!? Prophecy
of a 'Capuchin Friar' (1776?)
There is a
Great Monarch and Angelic Pontiff prophecy circulating that has been
attributed to St. Ignatius of Santhia (1686-1770), that during the
time of great upheavals, all the orders of the Church will be
suppressed except for the most stringent, and that three popes (or
anti-popes) will be elected, one Italian, German and Greek' the last
by force of arms.
When I first
head this prophecy, the source I found had attributed it to St.
Ignatius of Santhia, and that they received their information from
“Catholic Prophecy” by Yves Dupont, published by Tan Books.
However,
after researching the prophecy and digging into the sources, I found
out that Dupont never attributed it to St. Ignatius, but had simply
called it a prophecy by a 'Capuchin Friar'. I also noticed that
biographies of St. Ignatius make no mention of him having a gift of
prophecy, unlike other the biographies of other prophetic Capuchin saints, which is odd if he
supposedly made this prophecy.
Since
Dupont's book was published in the 1970s, the erroneous attribution
of St. Ignatius must have occurred fairly recently around the time of
the saint's canonisation. The third and final miracle for sainthood
was investigated in 1993 and was ratified on 3 June 1994. Pope John
Paul II approved the miracle on December 20, 2001 and canonised St.
Ignatius of Santhia on May 19, 2002.
The
anonymous 'Capuchin Friar' predicted before the three anti popes
elections that in the late 1700s, - “the German Emperor from the
year 1780 of our redemption until the year 1792, will incredibly
afflict the orthodox religion, the holy Church of Christ,” - and
these dates were close to the year of St. Ignatius' death, 1770. It
was an apparently convenient proximity for whoever made the false
attribution. Hence, there was an effort made by someone to make
these anonymous prophecies sound more creditable, for the publisher
it originally came from was not very scrupulous about making up fake
prophecies!
I have not
found an earier manuscript source for it. The earliest printing I can
find of the 'Capuchin Friar' Prophecy is in the “Future Destinies
of States and Nations” (Turin, 1864), which states it was found in
a manuscript of the library of the Capuchin Fathers of Genzano, and that people seem to know of it the area by oral tradition, stating that the earliest manuscript copy of this prophecy is dated 1776. Since it was supposedly written only 6 years after St. Ignatuius death in 1776, why didn't they attribute it to him then in the supposed manuscript and not leave it anonymous under 'A Capuchin Friar'? This all seems a bit 'iffy' to me. So, can we trust the
publisher with this one? The publishers of 'Future Destines' were not very
careful about where they sourced some of their prophecies, Protestant
'Reformers' are quoted, and in some instances, there is a fake
prophecy made up from a sermon of a Protestant bishop!
I have not
found any earlier manuscript or printing that mentions a prophecy of
three specific successive popes: Italian, then German then Greek,
neither has another mystic mentioned such a distinct line of
succession either. The publisher of “Future Destinies” could
either have made up the prophecy, or, taken it from a dubious
medieval source, like an alchemical or astrological author and simply
added 'a Capuchin Friar' to make it acceptable or believable.
It was next
printed in “The Christian Trumpet”, then the “Prophet and Our
Times” by Father Cullerton. Yves Dupont then printed
the prophecy as well.
While the
publisher of the “Christian Trumpet” noted the earlier part of
the prophecy has come true regarding the wars in the late 1770s,
(Quote:) “The Emperor Joseph II of Austria persecuted the Church.
The first French Revolution and the Empire of Napoleon and its fall
is well known. England, the former ally of Russia, fought against it
in Crimea with France. France and Italy fought against Austria.
Prussia has been at war both with Austria and more lately with
France.” (Christian Trumpet, p. 56), it is quite possible this is a
manufactured prophecy written in the early 1800s with hindsight
knowledge of the recent wars. This unknown writer could then have offered
their own prophecy regarding the popes attached to this 'hindsight
knowledge' they had to make it sound creditable. Or, it could have
been the other way around, taking an old prophecy dating from the
time of the Western Schism when there was a Greek anti-pope
(Alexander V, 1409-1420), there were a flood of fake prophecies and
dubious prophetic commentaries at that time, then added that to
known prophecies of the Great Monarch together with a 'hindsight
prophecy' of modern times to make it sound authentic. Cobbling
together prophecies, fake with real ones to fit the times and gain
attention has happened many times with medieval prophecies such as the
'Cedar of Lebanon' Prophecies, (click here), it could have happened
again with the 'Capuchin Friar' Prophecy.
Also, if we
try to make any sense of this 'Capuchin Prophecy', since St.
Malachy's prophecy seems to indicate we are already at the end of the
line of Popes before the destruction of Rome, and, we have had a
German pope, but not in the manner indicated by the 'Capuchin Friar',
we had a Polish, German, then an Argentine-Italian pope. After centuries of having no German pope, which would have been the big idicator when we did have one, to find the prophesied line of Italain-German-Greek is out of synch? Obviously, this
prophecy has failed to come to pass.
As it is
anonymous, we have no idea who wrote it. Were they a true mystic or
scholar, or is this an obscure prophecy from an author who could have
possibly been condemned or suppressed? Or, is it from someone from
the 1800s who tried to make up a prophecy to fit the turbulent times
they were in and stir up interest as suggested above?
As we do not
know for certain and there are too many red flags about it, I have
not included this in the Timeline.
