(Image: the Convent of St. Clare in Macau, China. Picture taken c. 1877)
MADRE MARIA MAGDALENE DE LA VERA CRUZ (1575-1653)
In
the book 'Future Destines of State and Nations' (Turin, 1864) I have discovered the name
of nun who apparently was a mystic made predictions about the future,
Madre Maria Magdalena de la Vera Cruz.
From
the little I could find about her, Madre Mariana's original name was
Maria Gonzaléz de Avila and she was born in 1575 in a little village
called Pinto near Madrid, Spain. Her family were not poor as her
father was a notary for the Inquisition. She came into the world
three to four months premature, but survived as she was kept warm in
untreated wool and fed milk through a straw. She learned to read at
the age of three, and inspired by the life of St. Theresa of Avila,
from an early age she knew she had a vocation and entered the convent
of Santa Maria de la Cruz in Cuba when she was fifteen.
In
1614 she later wanted to become a missionary in the East after a visit
of Fray Luis Sotelo on his way to Rome with the Japanese embassy.
Together with Madre Jerónima de la Asunción, who came from the
Convento de Santa Isabel de los Reyes de Toledo, and a group of
sisters, Madre Mariana set out to become missionaries in China and
Japan. They started a convent in Manilla, and Sister Marie
Magadalena was chosen as vicaress. Later she become abbes of the St.
Clare convent they founded in Macau. (Image above. Picture of the convent taken
1877). Madre Mariana stayed there until 1644 when she, two other
sisters, several Franciscan brothers and her confessor Fray Antonio
de Santa Maria were forced to leave China due to the conflicts in
the convent, also conflicts between the Franciscan and the Jesuits,
as well as tensions between the monarchies of Spain and Portugal. On
the journey back to Manilla, they sought shelter from strong winds on
the coast of Vietnam, where passengers and crew were captured and
sentenced to death. The rest of the details are not clear, but
somehow they were all pardoned and they made it back to Manilla.
(1)
She
apparently was granted the gifts of meditative and contemplative
prayer as she could be lost in ecstasy for several hours on the 'Our
Father', and the single words 'Ave Maria'. She always felt the
presence of God, and revealed she could feel the burning love of God
close when He visited her in the form of a little child many times. (2)
This
would explain why her confessor Fray Antonio encouraged her to write
her mystical works. She wrote a three volume mystical treatise
called the 'Nova Floresta Franciscana' (The Franciscan Grove /
Forest). (3) She also wrote her biography and many other mystical
treatises, but the are all lost except for the 'Floresta
Francsicana', which was annotated and revised by Fray Antonio. She
is particularly remembered for her work as an author. I cannot find
anything else about her, other than she was considered to be a holy
person.
(NOTE:
she is NOT to be confused with Sr. Mary Magdalen of the Cross
(1487-1560) in Spain who was proven to be possessed after having
made a pact with the devil and had fooled many people into believing
she had been given heavenly gifts. See more about that disturbing
case, click
here.)
About
the Prophecy by Madre Mariana de le Vera Cruz's - it was originally
published in her work “Nova Floresta Franciscana”, but since that
is very hard to trace, I haven't found a copy of it available in a
digital archive to verify that she made the prophecy, the next known
copy of the prophecy has only been circulated through a book by an
author named Ingatius a Sancta Teresia, which was put on the Index of
Forbidden and Condemned Books by the Holy See since it was a defence
written about the condemned prophecies of Padre Antionio Vieyrae.
However, right below a quotation of Madre Mariana de la Vera Cruz's
prophecy in that work is the famous prophecy by St. Francis of
Paola, therefore it is obviously the defence of Padre Vieyrae is why
the book was condemned, and for not the other prophecies quoted, including
Madre Mariana's. Of interest, the first part of Madre Mariana's
prophecy published in 1640 has come true, which shows we can safely
read the rest.
::::::::::::::::::::
Prophecy:
That
the most pure Conception of the Mother of God will be defined on the
6th
day of a week, lacking a Friday, this definition will be preceded by
a great revolution throughout China, by great wars between Christian
princes. That, as the Incarnation of the Word and the Redemption of
men was fulfilled on Friday, so it will be precisely a Friday in
which the definition of the mystery of the Conception will take
place; (...)
(NOTE:
this has been considered to be a prophecy on the definition of the
Immaculate Conception that was declared a dogma by Bl. Pope Pius IX.
The definition of this dogma occurred on a Friday
on December 8, 1854. The author of 'Future Destinies of State and
Nations' notes the 'sixth day lacking a Friday' could mean the Friday
dispensation granted by the Pope that day allowing people to eat meat
in celebration of the feast. He also notes the meatless Friday
dispensation was granted before by a pope in earlier times to where a
common proverbial expression arose; 'the week of three Thursdays' –
i.e. a week missing a Friday. Apparently, the
pope had planned to visit a city for a function on a Thursday, but
for some reason didn't arrive until the Friday. However, the
dignitaries of the city had prepared many meat dishes for the his
arrival the day before, and since it was a scorching day, it
was not possible to preserve the food to eat later and therefore
asked for dispensation considering they had prepared for so many
people and didn't want the food to go to waste. The Holy Father
replied: 'Well, let Thursday continue,' and so Thursday 'continued'
throughout that Friday and Saturday to make use of meat, hence the
'week of three Thursdays', basically, a week with a sixth day but no
Friday.
Madre
Mariana Magadelena also predicted that a great rebellion in China
would occur before the dogma was declared, and the prophecy came
true. Between 1850-1864 the Taiping Rebellion occurred, and also a
concurrent rebellion started in 1853 called the Nian Rebellion
(1853–68). The Taiping Rebellion ranks as one of the bloodiest
wars in human history, the bloodiest civil war, and the largest
conflict of the 19th century. Estimates of the war dead range from
20–70 million to as high as 100 million, with millions more
displaced.
The
great wars between Christian princes she predicted that would also
happen before the dogma was declared could have been fulfilled by:
July
Revolution (France) (1830)
The
First Carlist War (Spain) (1833-1840)
Egyptian-Ottoman
War (1839-1841) While fought in Syria, several European countries
(therefore Christian princes), were pitted against the Kingdoms of
France and Spain as well as Egypt.
And
especially the Crimean War (1853-1856)
:::::::::::::::
(Continuation
of the prophecy - a hero that will bring universal peace between Christians. The whole world will convert. Idols will fall throughout the world):
… that
from that same time in which the feast of this definition will be
celebrated by the Supreme Pontiff, all the idols of China, of Japan
and of the whole world will fall; that this will be followed by the
conversion of the Chinese empire, by the fall of the Ottoman Empire,
by the conquest of the House of God in Jerusalem, which will be
conquered by a hero of the House of Austria, another Alexander for
the speed of his course, without other forces than his sword is his
shield, at the head of his soldiers; that towards this time a
synagogue in Morocco and another in Egypt will be handed over to the
Church; and that the Austrians will solicit in a singular way this
definition, that will bring universal peace between Christian
princes, which will make an alliance together, then will follow all
the most precious and most desirable happiness.
(OBSERVATIONS:
those interested in the Great Monarch prophecies have wondered why
the rest of the prophecy didn't seem to come to pass since she was
correct about the first half.
Some
commentators have simply suggested it will come as other mystics have
predicted it as well, but just not at the time she foretold. God may
have delayed the fulfilment and will bring it all to pass in His own
good time. Other mystics have also hinted at the 1800s as the
arrival of the Great Monarch, yet other mystics clearly state he
won't come until after the chastisements, which points to the mid
20th
or early to mid 21st
century. Are some of them, or all of them wrong?
Authentic prophecies will not contradict each other and interesting
enough, prophetic 'delays' like this now make sense since the
revelations of Marie-Julie Jahenny have come to light. The
identity of the king was revealed to her, he lived during the 1800s,
but she was told he would be 'returned to his subjects and that he
was 'reserved for the great epochs'. Marie-Julie was told would see his victory from Heaven after sometime after her death, and she died in 1941. (See more about that revelation, click here.) The man revealed to Marie-Julie also descended from the
House of Austria from the maternal line of his family, and it is
intriguing Madre Mariana Magadalen de la Vera Cruz said the one that
would rapidly build a new empire like another Alexander the Great
would be a 'hero' of the Austrian House, that could also mean a warrior or a commander, but said nothing about him
being a direct
descendant of the particular Royal house.
According
to Madre
María Magdalena
de la Vera Cruz,
apparently
the dogma of the Immaculate Conception of Mary will become a pivotal
point which will bring about the restoration of the Christian Europe
and usher in the Age of Peace. The Royal House of Austria will have
something to do with suggesting the Immaculate Conception as a
unifying element to bring Europe together.)
::::::::::::::::
Footnotes:
(1)
Source: “Nuns Navigating the Spanish Empire”, Sarah E. Owens,
University of New Mexico Press, 2017 p. 114
(2) “Beatas,
inquisidores e teólogos. Reacção portuguesa a Miguel de Molinos,
Thesis by Pedro Vilas Boas Tavares (Porto, 2002) pp. 197-198.
(3)
The full title: “Floresta
franciscana de illustraciones celestiales cogidas al hilo de la
oración en la aurora de María por la sierva de Dios y Venerable
Madre Soror Magdalena de la Cruz, Religiosa de Santa Clara, hija
de
su monasterio de la Cruz en la Provincia de Castilla, y fundadora de
las Descalzas de Manila y Macao en el Asia”.
