A REMARKABLE CHAPTER.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume II, Issue 72, 12 September 1874, Page 10

A REMARKABLE CHAPTER.

TBAGMENTS OE ANXA STAIUA TAIGl's PREDICTIONS. HEB PBOPHECIES rrx. .CO. CO , MPABe:d WI TH THOSE OP OTHEB GIPTED SOTOS. ♦v 4. i ! f< ™" m ßfngmen\* were collected by P. Calixte, and he says that he had them from the lips of persons worthy of credit. VV hen the judgment she announced shall overtake the wicked, the dead boaies round BonVe shall be as numerous as the fish which a (ben) recent inundation, of the Tiber had carried into that city. AH the enemies of the Church, secret as well as known, will perish during the darkness with the exception of some whom God shall soon after convert, lh. air shall be infected with demons, who will appear under all sorts of hideous forms. Blessed candles will preserve from death, as well as prayers to the Blessed Virgin and the holy angels. After he darknes.s St Peter and St. Paul shall descend to preach throughout the earth A great light emanating from them shall rest UJT ll fft 2f t2t 2. W ir 0 ? ??, d has « h osen for the future Pope (the Ivmen in Ccelo of St. Malachi's well-known prophecy). St. Michael, appearing on earth shall chain up Satan until the times of the preaching of Antirhrisfc. Behgion will everywhere extend its empire. Russia will be converted, as will also England and China ; and all nations will rejoice in contemplating this splendid triumph of the Church. Then will be accomphsbed the prophecy of our Lord : ' There shall be one fold and on« shepherd.' After this, the SantavCasa of Loreto will be transported by angels to Rome into the Basilica of Santa Maria Maegiore. P. Oahxta observes that the Blessed Joseph Labre had made a similar prediction, and had also said that it would be transferred before the «nd of the world to France.

P. Calixte has something of his own to add to these various current reports. • A pious prelate,' he says, « a Camerieie Segreto of his Holiness, assured him that Anna Maria foretold the definition of the r^X™ ?• holding of the Vatican Council, and the proclamation of the Pontifical InfaJibility, in spite of the long and ineidious opposition of the principal Catholic States. He also said that Pr^T°» nn i c i BaDgU l na ? r l trUggle that Ji" taken place between Prussia and France, and the humiliation and enfeeblement of the hlrii 1186 i ffogr g° tte » her obligations as eldest daughter of the Church. To the horrors of foreign and civil war were to succeed sanguinary conflicts with the revolutionary faction; and this state of desolation was to last until the people of France should cast themselves -at the feet of the Sovereign Pontiff, conjuring him to put an end thereto by an act of supreme authority. The Pope would then send JenS «ni° /T tO enq , U l re int ° the Btate of tbin SS 8 ' aDd > on th ° Srone/ ' * aam ° a Cllrißfcian iio gog *o occupy its To these fragments of reported prophecies we may subjoin a contribution from the AbM Curicque, who, in his ' Voix p/opbetiques?' vol. n. p 155, says, 'On Monday, the 7th of February, we had gone toaMi-tm the Basilica of San Crisogono, in Trastcvere, at the firs? Vespers at the Feast of St John of Matha, whose Religious serve that sanctnaiy. We had then the happiness of praying for a long time at the glonous tomb of Anna Maria. A little before the office begaTwe vS "n 0 the r iist l> * h «« We 9aw the Poatulator of the causfof the Venerable, and we obtained from that Father both some relics of Anna aJ M S ° Ine - in ' ere^ irjgde ' ails a 8 tO the Btat ° °f preservation of her mortal remains. We questioned him also as to the -future. The Postulutor replied that the Venerable Servant of God had foreto d that Pius would re-enter at the close of his reign on the integn^SliSJ of the patrimony of St. Peter; and, moreover, those amongst h£ enem.es who were the fiercest opponents of his temporal powerwould not remain alive to witness this glorious triumph. M,J . . cpe J 8 a S eneral convergence, so to say, and striking resemblance,,„ the scope of all modern prophecies, which confer no little importance upon them, taken as a whole, in the eyes of those who according to St. Peter's counsel, are 'looking for and ha sHnYfeto luhSioftlh dft \°V he rd - But «* to ilKte o nIT/? nT 1 c . be y° n f our P re Bent object, which is simply to compare Anna Maria's prophecy of impending judgment, and its results with analogous predictions of certain other souls who were favored with like revelations. Two women of eminent holmess and supernatural g.fts in our days have made ' announcements sim lar to those ot Anna Warm, one of whom was her contemporary, a married TronjM, ana also a Tertiary of the Trinitarians, Elisabctta JanoriMora lorl ISi in ■.?> SaW j " ', VisioI \ a . n awful J ttd « manfc filll »P°n The vroiM, which in all its particulars exhibits a marked coincidence with the prophecy on the sa-ne subject attributed to Anna Mario. She first beheld the heavens opened, and the Prince of the Apostles descend grounded with glory and with a number of oele.tiS.pWt.3Si canticles, lie was arrayed in Pontifical garments, and held X aHh \T B ,Btßff>, BtBff> Wit) ; 7 hich he traCPd °" imlnense croßß over & *arth, the anffels meanwhile singing, • Oonstitues eos princeps tuner omne.n terram^on shalfc make them princes over all thTeaX bhe then beheld the faithful gathered, under the image of a ftockof ahoep. beneath four sheltering tree*, which a touch of the Apostle's t ho Zl < C tT • V Pn "? 0 ? ° f , the 6arth at the four extremities of the cos, Ihen, she B «nd, ' I understood in , ny inmost heart that St. Peer had caused these trees to spring up as a place of refuge for the iHithful fuend, of Jesus Christ, and to preserve tl.em from the terrih c chastisement which was to overwhelm the earth.' We are reminded *f the angel in, he Apocalypse who is bidden not to hurt thTear 2 r ntil the cervan s of God have been sealed in their foreheads, and of Ihemy.teiiou« Thau spoken of by lizechiel. After this symboSeal 77- \ u wlnc > fcl " flock of Christ was consigned, under tlSflgTre of docile sheep to the protection of the chief pastor, he returned to Heaven vi.d then quickly followed the judgment. Thick clouds veiled the fiiinanenl, and a terrible wind, like the roaring of a furious lion, arose, swecpirg the whole earth, and striking terror into man and be.ist. Men at iliat ensid she, described as in the height of revolution and engaged in uiastncring each oilier pitilessly. To the vengeance they were thus mutually exercising on each other was now to be joined that which the powers of Hell were commissioned by God to inflict

She beheld legions of demons assuming the form of men and beasts,, and ranging the whole world, to exebute the deorecs of God's justice on the wicked— on their possessions, on the fruits of the earth on towns, on Tillages ; 'nothing,' she said, ' will be spared.' In short, they will fill the earth with ruins, specially devastating .those ulacea where God has been outraged and blasphemed, and where sacnleaesluve been perpetrated. Meanwhile the faithful, under the protection of the holy Apostles, shall remain uninjured both in person and in property. After the judgment, she again beheld the heavens brighten, and the chief of the Apostles descend, accompanied by angels, singing hymns to his honor, and acknowledging him as prince of the earth*. Then she saw St. Paul come down from Heaven, commisioned by God to traverse the earth and chain up the demons. She beheld him dra<^* them before the Prince of the Apostles, who consigned them again to the Hell from which they had been loosed. After this follow particulars precisely similar to those already given, as contained in Anna . Maria's prophecy of the miraoulous election of the holy Pontiff," the ' Lumen in Calo' and the reconciliation of earth with heaven. In regard to this prediction we will make one observation, which is susceptible of wider application. Clearly the opening of this vision is figurative. The seer herself did not believe that St. Peter literally planted four large trees, under which the faithful gathered in the guise of sheep. This leads us to ask how much, of the remaining portion isalso to be taken as symbolical, and how much must be understood literally. That a great judgment of some kind is described, in which Hell will take a permissive part, and a singular protection be afforded: to the faithful, there can be no question. But are the subiequent apparitions of St. Peter and St. Paul, their preaohing to the world and the chaining of Satan, events which the bodily eyes will discern T Or, if the eyes of some may be opened to behold tham, as were theeyes of the servant of the Lord fighting for Israel (4 Zings vi. 17), or as those of Attilla, the Scourge of God, when he was about to marchwith his Huns to the destruction of Borne, and the Vicar of Christ went forth to meet him, were opened to see the Apoßtles St. Peter and St. Paul menacing him in the air, will the vision be patent to all ? This point it seems impossible to decide. It will be evident that what we have here suggested applies to the parallel announcements of Anna Maria T&igi, though we have given our reasons for inclining to the opinion that the threatened judgment of the three days' darkness is tobe literally, not figuratively, understood. The other holy person who has made similar predictions is & Neapolitan widow still living and now about forty-eight years of age, Palma-Maria-Addolorata Matarelli, a native of Oria in the Terra di Lavoro. She enjoys a great reputation for sanctity, has received thestigmata, and on every Friday has a participation of the agonies of the the Passion, including the Sweat of Blood. She is also said to possessthe gift of bilocation. Of future events she speaks as confidently as others do of what is passing before their eyes j but on this subject much reserve is practised by her directors — a reserve in every way the more imperative because the subject is still living ; and in such cases it is well known what jealous caution the Church prescribes,, from the danger of possible illusion. She is greatly revered by the people of Naples, a circumstance naturally irritating to Victor Emmanuel's Government. She was accordingly subjected to a severeinquiry by the civil authorities on the Bth December, 1865, which in that year fell on a Friday, as also to a medical examination ; the result being the more complete establishment of the supernatural faots exhibited in her person. Fragments of her prophecies have been divulged. She is reported to have spoken of republics being set up in France, in Spain, in Italy ; of the civil war which was to burst forth afterwards in these countries, simultaneously with other chastisements, such as plague and famine ; of the massacre of priests and of somedignitarieß of the Church ; of the trials through "which the City of Peter would have to pass and the sufferings it would endure from the fury of the wicked ; of the extermination of the latter ; the destruction of Paris ; of the dense darkness and infection of the air by devils, and the use of blessed candles as a means of preservation ; of supernatural portents which should appear in the heavens ; and of a dreadful war which, however, would be of short duration and would be followed by the peace of the world and the triumph of the Church, of" which Pius IX. was to see the cbmencement.

The following is extract from the Bishop of Paderborn's Pastoral :- " Becognise no one as your pastor who does not enter into the sheepfold by the true door, who has not his mission from the Chair of St. Peter, and is not united with the Holy See in the unity of the Faith, and by the bond of true and sacerdotal obedience. It is better for you, fathers and mothers, to teach your children the truths of theChristian religion yourselves than to hand them over to ' hirelings and robbers' to be instructed and trained. It is better for you, heads and members of families, to build up one another in the Holy Faith, fey common prayers and holy hymns and songs, rather than than to haveany share in the sacrilegious ministrations of apoßtate priests, whereby the majesty of God is not honored, but rather dishonored and outraged. And even to the hour of death have no communion with Bchismatic and heretical priests, but (supposing that you cannot havea faithful priest to attend) excite in yourselves an act of perfect contrition, for this, with a desire after the Holy Sacrament, will cleanse the soul frqm all the sins which cling to it. The grace of God, indeed, is nece?snry for such perfect contrition ; but He will give this grace richly to all who humbly beg for ifc. So, too, for the baptism of your children, for the burial of your relations and friends, for the blessing of the Church upon your marriages, do not, under any circumstances whatever, call io a priest who has apostatised from the Church, whether he be heretic or schismatic ; that you may have no share in heresy, apostacy, or schism. If orthodox and faithful priests fail you, then let the baptism of your children be perform, d by some faithful layman ; bury your dead yourselves, amid hymns and prayers ; and asregards the blessing of the Church upon your marriages, wait for the instructions which I will make known to you in due time, as soon as X am authorised to do so by the Holy See," &c.