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.
|
1. The Pseudo-Methodius ~
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
(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 tranquility 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."
Go Back
2. St. Hilarion ~
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.
Go Back
3. St. Ephrem ~
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..."
Go Back
4. St. Columbcille ~
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 grateful, 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 sea girt
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."
Go Back
5. St. Brogan ~
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."
Go Back
6. St. Ultan ~
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!"
Go Back
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."
Go Back
8. St. Edward ~
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.
Go Back
9. The Brahan Seer ~
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."
Go Back
10. Frater Balthassar Mas ~
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."
Go Back
11. Rudolfo Gilthier ~
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)
Go Back
|