiers of the West cannot cross to the East. The wind blows the deadly cloud to the East. Suddenly the eastern armies collapse. They throw away everything they carry with them and try to escape to the North. But none of them will return.
"But by the Rhine things will be finalized. From the three army movements not one soldier will be able to return home. There will be so many dead... thousands of bodies black, the rotting flesh falls from the bones.
"Then comes a single aircraft from the East. It throws a "neutralizer" in the great water by England. Then the water lifts in one single piece as high as a tower and falls back down. It makes an earthquake and a giant wave and everything will be overflooded. Almost all of England and the European coast to Berlin will sink except for a few mountain peaks.
"Simultaneously, a new land will arise which existed earlier [Atlantis]. Three great cities will sink. One through water [London]. The second will sink [New York], and the third just falls apart [Rome]. The city with the steel tower [Paris] will be set on fire by its inhabitants and will be leveled to the ground.
"Also in Italy it will be very bad. All priests except six will be murdered. The Pope will flee.
"Whoever lives south of the Danube need not worry about the Russians. The people between Watsman Mountain and Wendelstein need not worry and will be isolated.
"Then from "K" [Koln?] flies out the flaming tongue up to the Northwest, West and South. Only once will the tongue fly so shortly, then burns a small town north of Saurisel [near Berechtsgarten].
"The Munich people will not have much happen to them, but there will be a little distress. But a great famine will come and will take the animals from the farmer. Then the farmer really has to set himself to the task, for they will try to steal the very underwear off of him.
"Simultaneously, there will stand up a large man, and at that point the war stops. The whole thing does not take very long.
"The bearded people of seven yesterdays will finally end and their enemy will flee. On the riverbank they will camp and fight with desperation. There, however, their might will be annihilated, their power broken, so that hardly one will remain alive to return home to report their defeat.
"I see three things, be they three days, three weeks, or three months, I don't know.
"In Russia a new revolution will break out, and a civil war. The dead bodies will be so numerous that they will have difficulty removing them from the streets. The Russian people will begin to believe in Christ and the Cross will be honored once again.
"The leaders will kill themselves, and in the blood the blame will be washed away. I see a red mass mixed with yellow faces. I see a total uprising and a horrible massacre and plunder. Then they will sing the Easter Song and burn candles before pictures of Mary. Through the power of the prayers of Christianity, this Monster out of Hell will die, and even young people will begin to believe again the Virgin Mother of God.
"It will become dark on one day during the year. Then a huge thunderstorm will appear with bolts of lightning and thunder and an earthquake will move the earth. Do not go out of the house. No lights will burn except for candle lights. The stream of people stops. Whoever inhales the dust will develop cramps and die. Do not open the windows. Hand the windows with black paper on the glass. All open water will become poisonous, and all open food which has not been canned. Also all foods in glass will not make it.
"Outside, the dust moves. Many people will die. After seventy-two hours everything will be over. But I will say it you again, do not go outside, do not look out of the window. Let the candles burn, keep watch, and pray. Overnight more people will die than in the combined two world wars.
"Thereafter the Pope will return and the first great "Te Deum" will be sung in the Dome in Cologne. Then he will crown three kings, a Hungarian, an Austrian, and a Bavarian. The Bavarian is an old man with white hair, and he wears lederhosen. In the beginning there will be famine, but then the Danube returns to its level, thereafter there will be so many groceries brought up the Danube that all will be fed.
"During this time the climate will change. It will become warmer, and the southern fruits and grapes will grow very well in Bavaria. And people will move there, who want to, and everybody can live where they want to and have as much land as they can handle. The land north and east of the Danube will be resettled. There are only a few people left. Then the traveling salesmen will say, buy my wares, or I will go crazy. The sausages will spill from the plates, there will be such an abundance. There will come a long, happy time, and those who live to experience it will be very happy...
"The year 1999 will bring destruction, followed by peace. A darkness of 72 hours will precede peace. The time of the year may be autumn, for there will be snow on the mountains, but not yet in the lowlands. The sign if the Cross will appear in the heavens. The war will end as quickly as it began, and a natural phenomenon will end it. The last battle will be near Cologne, and it will be won by the West...
"The "Great City" of the United States will be destroyed by rockets, and the West Coast will be invaded by Asians, but they will be beaten back...
"The Third World War will come, but I cannot predict the year. It will be preceded by signs in the skies, which will be seen by millions of people. War will begin on a rainy night, shortly before harvest time, when the ears are full. War will begin after the assassination of an eminent politician in Czechoslovakia or in Yugoslavia. An invasion from the East will follow..."
Shortly before his death (July 29, 1959), Alois Irlmaier added to his legacy with these details of World War III:
"Nothing has changed. Indeed, events have come even closer and I can see them even better. I see two men who will kill the "third high-ranking person." They have been paid to do so. One of the murderers is a small black man, the other is a somewhat taller white man. It could possibly happen in the Balkans, but I'm not sure about it. Prior to the war there will be a fruitful year with good vegetable crops and plentiful fruits. After the murder of "the third" war will erupt without warning during the night. I see dust, and I see three numbers, two 8s and a 9. I do not know what the numbers mean, nor do I know the date and the time. "
54. The Birch Tree Prophecies ~
Just as it did in the First and Second World Wars, Germany is destined to play a key role in the Third. Several German prophets have named Westphalia as the area where the final battle of the war will be fought. After the collapse of the Russian attack on Europe, the surviving invaders will escape to an area about sixty miles northeast of Cologne, defined by the towns of Unna, Hamm, Suest, Werl, Holtum, and Kirsch-Hemmard.(5-7, 17)
The original Birch Tree Prophecies were transmitted orally for centuries. The Name "Birch Tree" probably is a mistranslation of the German word "Kirch" (cherry); The old German letter "K" looks like a "B". The earliest known written description was recorded in 1431 by Eberhard Windecke, the court historian of Kaiser Sigismund. It tells of a vision of a horrible battle between two "men" lasting two days and nights.
In 1545, a chronicler from Lunen also recorded a vision of a battle of this scale. Another anonymous prophecy, dated 1701, was recorded by Beykirch in his Prophetstimmen (1849):
"There will come a time when the world become very godless. The people will become self-reliant from the king, and there will bea general loss of respect for authority and those who are no longer true to their masters or to their relief will become the rulers. There will then be a general uproar, so that father will fight against son, and son will fight against father.
"There will come a time when one will no longer respect the beliefs of the church and the school. New books will be introduced. There will come a time when the Catholic religion will feel very crowded, and there will be an attempt to get rid of it. People will enjoy play and joyous occasions about this time, and be generally fascinated by entertainment. But then it will not take very long for a change to step in. There will be an incredible war... On one side stands Russia and the entire North. And on the other side is France and the whole South under one first. This knight will come from Midday. He wears a white cloak with buttons that go down to his feet. He carries a Cross on his chest, and rides a donkey. He will be lame afoot. This knight is so together that no one tries to stop him. He is also a peacemaker. Great is his strength. He manages to get rid of all dance music and unnecessary clothes that people might wear.
"The chief of the Prussian Army will be stopped in a place that is designed to make horse bridles.
"The enemies who are strangers to Germany will be put to flight and they will not have time to take with them what will nourish them during their flight.
"The barbarian peoples of the northern bear will come to conquer but their enemies will take courage and they will battle with the fury of despair. Then their power will be broken, its force will be annihilated and then some few people will be at pains to survive in order to carry home the news of their defeat.
"The prince who will deliver the great combat will go to a church at Bremen to hear the Mass. From Bremen he will ride. From there he will see with his telescope toward the region of the Birch tree to observe the foes. Thereafter they will go up to Holtum, an area near Werl... By Holtum there stands a Crucifix between two linden trees. Before these linden trees he will kneel down, and for a long time he will pray with arms outstretched. Thereafter he will lead his soldiers, who are dressed in white, to the meeting. He will then remain after a bloody battle. He will be the victor. On a stream that flows from West to East near Berdberg and Sondberg there will be the most murdering and killing. There, after the battle this victorious master of the field, this Prince, will collect the people into the church of Schaffhausen near Werl and give them a talk."
Another version of this prophecy is given in The Proceedings of the Heavenly Renewal from the Unknown Who Became Illuminated (Cologne, 1701):
"When the time is near, people will not know how to dress. Women will wear hats like men, and pants like men. Then will follow a tragic and unlucky time like our Creator has spoken of before us. People will fear themselves on earth, and fear things that are to come.
"Father will be against son, and son against father. Dogma will be perverted; men will try to overthrow the Catholic church! Mankind will become lovers of pleasure. The true and believing will not be found anymore, after which the independent peoples will fight wars against each other for a long time. Thrones will have collapsed, and kingdoms will collapse. And through this process, the unaffected East against the West will resort to heavy weapons. Then it is no longer over fatherland, language or belief. A war will follow after a winter which really was no winter, when there will be a soulless snow that will fall. The flowers will bloom very early in this year, and the cows will be up to their knees in grass by April. The first soldiers that come will wear cherry blossoms on their helmets. The rye will be brought in before the battle but the wheat won't. The soldiers are animals and will eat the wheat in the fields.
"On the east field by Gravenstein, the soldiers will kill a red cow. However, they won't have much time to eat from it.
"The citizens flee from the town. A young lass with a red skirt who is the last to cross the small creek will be shot. In the middle of Germany they will meet. Towns and villages will be destroyed. After, it will be necessary for the people to hide in the mountains and in the woods.
In the nearby lower Germany, the battle will be decided. There will be battles like the world has never seen before. This terrible battle will begin by the Birch Forest near Bodberg. For three days they will fight; covered with wounds, they will fight until they stand in blood"... (3)
In 1488, Johannes Lichtenberger, the court astrologer of Frederick III, published his popular encyclopedia Prognostico in Latino, which contains predictions of World War III, the Grand Monarch, and the Holy Pope:
"There will come a time when the people of the desert will assemble in German lands and will conquer the circle of the earth. They will destroy cities and empires. They will drink from the holy vessels, and priests will be strangled in holy places. But they will be destroyed near Cologne...
"It says in The Book of the Frankish Kings that it will be from the Carolingian, that is from the race of King Charles of France, that an emperor names P will arise in the last days. He will be a prince and a monarch and will reform the churches of all Europe. After him there will be no other emperor...
"Afterwards a hermit will arise, known for his great sanctity, as Joachim says in his Booke of Concordance, "A man in great sanctity lifted up to the Roman throne like an apostle" God will do miracles through him; no one will obey his laws. He will condemn plural benefices and incomes and will command that clerics live from tithes and offerings. he will forbid ostentatious clothing and all unseemly choruses and songs. He will command women to be without gold and jewels, and will bid the gospel to be preached. He will be Pope only for a brief time --- when four years are up, this most holy man will go happily to God.
"Immediately after this, God will raise up three other very holy men, one after another. They will be alike in virtues and miracles and will confirm the decrees and deeds of their predecessor. Under their rule the Church will be renewed. They will be called the "Angelic Popes."
In 1940, records were discovered of a lawsuit filed in 1772 against a weaver who was called Spielbahn or Lugnebahm (Liar-Path or Fool-Path) by his detractors. He appeared before the Elector's Court in Honnef, Germany, to account for these predictions:
"A small people will arise and bring war into the world. When they build a bridge across the Rhine River near Mondorf, it would be advisable to be among the first to cross over it to the other side. A great barbarian country will sink down. With it will sink many false prophets. Many foreign people will be murdered here. Poison will fall as rain upon the fields, which will bring great hunger into Germany. Finally, a foreign king will rise and win victory for the just cause. The survivors of the adversary armies will flee as far as the Birch Tree; there the last battle will be decided for the good cause. Those who have been hiding in the mountains will return to plant the fields. Those brothers who have escaped the holocaust will return from abroad with their children and they will live again in peace at home. It will be a good and happy time."
Bernard Rembold was a German monk who lived from 1689 to 1793. Here is his prophecy concerning the Birch Tree:
"The beginning of a terrible time of blood will come when there will be a fierce battle near Cologne. It will be impossible to prevent this horrible devastation; gruesome war and destruction cannot be turned away. People will walk in blood up to the ankles. At last a foreign king will arise and gain victory for the just side. The remaining enemy will retreat to the Little Birch Tree, and there the last battle will be fought for the righteous cause. The foreigners have brought black death with them; whatever is spared by the sword, will be eaten by the pestilence. The land will be deserted and ownerless.
"At that time France will be divided. The German Empire will select a simple man as the Emperor, who will rule for a short time. His successor will be the man for whom the world has longed. He will be called a Roman Emperor and give peace to the world. He will restore Siegberg and Heisterbach. He is the Grand Monarch foretold by Holzhauser. At that time there will be no Jews in Germany and the heretics will admit their error. A good and happy era will follow. God will be praised on earth and war will be no more... Then the fugitive brothers and their children will return and continue to live in peace in their native land.
"When the Emperor of Germany flees for his life a man who carries his crown for him will be the man the world has long expected."
The Prophecy of Mayence is dated to 1854, and gives a detailed description of the Battle of the Birch Tree:
"Woe to thee, great city; woe to thee, city of vice! Fire and sword shall succeed fire and famine. Courage, faithful souls! The reign of the dark shadow shall not have time to execute all its schemes. But the time of mercy approaches. A prince of the nation is in your midst. It is the man of salvation, the wise, the invincible; he shall count his enterprises by his victories. He shall drive the enemy out of France, he shall march from victory to victory, until the day of divine justice. That day he shall command seven kinds of soldiers against three to the quarter of Bouleaus between Hamm, Woerl, and Padenborn. Woe to the people of the East, thou shalt spread afar the cries of affliction and innocent blood. Never shall such an army be seen. Three days the sun shall rise upwards on the heads of the combatants without being seen through the clouds of smoke. Then the commander shall get the victory; two of his enemies shall be annihilated; the remainder of the three shall fly toward the extreme East."
An anonymous Franciscan monk of Werl recorded this prophecy, which he received in 1701. It was first published in 1849:
"There will be a terrible war. On one side will be peoples of the West, on the other those of the East. They will" arrive with a multitude of soldiers. The war will be fought for a long time with indecisive results until they reach the Rhine. There they will fight for three days until the waters of the Rhine will be all red. Then the affair will be decided at the Battle of the Birch Tree, where white, blue and gray soldiers will fight with such might and rage that those multitudes will be completely rubbed out. Then there will be peace and calm everywhere. The time will come when there will be general malcontent and contempt of religion. When persons will obey no more, when they will not be able to distinguish the rich and the poor, believe that the time is near. The whole north of Europe will wage war against the whole south led by a strong monarch. This man will restore divine order in the Church, state, and family, thus giving true peace to the nations."
Another Westphalian seer, a farmer named Wessel Dietrich Eilert (also known as Old Jasper), left us more details about the Battle of the Birch Tree. Eilert lived in Huckarde near Dortmund, Germany, from 1764 to 1833. This prophecy was first published in 1848:
"In the year when the war begins, it was possible to bring the corn in already, but not the wheat. Before this war there will be a time of general disloyalty; men will take evil for goodness and honor, deceit for politeness... There will be a general collapse of the fiber of society. This war will begin in the East. The war will break out very quickly. In the evening, one will want to say "Peace, Peace," but there is no peace, and in the morning the enemy will be at the door and all will resound with the din of war. It will last but a few days, and those who can hide for a few days will be safe. Also, the pull-out will be quite fast. One throws wheels and carriages into the water or the fleeing enemy will take everything with them. The people of over half the world will stand against each other. God will scare the two enemies with all His might. Only a few Russians will be able to return home to be able to take care of their situation there. The land will lose a lot of population so that women will have to work in the field, and seven girls will brawl for a man. The priesthood will be so rare that one will have to walk seven hours to hear the mass.
"The Poles will in the beginning go under through the invasion. They will, however, fight against the invaders and will receive a king. France will be divided in three days. Spain will not be involved, but however the Spaniards will invade the areas and help to reestablish order with the churches. Austria will be spared; in fact, it will be pretty good there. The Roman Chair will stand empty for some time... This will not however be a war of religion, but all who believe in Jesus Christ will have a common cause... A principal sign of the times in which the war will break out will be the general indifference in matters of religion and the general corruption of mores in many places. At that time they will give believers the name of fools, and the faithless will pretend to be men of light.
"There will be one religion that will unite all except for the Jews who will show their old stubbornness. On the Rhine stands a church that is built by all peoples' will. From there, where the next great war will break out, is what the people are supposed to believe. All confessions will be compatible.
"Germany receives a new King and then follows a fortunate time."
A German immigrant named Antonius, who was born Cologne in 1820, prophesied the final battle of World War III thus:
"I saw a new war in Alsace. Suddenly from the French side out of Metz and Nancy, large troop transports, where after the battle began, which lasted two days, and which ended by winning over the Prussian commander. The French follow the Prussians over the Rhine in many directions. In a significant battle by Frankfurt, the Prussians were beaten heavily. They pulled back to Siegburg, where they ran into the Russians. The Russians treated the Prussians badly. It appears to me that the Prussians helped the French. The battle by Siegburg has never been equaled for horror. After several days the Russians and Prussians disengage and begin to pull back below Bonn on the west side of the Rhine River. The city of Cologne was shot at; only a quarter of the town was unaffected. They left shortly afterwards and the people were glad and clapped and their faces beamed."
Another mention of the Birch Tree occurs in a German prophecy by Peter Schlinkert (born 1730). During the Seven Years' War, Schlinkert also had a vision that saved the life of Duke Clemens of Westphalia. He wrote this about the Birch Tree:
"At the Birch tree the armies of the West will fight a terrible battle against the armies of the East, and after many bloody sacrifices be victorious. The soldiers of the East will retreat over the Haar, and when the villagers see Rune in the Werler and Haar on fire, they must quickly flee into the Armsberger Wood. Another battle will be fought near the Ruhr Bridge by Obenheimer, but here only with artillery. A few days later the last great battle on German soil will be fought and that by the village Schmerleck on the so-called Lusebrink. The armies of the East will be completely annihilated and only a few will escape to return home with the news of defeat. there will be terrible lamentations.
"After these days of mishap and misery, happiness and peace will return to Germany, even though in the first year women will have to march behind the plow."
63. Brother Anthony of Aix-la-Chapelle ~
In 1871, the French Brother Anthony recorded his vision describing the final battle near Cologne and the aftermath of the war:
"Some day war will break out again in Alsace. I saw the French in Alsace with Strasbourg at their rear, and I saw Italians fighting with them. Suddenly great transports of troops arrived from the French side. A two-day battle ended with the defeat of the Prussian army. The French pursued the Prussians over the Rhine in many directions. In a second battle at Frankfurt, the Prussians lost again and retired as far as Siegburg, where they joined a Russian army. The Russians made common cause with the Prussians. It seemed to me as if the Austrians were aiding the French. The battle at Siegburg was more horrible than any before and its like will never occur again. After some days the Prussians and Russians retreated and crossed, below Bonn, to the left bank of the Rhine. Steadily pressed by their opponents, they retired to Cologne, which had been bombarded so much that only one-fourth of the city remained intact. Constantly in retreat, the remainder of the Prussian army moved to Westphalia, where the last battle went against them. The people greatly rejoiced because they were freed from the Prussians.
"Then a new emperor, about 40 years old, was elected in Germany, and he met the Pope. Meanwhile, an epidemic broke out in the region devastated by the war, and many people died. After the battle in Westphalia, the French returned to their own country, and from then on there was peace between the French and the Germans. Industry and trade prospered, and many convents were founded. All the exiles returned to their homes. When I begged God to take the terrible vision away, I heard a voice saying: "Prussia must be humiliated and in a manner that it never again will bring sorrow to the Church." In the following year the Russians will war with the Turks, driving the latter out of Europe and seizing Constantinople. The new German Emperor will mobilize for war but the Germans will not go beyond their border. When afterward I was shown France and Germany I shuddered at the depopulation that had taken place. Soon after the Russo-Turkish War, England also will be visited by war."
Theophrastus von Hohenheim, also known as Paracelsus, was a great Swiss physician, alchemist and occultist of the 16th century. His extraordinary mind was one of the most brilliant ever to grace humanity. He was a prolific writer; his publications revolutionized medicine in Europe. He made major contributions to Western mysticism, including a small book of 32 prophecies called Prognosticatio eximii doctoris Theophrasti Paracelsi (ca. 1530). Though the predictions were written in symbolic terms, several of them have been satisfied by history. Several others can be reasonably interpreted to give some understanding of his view of the future.
Paracelsus associated the 4th Monarchy (the millennial new age) with the rediscovery of the alchemical Philosophers' Stone by the Grand Monarch, as suggested by the following section of a longer prophecy. (18)
"... The people of the earth shall then be in commotion, and no ties of brotherhood, marriage, or friendship will be respected.
The lion will join himself to the fishes.
And the crown will be subject to the fine hat.
Then will the rue-wreath be soiled with milk.
And the pelican shall be devoured by his young.
But the phoenix shall be consumed in the fire, and when the dew moistens the ashes he will revive again according to his nature.
But he will become a noble phoenix, and will press hard upon the toad, and he will take to the lion and give him a choice.
The lion will select the best and no more.
Upon the other wild horse this phoenix will place a bridle and will ride it with spurs but without a saddle.
Then a new generation of beasts with various strange heads shall be born. They will have many mouths and stomachs, but only one natural draught.
The most profligate will maintain his magnificence, and his angels will be clothed in blood. They will be intent upon one work alone.
A pair of horses will appear and in all places the wail of the fugitives will be heard.
The dragon of sleep will cause the eagle to become weary of all magnificence.
The fountain of life will commence to flow.
And a white eagle will be changed into black.
Milk and blood will decrease, and the animal tree will begin to grow.
An old lion will be bound and a young lion will become free. He will please all those animals which the old had vexed.
He will do even more, for he will change his mane and hair into silk.
The bear will lay snares, and the ox-head will seek to gore him.
The griffin will fly over him but will not harm him.
Then shall the pearl, so long lost, be found by one of humble estate, and will be set, as a jewel, in gold.
It will be given to the prince of all beasts, that is, to the right lion.
He will hang it around his neck, and wear it with honor.
He will resist the bear and the wolf, and rend them asunder; so that the beast of the forest shall be safe.
Then will the old art flourish and no heed will be given to the new.
Then will the New World begin, and the white and black shall disappear.
All vain glory will be ended, and the plumes of the bird of the East shall be burned by the sun of the south.
How then will it be with thee, oh thou lion and earthly one who art painted and bound with gold?
All thy doing shall be changed, and the seven heads shall become one head. Out of this one, a head shall be born that shall be armed with a horn.
This horn shall bruise all that which has so long brought sorrow to Iffinos.
And the great city shall be the head of the less and shall become free from servitude.
Europe shall be the head, Asia the crown, but Africa shall be the jewel."This prophecy is difficult to interpret, but some of the symbols are obvious: the phoenix is the alchemist king, who will be graced with the Philosophers' Stone, "the pearl, so long lost." The toad is France: that animal was the glyph from which the present fleur-de-lys was derived. The bear is Russia, the lion is England, and the griffin might the USA. The ox represents the Muslims.
Several of Paracelsus' 32 prognostic figures have been fulfilled by historical events. The following seven figures are relatively clear and seem to pertain to our future:
"Figure 7: Bishop Surrounded by Spears --- Because from time to time thou hast been self-willed, thou art predestined to be surrounded by much adversity. For thou hast not considered of thyself how thou art prefigured magically under the symbol of a stone, as both fat and lean. Thou dost not know it, therefore thou hast fallen beneath the punishment that hath broken up all empires. Had thine pretended wisdom and understanding been thine own thou would have taken thee as a mirror. But it is not so; therefore thy wisdom proveth to be a folly at this time.
Figure 7
Figure 8
"Figure 8: Sword & Crown --- Who is he that knoweth on whom the sun shines, or whom it shall give, what man by himself can in no wise take? Therefore, because it is in the hand of God and He giveth it to whom He wills, thence it follows that man's resistance is in vain. For the hour hath come that thou shalt cease to be, notwithstanding thy strength, thy allies, thy power. For all thou hast established shall fall with thee. Thou shalt delude thyself and others to thy own pity."
In the 1666 Strassburg edition of his works, Paracelsus offered some "Elucidations" to the figures:
"Elucidation 7: They will seek much assistance from strangers, and bind one chain into another, and will erect and again let fall, break and make, and seek hither and thither where shelter from the heat may be found.
"Elucidation 8: But the eighth symbol shall gain victory and triumph.
"For if that were not to come to pass it would be impossible that on earth there should ever again be peace or rest so long as the world endures.
"So totally will everyone act according to his will and forget why they are on earth, but only declare: Thus I will, thus I do."
Here Paracelsus is condemning the Catholic Church for its pretensions, bigotry, and persecutions. The Church will be made to suffer in like wise for the past 2,000 years of superstitious suppression committed in the name of Jesus Christ. The weather will be terribly hot.
"Figure 11: Bear Sucking His Paw --- Although the sun did once shine upon thee, and thou hast glutted thyself with food and plunder, yet thou hast not wisely considered the end, and hast forgotten the winter; therefore he taketh away thy pleasure, and will compel thee to suck thine own paws. For thou art bear-like, and have no further reason. Magic hath driven thee into the toils that thou shouldst be known. But if the wit of man had been thine, the winter wouldst not have overtaken thee.
Figure 11
"Elucidation XI: To munch the paws is a meager diet, and it is painful to freeze after sunshine. But what one does of one's own choice, one must one's self have."
The bear is Russia or Germany; Hitler's invasion of Russia can be inferred here, or else the collapse of the Communist regime.
"Figure 26: "F" on a Rose in a Crown --- The Sibyl hath been mindful of thee when the placed the "F", and right well art thou not standing in the rose; for thou art ripe and time hath brought thee. What the Sibyl saith of thee shall be accomplished and even more shall be said of thee. The summer that bringeth roses is that contrary time where in all things are divided; which is an indication that man was building on sand. This must pass away, and thou shalt set it upon the rock that many shall be astounded. For when the time cometh, also herewith cometh that wherefore the time hath come.
Figure 26
"Elucidation 26: For the sun shall enlighten him that will be the judge of himself."
This prophecy probably refers to the Grand Monarch. The letter "F" may represent France, or a Quabbalistic initiation. The other references to the seasons, sand, rock and roses are alchemical symbols, though they may well have other meanings.
"Figure 27: Five Swords --- It hath been forgotten that many heads rule badly, and that , but that each one should serve the other also only one should rule and not more. This is the cause that they have split up and parted, each one seeking his own opportunity. But it is not right to seek one's own opportunity, but that each should serve the other, and seek to be useful to the other and leave his own, as doth indeed but seldom happen, for this reason they will be put down; and to whom it is destined to be united, he shall be foremost, and under him shall rejoice those who have been long afflicted and distressed.
Figure 27
"Elucidation 27: And neither alliances nor chains shall there be strong enough to hinder each from being harnesses to his own plow, even as is ordained for him.
"Figure 30: Monk, Preacher & Mystic --- Thou hast often assembled, and much congregated, but the enemy was not with thee, therefore all things thou hast resolved were to no purpose and in vain. It must be alone that thou wilt forego thy claims, and what thou wouldst do if thou were to turn aside, and wouldst acknowledge thyself and others; then wouldst thou cease. But as thou desireth to be what thou shouldst not be, and wilt sit upon the chair of St. Peter, and whereas the same must fall; therefore thou mayst not continue in thy plots, for he shall turn aside thy design who is thy master.
Figure 30
Figure 31
"Figure 31: Four Dancing Children --- There shall be such a total renewal and change that they will be as children that know nothing of the cunning and intrigue of the old. This shall be when they count LX, a little less, but not more [when LVX, Lux, Light comes]. Therefore it is well that we should remember that the time appeareth to be a long time according to a man's lifetime, but as a short time should we observe and consider it. For to cause so much to fall and to be overthrown, with such a raging and roaring lion that has so long grown, this cannot be done in a moment. But how well shall it be with him that shall be as a little child, for human knowledge causeth but unrest and grief.
"Elucidation 31: And as little children without cunning or guile shall they appear."
In Chapter 8 of his treatise De Minerabilis, Paracelsus predicted the advent of Elias Artista (Elias the Artist), Master of Alchemy. Elsewhere in the literature of Hermetic science, Elias Artista is referred to as "a symbol of the ripeness of the age! He is the great day to come when all secrets shall be brought to light, and things now rooting in the dark earth shall be brought to light, and things now rooting in the dark earth shall come forth to full growth and flower and bear a treasure, which is for the healing of nations... a symbolic representation, the collective breath of generous vindications. Spirit of Liberty, of science and love which must regenerate the world!" (18)
Paracelsus, Glauber, Thomas Norton, Alexander Seton and other alchemists wrote of Elias as if he were an individual. Paracelsus wrote: "What is small and humble, God has revealed, but the more important is still in the dark and shall likely remain so until the arrival of Elias Artista... One shall come after me whose splendor is not yet in this life, and who shall reveal much." According to Glauber, "This Elias Artista shall restore the true spagyric medicine of the old Egyptian Philosophy which was lost over a thousand years. He shall bring it with him and show it to the world."
The 15th century alchemist Thomas Norton transmitted a poetic prophecy about Elias Artista in his Ordinal of Alchemy:
"Arise by Surname when the change of Coin was had,
Made some men sorry, and some men glad:
And as to much people that change,
Seemed a thing new and strange;
So that season befell a wonderous thing,
Touching this Science without leaving.
That three masters of this Science all
Lay in one Bed nigh to Leadenhall,
Which has Elixirs perfect White and Red,
A wonder such Three to rest in one Bed,
And that within the space of days Ten,
While hard it is to find one in Millions of Men.
Of the Dukedom of Lorraine one I understand
Was born, that other nigh in the middle of England,
Under a Crosse, in the end of Shires three,
The third was borne; the youngest of them is he.
Which by his Nativity is by Clerks found,
That he should honor all English ground;
A Man might walk all the World about,
And fail such Three Master to find out;
Two be fleeting, the Youngest shall abide,
And do much good in this Land at a Tide.
But sin of Princes shall let or delay
The Grace that he should do on a day.
The eldest Master changed of him a song,
And said that he should suffer much wrong
Of them which were to him greatly beholden.
And many things more this Master told,
Which since that time hath truly befall,
And some of them hereafter shall,
Whereof one is truly (said he)
After Troubles great Joy shall be
In every quarter of this Land,
Which all good Men shall understand:
The younger asked when that should be,
The old Man said when men shall see
The Holy Cross honored both day and night,
In the Land of God in the Land of Light;
Which may be done in right good season,
But long delayed it is without reason:
When that begins note well this thing,
That Science shall draw towards the King;
And many more Graces ye may be told;
Grace on that King shall descend,
When he old Manners shall amend:
He shall make full secret search,
For this Science with dulcet speech;
And among the Solitary,
He shall have tidings certainly.
So sought King Kalid of many men,
Which helped Kalid at his need,
His virtues caused him to speed. "The eminent British occultist Arthur E. Waite reprinted the prophecy in interpretive prose form in The Hermetic Museum:
"This knowledge would often have been the glory of England's kings, if their hopes had been firmly placed upon God. One who shall have obtained his honors by means of this Art, will mend old manners, and change them for the better. When he comes, he will reform the kingdom, and by his goodness and virtue he will set an everlasting example to rulers. In his time the common people will rejoice, and render praise to God in mutual neighborly love. O King, who are to accomplish all this, pray to God the King, and implore His aid in the matter. So the glory of thy mind will be crowned with the glory of a golden age, which shall not then be hoped for as future."
