REMARKABLE PREDICTIONS.

Auckland Star, Volume XLIV, Issue 225, 20 September 1913, Page 21

REMARKABLE PREDICTIONS.

XELLOW PEBII. THREATENS AMERICA. 1 PT-SG PROPHECT OF XtFN OF YITERBO. "The Holy Nun of Viterbo," Sister Maria Benedetta, who passed away in June, enjoyed a tremendosis fame tliroug—out Italy for her success in predicting coming events. Her power was usually exercised with, tie object of averting misfortune from people or preparing them for inevitable disaster. Hundreds of people were enabled to escape from the Messina earthquake through her warning, and in many other cases her ad-, monitions were timely. This gave he_ a great reputation for sanctity, and she was particularly beloved among the poor and Eiinple peasants. One of the most remarkable predictions T ever made by the nun related to America, t and was uttered on her deathbed. The ex- I traordinary and unquestioned accuracy of J many of her previous predictions gives c added interest to this very alarming _tate- c 'meat. Are we to believe that the nun's t mind was disordered by her last or iwas her prophetic faculty .sharpened I.y the i near approach of death? a This is the terrifying statement which the r . dying nun is said to have made to visitors < just before her death: J "Trouble is coming from the East. The ' Tellow Peril threatens the world, but it is t _gainst America that it will be first directed. Prepare to defend yourselves to s the last gasp. "Before two years are past—about the "end of 1914—yellow Invaders and negroes *rili be throwing dice for the last American ' •«iii in Central Park, New York, amid the , _mo_i_g ruins of the great city, given up l to the id___trous cult of the Golden Calf. 1 ■"But true-hearted Americans will make a _rave stand for their race in the interests of , their country. I see a great battle upon a vast plain by a great lake. I cannot »cc s how It win end." ! It most be admitted that this blood- ; __r_Hng prediction hardly seems like an , outpouri—g of holiness, yet if the nun, in _.er strange, psychic condition, saw such things about to happen, what could she do ' but utter them? Her prediction has been widely published, and is impliciUy believed by hundreds of thousands, probably by mil--oons, of people. The prediction that raised her fame to the highest pitch .throughout Italy foretold the , assassination of King Humbert at Monza, on July 29, 1890. On July 29 the Mother Abbess of Sister Maria Benedetta's convent informed the sub-Prefect of Viterbo, a Government official, that the sister had had a vision of King Humbert's assassination. The official wired to Rome for Information and received word that nothing had happened to the King. Aa a matter of fatrt, the officials in Rome had not then received news of the King's death. He was stabbed late in the afternoon by Gaetano Bresci, an anarchist, and died within an hour in the castle of Monza. The extraordinary Inquiry from Viterbo gave rise to the belief that the plot against tbe King must have been hatched there, but i_vestigati_a showed that there was no ground for this. Bresci plotted the King's __s_s_-__Honrth "Patersoh, "N"ew Jersey. The widowed Queen Margherita soon afterward visited the jinn and was greatly impressed by her gifts of second sight and prophecy. The "Queen became one of her staunchest believers and helped to spread her fame throughout Europe. The forecasts and warnings of the nun at the time of the dreadful Messina earthquake did more than anything else to make her beloved by the common people. On December 27, 1908, spoke more impressively and tragically than she had ever done before, saytngt "Woe to the people of Sicily. A dreadful . catastrophe is coming to them. It will be ■worse than anything they have known in their long tragic history. Woe to Messina: The beautiful city will be destroyed. I see death, devastation, famine, pesrtilenee everywhere. Tell the poor people to fly while there is yet time. Let them leave everything they possess and save their lives." The nun had by that time a great reputation, and her warning, which came the day before the disaster, was serviceable in inducing many hundreds to escape or else to make timely preparations to leave the doomed area. Another prediction which made the nan fl venerated character throughout Italy related to the war with Turkey. A party of young recruits, ordered to join the colours long before war had been decided on, visited the nun to _sk her blessing. To them she said: "A war is exsming. I see scenes of bloodshed _nd agony on burning, samdy plains. But it will be a glorious war. It will be the first glorious war in which I(_Uy has fought. It will be a war of the Cross against the Crescent, aud the Cross will be victorious. Some of you will never return, but do not be afraid, for yon will meet a death that will be better than years of sordid misery and labour. Fight brav.ly and do not shrink from death. . He that tries hardest to lose his life sdrall keep ft. "For you, young man (here the >nun turned her eyes on a very handsome young soldier), I see a splendid military career and a long and happy life." When the war actually broke out her popularity became enormous. She was constantly visited by soldiers going to the war and liy the mothers, wives, and relatives of those who had gone. The mothers and wives of the soldiers usually asked the nun to pray for their loved ones. She wo-ld ask for the names of the soldiers for whom she was retraested to pray, and after thinking a while replied, either bidding her visitor to hope or gently suggesting that the soldier would fall gloriously in the fight for his country and his faith. It is de_lare_ that she never made a single mistake, and thousands of persons are Teady to give evidence that whenever she told them to hope, their sons, husbands and relatives at the post were not killed. The nun's mind and supposed powers of second-sight tended to deal principally with death, war, disasters and tragic occurrences. The nsjn predicted her own death a week ahead. On the morning of the day she had fixed, she called the Ab-bess and the other nuns to her cell and begged their forgiveness. She passed away at the very hour she had foretold. Scientific men are greatly intei«ted in the nun's case. While not ready to accept every feat attributed to her, they are inclined to believe that she possessed supernormal psychical powers. Her nervous system was in an entirely ahnormal condition. Many of her nervous centres, whi<* would have been used in a normal existence were destroyed by the disease that afflicted her, and it is conceivable that th. remaining nervous centres had -erelopet powers not p-ossessed by those of ordinal, persons. Her sense of hearing, for instance was acute to an almost lncTedibae degree. Those who take this view think that thf _teturl)„nce of the earth catised hy th< Messsnrs earthquake, several hundred mues «wav may Have been perceptible to her ftfie'other cases are, of course, more diffl Butt to explain, but it i_ suggested that -hi learned much from the aettaos of thei- -«« game to mate inquiries of her.