Blessed Maria Taigi (d. 1837)

a

"God will ordain two punishments: One, in the form of wars, revolutions and other evils, will originate on earth; the other will be sent from Heaven. There shall come over all the earth an intense darkness lasting three days and three nights. Nothing will be visible and the air will be laden with pestilence.

which will claim principassy but not exclusively the enemies of religion. During this darkness artificial light will be impossible. Only blessed candles can he lighted and will 3fford illumination. He who out of curiosity opens his window to look out or leaves his house will fall dead on the spot. During these three days the people shwould remain in their homes, pray the Rosary and beg God for mercy. "On this terrible occasion so many of these wicked men. enemies of His Church. and of their God. shall be killed by this divine scourge, that their corpses round Rome will be as numerous as the fish. which a recent inundation of the Tiber had carried into the city. All the enemies of the Church, secret as well as known, will perish over the whole earth during that universal darkness, with the exception of some few. whom God will soon after convert. The air shall be infected by demons, who will appear under all sorts of hideous forms. "After the three days of darkness, Saints Peter and Paul. having come down from heaven, will preach throughout the world and designate a new pope (see 150). A great light will flash from their bodies and will settle upon the cardinal, the future Pontiff. Then Christianity will spread throughout the world. Whole nations will join the Cburch shortly before the reign of Anti-Christ. These conversions will be amazing. Those who shall survive shall have to conduct themselves well. There shall be innumerable conversions of heretics. who will return to the bosom of the Church; all will note the edifying conduct of their lives. as well as that of all other Catholics. Russia._ England, and China will come into the Church.

b

"France shall fall into frightful anarchy. The French people shall have a desperate civil war, in which old men themselves will take up arms. The political parties having exhausted their blood and their rage, without being able to arrive at any satisfactory understanding, shall at the last extremity agree by common consent to have recource to the Holy Sec. Then the Pope shall send to France a special legate, in order

that he may examine the state of affairs and the dispositions of the people. In consequence of the information received, His Holiness himself shall nominate a most Christian king for the

government of France."

c

"Religious shall be persecuted. priests shall be massacred. the churches shaI1 be closed, but only for a short time; the Holy Father shall be obliged to abandon Rome."