ST. CYRIL OF JERUSALEM (c. 315- c. 386)
St. Cyril was ordained a deacon by Bishop Macarius of Jerusalem in about 335 and a priest some eight years later by Bishop Maximus. About the end of 350 he succeeded Maximus in the See of Jerusalem, however, he was exiled on more than one occasion due to the enmity of Acacius of Caesarea, and the policies of various emperors. St. Cyril left important writings documenting the instruction of catechumens and the order of the Liturgy in his day.
In 1883, St. Cyril was declared a Doctor of the Church by Pope Leo XIII.
St. Cyril's Catechetical Lecture 15 is
what is of interest regarding the Great Monarch prophecies as he
confirms Church teaching that the Antichrist will come at the End of
Time and will be defeated by Christ at the Second Coming – the
Antichrist will come when the ROMAN EMPIRE (aka Holy Roman Empire)
has already spread through the whole world, then, the Antichrist will come
and attempt to take it over, humbling several kingdoms, but taking
several others.
Since the other Great Monarch
prophecies show the Monarch is to restore the Holy Roman Empire
during the Age of Peace, St. Cyril's catechism shows the Antichrist
comes after this, and, is defeated by Christ at the Second Coming.
Fake prophecies usually fail to follow
this timeline taught by the Fathers and Saints of the Church and
attempt to say the Antichrist comes before the Age of Peace.
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Chatechtical Lecture 15:
Paragraph 12 and 13. (Source,
New Advent Website)
12. But this aforesaid Antichrist is
to come when the times of the Roman empire shall have been fulfilled,
and the end of the world is now drawing near. There shall rise up
together ten kings of the Romans, reigning in different parts
perhaps, but all about the same time; and after these an eleventh,
the Antichrist, who by his magical craft shall seize upon the Roman
power; and of the kings who reigned before him, three he shall humble
, and the remaining seven he shall keep in subjection to himself. At
first indeed he will put on a show of mildness (as though he were a
learned and discreet person), and of soberness and benevolence : and
by the lying signs and wonders of his magical deceit having beguiled
the Jews, as though he were the expected Christ, he shall afterwards
be characterized by all kinds of crimes of inhumanity and
lawlessness, so as to outdo all unrighteous and ungodly men who have
gone before him; displaying against all men, but especially against
us Christians, a spirit murderous and most cruel, merciless and
crafty. And after perpetrating such things for three years and six
months only, he shall be destroyed by the glorious second advent from
heaven of the only-begotten Son of God, our Lord and Saviour Jesus,
the true Christ, who shall slay Antichrist with the breath of His
mouth, and shall deliver him over to the fire of hell.
13. Now these things we teach, not of
our own invention, but having learned them out of the divine
Scriptures used in the Church , and chiefly from the prophecy of
Daniel just now read; as Gabriel also the Archangel interpreted it,
speaking thus: The fourth beast shall be a fourth kingdom upon
earth, which shall surpass all kingdoms. And that this kingdom
is that of the Romans, has been the tradition of the Church's
interpreters.
