In the Christian prophecies of recent centuries, there is a recurring theme: the prediction of the coming, in the times of the triumph of the Most Holy Virgin, of a powerful king, a Great Monarch, capable of bringing the world back to the truth of Christianity. Of course, he is a mysterious figure, who – assuming he wants to believe the visions of saints and mystics – has yet to manifest himself on Earth. It may be useful to read some of these prophecies, to get an idea of this character and the events related to him.
The Franciscan Bernardino da Bustis (venerated locally as blessed, although the cult was never made official by the Church), a great devotee of the Blessed Virgin, lived between 1450 and 1513 in Lombardy. He speaks of the Great Monarch as follows:
“A certain powerful king of Christianity, which will rise near the time of the Antichrist, will come into conflict with the Roman Church, and to this will be ach many tribulations, and at that time there will be a schism in the Church of God in the election of the Pope, because there will be several: among which will be one who will be elected by the aforementioned king , but it will not be true Pope, he will pursue indeed the real Pope and those who will obey him, and many will lend obedience more to antipope than to the real Pontiff; but ultimately it will end badly false pope cotext and the real pope will remain unchallenged Pontiff.
The Roman Church will also be freed from the hands of it king pel arm and the power of another Christian king, who will come to the aid of the Roman Church itself: that although the army of the foretold king is taken it good king, and imprisoned as a bad cotext king, however for the help of the Virgin Mary SS. will be freed, and finally after many dangers and will bring victory.
The angelic Pope, who will then sit, will crown that king with imperial crown, and both together they will reform the Church of Christ in the state of evangelical poverty […] (The future destinies of states and nations, i.e. prophecies and predictions concerning all the kingdoms of the universe until the end of the world, Turin 1861, pp. 304-305).“
The secular tertiary Anna Maria Taigi (1769-1837) also speaks of the Great Monarch in the famous prophecy of the “three days of darkness”, of which we report an extract:
“France will fall into appalling anarchy. The French will have a desperate civil war in which the old will also take up arms. The political parties, having exhausted their blood and anger without having been able to reach any satisfactory solution, will agree, as a last resort, to resort to the Holy See. Then the Pope will send a special legate to France… Following the information received, His Holiness himself will appoint a very Christian King for the government of France (S. Mancinelli, Vita e profezie della beata Anna Maria Taigi, Edizioni Segno, Tavagnacco UD 2016, pp. 83-83).“
The Venerable Bartolomeo Holzhauser (1613-1658) links the advent of the Great Monarch at the beginning of the Sixth Age of Church History; it, in fact, “begins with that strong monarch and holy pontiff, and will last until the birth of the Antichrist. This state will be said of consolation”, says the monk; consolation because while in the fifth era “everything comes from subverted war, while Catholics are oppressed by heretics and evil Christians, while forced it is the Church and her ministers who pay tribute … an admirable mutation will happen, carried out by the almighty right of God, who can never be humanly imagined. Because that monarch, who will be sent by God, will radically destroy the republics, everything will be subsoting, and protecting the true Church of Christ. (Future fates, Op. paragraph 233).
Is it possible to obtain an identikit of the Great Monarch? Some prophecies help us: He “will be a great sinner in his youth, then he will convert to the great God, from whom he was pulled as Saint Paul was”, says St Francis of Paola ( FuturedestiniesOp. paragraph 133). The Great Monarch will, according to the prophecy of many visionaries, be a member of the Royal House French (thus, for example, said Maria Giulia Jahenny, Saint Caesarerius of Arles, Saint Catald, Bartholomew Holzhauser). This cannot but reflect on the importance of France – the Church’s favourite daughter– in the history of salvation. Would the great monarch’s membership in the royal lineage French be a kind of repair to the evils that france has multiplied around the world, a nefarious consequence of the French? Think that Louis XIV was deaf to the calls of Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque,who had written to the Sun King warning him that “the Lord wishes to reign in the royal palace and especially in the heart of the king” (V. Lessi, Margherita Maria Alacoque, la santa del Sacro Cuore, Paoline, Milan 2015, p. 127). Jesus wanted the Sacred Heart to be painted in the flags of France, spreading in the kingdom this very special and noble devotion. We do not know whether Louis XIV ever received the letter of Sister Margaret Marie, but we know that Louis XVI was aware of the importance of the Sacred Heart and voted to establish a national holiday. Unfortunately, we know that the Revolution – a century after the admonitions of mystique – got the better of it. Can the great monarch’s membership in the French line be in any way linked also to the final fulfilment of Jesus’ desire and to the spread of the cult of the Sacred Heart precisely from France? It is a stimulating question, to which only time can answer.
