La Salette Prophecy (1846)

a. "There will be a kind of false peace before the advent of Antichrist. Man's only thought will be upon diversions and amusements. The wicked will indulge in all sorts of sin, but the children of the Holy Church, the children of the faith, My sincere followers, will wax strong in the love of God and in the virtues that are dear to me. Happy the humble souls that are guided by the Holy Ghost. I will fight with them until they shall have reached the completion of age.

b. "Italy will be severely punished for her efforts to shake off the yoke of the Most High Lord. She will become the play-ball of war. On every side blood will flow. The temples will either be closed or desecrated. Priests and members of religious orders will be put to flight. They will be beaten to death and otherwise die cruel deaths.

c. "The Vicar of my Son will be compelled to suffer much because for a time the Church will be delivered to great persecutions. That will be the hour of darkness, and the Church will experience a frightful crisis. The powerful officials of the State and the Church will be suppressed and done away with, and all law and order as well as justice which exist. Then will be murder, hate, envy and deceit, with no love or regard for one's country or family.

d. "The priests, ministers of my Son, through their bad lives, through their irreverences, and their impiety, whilst celebrating the holy mysteries, through their love of money, love of honors, and pleasure, yes, priests cry for vengeance, and vengeance is suspended over their heads. Woe to the priests, and to persons consecrated to Gcd! who through their infidelity and their bad lives crucify again my Son. The sins of persons consecrated to God, cry to heaven, and call for vengeance, and behold vengeance is at their doors. For no person is any more to implore the mercy and pardon of God in behalf of the people ; there are no more generous souls, no more any person worthy of offering the Immaculate Victim to the Eternal Father in behalf cf the world. God is going to punish in a manner without example. Woe to the inhabitants of the earth ! God is going, to exhaust his wrath, and nobody shall be able to evade so many combined evils. At the first stroke of his fulminating sword the mountains and the whole nature shall shake with terror, because the disorders and crimes of men pierce the very vaults of the heavens. The earth shall be stricken with every kind of plagues. (Besides the pestilence and famine, which shall be general.) There shall be wars until the last war, which shall be waged by the ten kings of Antichrist. All these kings shall have a common design, and they only shall govern the world. Priests and religious shall be hunted ; they shall be butchered in a cruel manner. Many shall abondon the faith, and great shall be the number of priests and religious who shall separate themselves from the true religion; among these there will be found likewise several bishops. Let the Pope be upon his guard against miracle-workers, for the time is arrived when the most astounding prodigies will take place on the earth and in the air.

e. "Lucifer, with a very great number of demons, will be unchained from hell. By degrees they shall abolish the faith, even among persons consecrated to God. They shall blind them in such a manner that, without very special graces, these persons shall imbibe the spirit of those wicked angels. Many religious houses will entirely lose the faith, and shall be the cause of the loss of many persons. In the monasteries, the Flowers of the Church, will mould and rot. The superiors of religious communities should be alert regarding the ones they take into the community, for the devil will use all malice, to bring persons into the orders who are addicted to sin.

f . "Bad books will abound upon the earth ; and the spirit of darkness shall spread over the earth a universal relaxation about everything relating to the service of God. Satan shall have very great power over nature (God's punishment for the crimes of men) ; temples will be erected for the worship of these demons. Some persons shall be transported from one place to another by these wicked spirits, even some priests, bacause these will not be animated by the holy spirit of the gospel, which is a spirit of humility, charity, and zeal for the glory of God.

g. "Some will make the dead rise* and appear as holy persons. The souls of the damned shall also be summoned, and shall appear as united to their bodies. (Such persons, resurrected through the agency of demons, shall assume the figure of holy persons, who are known to have been upon earth, in order more easily to deceive them. These self-styled resuscitated persons shall be nothing but demons under their forms. In this way they shall preach a Gospel contrary to that of Jesus Christ, denying the existence of heaven.)

h. "In every place there shall be seen extraordinary prodigies, because the true faith has been extinguished, and a pale light shines in the world.

i. "My Son's Vicar shall have much to suffer, because for a time the Church shall be exposed to very great persecutions. This shall be the time of darkness. The Church shall have to pass through an awful crisis. France, Italy, Spain, and England shall have civil war. Blood shall flow through the streets. French shall fight French. Italians against Italians. After this there will be a frightful general war. For a time God shall not remember France, nor Italy, (for two years or for one?) because the gospel of Jesus Christ is no more understood. The Holy Father will suffer much. I will be with him to the end to receive his sacrifice. The wicked shall many times attempt his life.

Nature demands vengeance against men, and she trembles with fright in expectation of what will befall the earth sullied with crimes. Tremble, O earth! And tremble ycu also who make profession of serving Jesus Christ, but inwardly worship yourselves, because God has delivered you to his enemies, because corruption is in holy places.

j. "The abomination shall be seen in holy places, in convents, and then the demon shall make himself as the king of hearts. It will be about that time that Antichrist shall be born from ... At his birth he shall vomit blasphemies. He shall have teeth; in a word, he shall be like an incarnate demon; he shall utter frightful screams; he shall work prodigies ; and he shall feed on impure things. He shall have brothers, who, though not incarnate demons like him, shall nevertheless be children of iniquity. At the age of twelve years they shall have become remarkable for valiant victories, which they shall achieve ; very soon each of them will be at the head of armies. Paris shall be burned, and Marseilles shall be submerged ; many great cities shall be shattered and swallowed up by earthquakes. The populace will believe that everything is lost, will see nothing but murder, and will hear only the clang of arms and sacrilegious blasphemies.

k. "I address a pressing appeal to the earth. I call upon the true disciples of the living God, who reigns in the heavens; I call upon the true imitators of Christ made man, the only true Saviour of mankind ; I call upon my children, those who are truly devoted to me, those who have offered themselves to me that I may lead them to my Son, those whom I carry as it were in my arms, those who have been animated by my spirit. Finally, I call on the apostles of these last days, these faithful disciples of Jesus Christ, who have lived despising the world and themselves, in poverty and humility, in contempt and in silence, in prayer and mortification, in chastity and union with God, in suffering and unknown to the world. It is time for them to come out and enlighten the world. Go ye forth and manifest yourselves as my darling children ; I am with you and within you, so that your faith may be the light which illumines you in these unhappy days, and that your zeal may make you hankering for the glory and honor of the Most High. Fight, ye children of light ; combat, ye small band that can see, for this is the time of times, the end of ends.

1. 'The seasons of the year will change, the earth will produce only bad fruits, the stars will depart frcm their regular course, the moon will give only a weak, reddish light. Water and fire in the interior of the. earth will rage violently and cause terrible earthquakes, whereby mountains and cities will sink into the depths. Earthquakes will also devour whole countries. Together with the Antichrist the demons will work great false miracles on earth and in the air. Voices will be heard in the air. Then men will desert religion and become worse and \vorse. Men will let themselves be deceived because they refused to adore the real Christ Who lives bodily amongst them. Woe to the inhabitants of the earth ! Bloody wars, famines, pestilence and contagious diseases will develop. Terrible rain and hail will come with animals falling from the heavens, thunder and lightning burning down entire cities. The whole universe will be gripped by fear. Finally the sun will be darkened and faith alone will give light.

m. "A certain precursor of Antichrist, together with his followers from many nations, will fight the real Christ, the only Saviour of the world. He will endeavor to eliminate the adoration of God in order to be considered as God himself. Much blood will flow. Then the earth will be visited by all kinds of blows, from constant wars until the last war which finally will be made by the ten kings of the Antichrist.

n. "During the time of the arrival of Antichrist, the gospel will be preached everywhere, and all peoples and nations will then recognize the Truth.

o. "Rome will lose the faith and become the seat of Antichrist. Yet the Heathen Rome will disappear. See, here is the Beast with its subjects that claims to be the Saviour of the world. Proudly it rises in the air to go straight to Heaven, but it will be strangled by the breath of the Archangel Michael and cast down. And the earth, which for the past three days was in continuous convulsions, opens her fiery jdws and swallows him with all his cohorts forever into its hellish abyss. Eventually will water and fire cleanse the earth and the works of human pride will be destroyed and all will be renewed. Then will all serve God and glorify Him.

p. "The just will have much to suffer; their prayers, works of penance and tears will ascend to heaven. All of God's people will cry for forgiveness and grace and beg my help and intercession. Then Jesus Christ will command His angels, by a special act of His Justice and Mercy, to deliver all His enemies to death. Then suddenly all persecutors of the Church of Jesus Christ and all evil doers will perish, and rest and peace between God and man will appear. Jesus Christ will be served, adored and glorified. Love of neighbor will begin to flourish all over. The new kings will be on the right hand of the Church which will grow strong, and which will be humble, pious, poor, zealous and followers of the virtues. All over, the Gospel will now be preached, people will make great progress in faith; there will be unity amongst the laborers of Jesus Christ, and people will live in the fear of God.

q. "What I shall tell you now will not always remain a secret. You are allowed to publish it after the year 1858.

r. "Behold the reign of the ten kings! Woe to the inhabitants of the earth ; there shall be sanguinary wars, and famine, and plagues, and contagious maladies; there shall be showers of a frightful hail of animals; thunder shall shake ejntire cities; earthquakes which shall swallow up some countries; voices shall be heard in the air; men (in despair) shall knock their heads against the walls; they shall call on death; and death shall be their torment; blood shall flow from every side. Who shall be able to overcome (all these evils) ? Fire shall rain from heaven, and shall destroy three cities. The whole world shall b3 struck vith terror, and many will allow themselves, to be seduced, because they have not believed the true Christ living among them. The sun becomes dark. Faith only shall survive. So the time! the abyss opens. Behold the king of the kings of darkness ! Behold the beast with his subjects ! . . .

s. Words of Melanie: "The great chastisement will come, because men will net be converted; yet it is only their conversion that can hinder these scourges. God will begin to strike men by inflicting lighter punishments in order to open their eyes ; then he will stop, or may repeat his former warnings to give place for repentance. But sinners will not avail themselves of these opportunities; he will, in consequence, send more severe castigations, anxious to move sinners to penance, but all in vain. Finally, the obduracy of sinners shall draw upon their heads the greatest and most terrible calamities.

t. Extract from a letter written by Melanie: "We are all guilty! Penance is not done, and sin increases daily. Those who should come forward to do good are retained by fear. Evil is great. A moderate punishment serves only to irritate the spirits, because they view all things with human eyes. God could work a miracle to convert and change the aspect of the earth without chastisement. God will work a miracle; it will be a stroke of his mercy; but after the wicked shall have inebriated themselves with blood, the scourge shall arrive.

u. "What countries shall be preserved from such calamities? Where shall we go for refuge? I, in my turn, shall ask, What is the country that observes the commandments of God ? What country is not influenced by human fear where the interest of the Church and the glory of God are at stake ? (Ah, indeed! what country, what nation upon earth?) In behalf of my Superior and myself, I have often asked myself where could we go for refuge, had we the means for the journey and for our subsistence, en condition that no person were to know it? But I renounce these useless thoughts. We are very guilty ! In consequence of this, it is necessary that a very great and terrible scourge should come to revive our faith, and to restore to us our very reason, which we have almost entirely lost. Wicked men are devoured by a thirst for exercising their cruelty ; but when they shall have reached the uttermost point of their barbarity, God himself shall extend his hand to stop them, and very soon after, a complete change shall be effected in all surviving persons. Then they will sing the Te Deum Laudamus with the most lively gratitude and love. The Virgin Mary, our Mother, shall be our liberatrix. Peace shall reign, and the charity of Jesus Christ shall unite all hearts . . . Let us pray ; let us pray. God does not wish to chastise us severly. He speaks to us in so many, so many ways to make us return to him. How long shall we remain stubborn? Let us pray, let us pray; let us never cease praying and doing penance. Let us pray for our Holy Father the Pope, the only light for the faithful in these times of darkness. 0 yes, let us by all means pray much. Let us pray" to the good, sweet, merciful Virgin Mary; for we stand in great need of her powerful hands over our heads."

v. Secret cf Maximin Giraud: "Afterwards this peace shall be disturbed by the monster (Antichrist?) .

w. "The monster shall arrive (be born?) at the end cf this nineteenth century, or at latest, at the commencement of the twentieth.

x. "In this time the Antichrist will be born of a nun of Hebraic descent, a false virgin, who will have intercourse with the ancient serpent, with the master of impurity and putrefaction. His father will be a bishop. He will perform false miracles and subsist only on vitiating faith. He will have brethren, who will be children of evil but not incarnate devils like himself. Soon they will be at the head of armies, supported by the legions of hell.

y. "Up, ye children of light, and fight! For behold, the age of ages, the end, the extremity is at hand ! The Church passes into darkness. The world will be in a state of consternation, perplexity and confusion. "

z. On Henoch and Elias. "They will suddenly appear on earth full of the spirit of God, when the Church becomes darkened and the world in terrible agony. They will convert those of good will and comfort the oppressed Christians. With the help of the Holy Ghost they will have great success against the heresies of Antichrist. But in the end they will be delivered unto death."