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(Image of the holy Bishop George Wittman (d. 1833). His cause for canonization was officially opened on Jan 30, 1956 under Pope Pius XII)

"Violent hands will be laid on the Supreme Head of the Catholic Church. ... Yes, yes, the flock will become small." (End Times Prophecy of Bp. Wittman)

BISHOP GEORGE M. WITTMAN, the pious and 

devoted Bishop of Ratisbon, was born January 
23, 1760. He was distinguished for extraordinary 
learning and erudition, vigorous orthodoxy, and great 
aptitude in teaching, an ardent zeal for souls, and for 
his charity towards the poor.

In 1788 he became Vice-President and in 1803 Presi- 

dent of the Ecclesiastical Seminary of Ratisbon; in 
1821, Canon of the Cathedral; in 1829, Suffragan 
Bishop Provost of the Cathedral, and Vicar-General. 
At the death of Bishop Tailor, in 1832, he became his 
worthy successor, and died March 8, 1833. The popu- 
lar voice proclaimed him a saint, and all who knew him 
said, "He was a man of the first apostolic days of the 
Church, — a priest according to God's own heart."

The illuminated eye of Wittman foresaw the future 
when he spoke in the following manner: 

"Woe is me! Sad days are at hand for the Holy 
Church of Jesus Christ. The Passion of Jesus will be 
renewed in the most dolorous manner in the Church 
and in her Supreme Head. In all parts of the world 
there will be wars and revolutions, and much blood will 
be spilled. Distress, disasters, and poverty will every- 
where be great, since pestilential maladies, scarcity, and 
other misfortunes will follow one another.

"Violent hands will be laid on the Supreme Head of 
the Catholic Church; bishops and priests will be perse- 
cuted, and schisms will be provoked, and confusion reign 
amid all classes. Times will come, so pre-eminently 
bad, that it will seem as if the enemies of Christ, and 
of his Holy Church, which he founded with his blood, 
were about to triumph over her. ... A general separation

will be made. The wheat shall be winnowed, and the floor 

swept. Secret societies will work great ruin, and exercise 
a marvellous monetary power, and through that many 
will be blinded, and infected with most horrible errors; 
however, all this shall avail naught. Christ says, He 
who is not with me is against me, and he who gathereth 
not with me scattereth. Scandals will be but too rife, 
and woe to those by whom they come! Although the 
tempests will be terrible, and will turn away many in their 
passage, nevertheless they cannot shake the rock whereon 
Christ has founded his Church. Porte inferi non prevalebunt.

"The faithful sheep will gather together, and in Unions 
of Prayer will offer potent resistance to the enemies of 
the Catholic Church. Yes, yes, the flock will become 
small. Many of you will see those sad times and days 
which will bring such evil in their train ... . Great confusion 
will reign amid princes and nations. The incredulity of the
present day is preparing those horrid evils."

(SOURCE: "THE CHRISTIAN TRUMPET; PREVISIONS AND PREDICTIONS ABOUT IMPENDING GENERAL CALAMITIES, THE UNIVERSAL TRIUMPH OF THE CHURCH, THE COMING OF ANTICHRIST, THE LAST JUDGMENT, AND THE END OF THE WORLD." COMPILED BY PELLEGRINO, PP. 57-58, 1873)

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