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Ven. Bartholomew Holzhauser's Prophecies (A Synopsis)

German Prophet Venerable Bartholomew Holzhauser d. 1658 (left), together with

Abp. Johann Philipp von Schönborn (center) and King Charles II of England

"... [There is] a very famous explanation of the Apocalypse in the seventeenth century, by a man who was and is considered a great saint, and who is thought in particular to have had a special commission to interpret the prophecy of St. John. This was the Ven. Bartholomew Holzhauser, who died in Germany in 1658. This holy man divides the history of the Church, as foreshadowed in the Apocalypse, into seven periods, the first of which ends with Nero, the second with Constantine, the third with Charlemagne, the fourth with the period of the Reformation, Charles the Fifth, and Luther. The fifth, in which, according to Holzhauzer, we now are, he describes as an age in which the Catholics are oppressed by heretics and bad Catholics, an age of wars and calamities, in which thrones are to be overthrown, and monarchs put to death, republics established, and the Church and her ministers plundered. This fifth age, he says, is to be ended by the appearance of a great and holy Pontiff, and a very powerful monarch, who is to come as a messenger of God to put an end to all disorders. He is to make everything subject to his own power, and to show great zeal for the true Church. Heresies will be destroyed, the Turkish Empire overthrown, and all nations are to come and adore God in the true Catholic and Roman faith. The great monarch is to be helped by heaven in delivering the world from the wicked, and to bring to a happy conclusion a great Council, the greatest of all, which will have to pass through many tribulations."

(SOURCE: "THE MONTH: A MAGAZINE AND REVIEW", PAGES 25-26, VOL. XVII. (NEW SERIES, VI.) JULY-DECEMBER, 1872, LONDON, SIMPKIN, MARSHALL, AND COMPANY; AND BURNS AND OATES.)