Dear Friends of the Kolbe Center,
Glory to Jesus Christ!
Readers who have watched the video of the play that my wife directed during a leadership retreat a few years ago on the life of Blessed Anna Maria Taigi know that Our Lord revealed to Blessed Anna the efforts of Tsar Alexander I, after he defeated Napoleon, to reunite the Russian Orthodox Church with the Catholic Church. In her mystical sun, Blessed Anna was shown the Tsar’s untimely death and revealed it to the Tsar’s emissary, General Michaud, who was in Rome to meet with Pope Pius VII, to begin working towards the reunification of the Russian Orthodox Church with the Catholic Church. The emissary had recently seen the Tsar in good health, so he thought that Blessed Anna was a false mystic who was having fake visions. In the absence of modern telecommunications, it took a few days for Michaud to receive confirmation that what Our Lord had revealed to Blessed Anna was true, and that the Tsar had dropped dead while inspecting his troops in the Crimea.
In our previous newsletter, we unveiled a new e-book by Gary Ross entitled Out of the Blue which has a beautiful blue cover bearing an image of the Vladmir Icon of the Mother of God. This icon is attributed to St. Luke the Evangelist and its history seems to be prophetic of the imminent consecration and conversion of Russia which will usher in the Era of Peace promised by Our Lady of Fatima. According to an internet article on The Vladimir Icon of the Mother of God:
On September 8th, the Russian Orthodox Church celebrates the feast of the Meeting of the Our Lady of Vladimir Icon.
This wonderworking icon is one of the most venerated in Russia and, according to tradition, dates from the dawn of Christianity. It was painted by Apostle Luke on the board of the table where Christ dined with Theotokos. Seeing the portrait, the Mother of God said: “From now on, all generations will bless Me. The grace of the One born of Me and Mine be with this icon.”
Transferred from Jerusalem to Constantinople, the icon was then sent to the Russian Prince Yuri Dolgorukiy as a gift. It was first housed in the nunnery of Vyshgorod, the appanage city of Andrey Bogolyubsky. The Prince, while travelling through the Zalessk Land, had a vision. The Theotokos commanded to leave Her image in Vladimir. The image has been called the “Vladimirskaya” icon since then.
The Meeting of the Icon in Moscow and Deliverance from Tamerlane in 1395
One of the most significant miracles in Russian history, still celebrated by the Orthodox Church, happened on September 8. The hordes of Tamerlan, one of the most fearful conquerors ever, approached Moscow. The forces the Russians could scrape together were nowhere close to his, neither in quantity nor in skills.
There was nothing left but to appeal to God’s help. It took 10 days to carry the image of the Mother of God from Vladimir to Moscow. On September 8, when the Moscovites were greeting the icon, the armies of Tamerlan backed up and retreated from the Russian lands for no apparent reason.
Moscow was saved.
According to the legend, Tamerlan had a dream of the radiant Virgin with saints in shining garments and sworded angels. The dream interpreters explained that he saw the protectress of that (Russian) land and there was no way to subdue Her. The khan ordered retreat then. The divine intervention of the Theotokos against the seemingly unstoppable foe decided the bloodless Russian victory. This miraculous deliverance from the imminent threat on September 8th, 1395, celebrated by the Russian Orthodox Church ever since, glorifies the wonderworking Vladimir Icon of the Mother of God!
Standing on the Ugra
Another grave threat loomed over Moscow in 1480. Khan Akhmat of the Golden Horde led his armies into Russia. Russian and Tatar forces met on the Ugra River. The Tartars did not advance, waiting for the river to freeze over. Suddenly Prince John commanded his army to retreat. The enemy believed the Russians were luring them into an ambush, so they fled as well. Moscow was spared destruction by God’s Providence. Since that time the “Standing on the Ugra” has been commemorated on 6 July (23 June Old Style) as a feast and symbol of our trust in the intercession of the Mother of God.
Deliverance of Moscow from the Crimean Khan Mehmed I Giray in 1521
Finally, the third feast falls on 3 June (21 May). On that day in 1521, Khan Makhmet-Girei led a march on Moscow. According to tradition, a nun had a vision of Moscow’s sainted hierarchs leaving the city with the Vladimir icon. The Venerable Sergius of Radonezh and Varlaam of Khutyn met them at the gate to ask them to forgive the people and not leave the city. The saints prayed together and returned. Blessed Basil also had a similar vision, declaring that God’s Mother would eventually spare Moscow from destruction.
The revolutionary years were not the only time the icon came under attack. During the Napoleonic war, Her sacred image travelled across Russia and avoided sacrilege and desecration at the hands of the unbelievers. It was not returned to the Dormition Church until after the Russian victory. A copy of the Vladimir icon stands in honour In the Church of Christ the Saviour, built in 1883 in celebration of the victory over the French Interestingly, the Battle of Borodino, one of the most decisive events in that war, occurred on 26 August, the feast day of the Vladimir icon.
The video of the play on the life of Blessed Anna accurately portrays Napoleon Bonaparte as a type of Antichrist who sought to subject the Pope and the Bishops to himself and to become the Master of the world. It also accurately shows how Tsar Alexander I was the only Christian monarch who was able to stand up to Napoleon and to frustrate his plans to create a godless empire under his absolute rule.
“An Era of Peace Will Be Granted to the World”
Recently, some traditional Catholics have argued that the Consecration of Russia requested by Our Lady of Fatima has already taken place and that the Era of Peace has already occurred. We can be sure that the Fatima Consecration has not taken place according to Our Lady’s request, because no Pope has ordered all of the Bishops to join him in consecrating Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary at the same time. We also know from Holy Scripture, that “God does nothing without telling His servants the prophets,” and a careful study of private revelations approved by the Church during the last few centuries confirms that the Era of Peace has definitely not taken place but that it will most likely occur in the near future. When the Mother of God speaks of “An Era of Peace” that will be granted “to the world,” we can be quite certain that She does not mean a mere cessation of armed conflict. In God’s lexicon, “peace” means the “tranquility of order” and it follows that an Era of Peace can only refer to the social reign of Christ Our King throughout the world.
Blessed Anne Maria Taigi foretold a time of terrible tribulation when the enemies of the Church would appear to triumph. At this time:
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 will 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 principally but not exclusively, the enemies of religion . . . Only blessed candles can be lighted and will afford illumination . . . 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 a few, whom God will soon after convert. The air will be infected by demons who will appear under all sorts of hideous forms.
This apparent defeat of the Church will be immediately followed by a great reversal when the Triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary will take place:
After the three days of darkness, St. Peter and St. Paul, having come down from heaven, will preach in the whole world and designate a new Pope. A great light will flash from their bodies and will settle upon the cardinal, the future Pontiff. Then Christianity will spread throughout the world. He is the Holy Pontiff, chosen by God to withstand the storm. At the end he will have the gift of miracles, and his name shall be praised over the whole earth. . . . Whole nations will come back to the Church, and the face of the earth will be renewed. Russia, England, and China will come into the Church.
Blessed Mary of Jesus Crucified, a Carmelite from Galilee famous for her holiness, her levitations and for the beautiful mystical poetry that she wrote in ecstasy, also predicted that God would cleanse the earth of evil during three days and nights of darkness:
During a darkness lasting three days the people given to evil will perish so that only one fourth of mankind will survive.
St. Caspar del Bufalo, founder of the Missionaries of the Precious Blood, also foretold these three days and nights of perpetual darkness.
The death of the impenitent persecutors of the Church will take place during three days of darkness. He who outlives the darkness and the fear of these three days will think that he is alone on the earth because the whole world will be covered with cadavers.
Venerable Elizabeth Cani-Mora (1774-1825) who freed Count John Maria de Mastai Ferreti (the future Blessed Pope Pius IX) from epilepsy which had prevented him from becoming a priest, not only predicted the three days of darkness but also the special role of St. Peter in choosing a new Pope to lead the Church into a new era.
As soon as St. Peter, the prince of the Apostles, had gathered the flock of Jesus Christ in a place of safety, he re-ascended into heaven, accompanied by legions of angels. Scarcely had they disappeared, when the sky was covered with clouds so dense and dismal that it was impossible to look at them without dismay. On a sudden there burst out such a terrible and violent wind, that its noise sounded like the roars of furious lions. The sound of the furious hurricane was heard over the whole earth. Fear and terror struck not only men, but the very beasts.
During the twentieth century, Sister Elena Aiello, foundress of the Calabrian nuns, also saw visions of the three days of darkness and the chastisement of the Church’s enemies:
Clouds with lightning rays of fire and a tempest of fire will pass over the whole world and the punishment will be the most terrible ever known in the history of mankind. It will last 70 hours [three days]. The wicked will be crushed and eliminated. Many will be lost because they will have stubbornly remained in their sins. Then they will feel the force of light over darkness.
An Era of Holiness and Peace
According to numerous saints, the new era that will begin after the three days and nights of darkness will be an era of holiness and peace during which God will renew the face of the earth. Venerable Maria of Agreda, the seventeenth century nun who bilocated to the New World from her convent in Spain to evangelize the Indians, foresaw this era.
It was revealed to me that through the intercession of the Mother of God all heresies will disappear. The victory over heresies has been reserved by Christ for his Blessed Mother… The power of Mary in the latter days will be very conspicuous. Mary will extend the reign of Christ over the heathens and the Mohammedans, and it will be a time of great joy when Mary is enthroned as Mistress and Queen of hearts.
According to many holy men and women whose writings have been approved by the Church, the era of peace will be characterized by a new flowering of holiness which in turn will flow from a new and deeper identification with the interior life of Jesus. The great champion of devotion to the Sacred Heart in Spain, Fr. Hoyos
saw in spirit those happy times when all prophecies would be fulfilled and all nations would serve God. On another occasion he was given to understand how, by means of the new devotions which are ever springing forth in the Church, the Savior discloses to us new treasures of His goodness and new perfections which we should copy in ourselves in order to become more like Him and to arrive at a perfection similar to that of the blessed. So He states that our Lord manifested to him the glory that those souls would have through knowing and loving the affections and movements of His sacred heart which He manifests to the Church so that the faithful may fashion their hearts in the likeness of His. Thus many souls will learn from this divine heart a perfection which is much higher in love and suffering . . . (emphasis added).
St. Maximilian Kolbe, the Franciscan founder of the worldwide Marian movement, Militia Immaculatae, also foretold an era of peace and the conversion of Russia after a time of bloody persecution.
The image of the Immaculate will one day replace the large red star over the Kremlin, but only after a great and bloody trial . . . In every country there must arise Cities of Mary Immaculate . . . you will soon see tears flowing from the eyes of the most hardened sinners; prisons will be emptied; honest workers will unite; families will overflow with virtue, peace, and happiness; all discord will be banished, for it [will then be] the new era.
Conclusion
It bears pointing out that few, if any, of the prophecies recounted in the main body of this newsletter are unconditional. For example, it is conceivable that the era of peace could take place without a direct divine chastisement if enough souls obeyed the message of Fatima. The interplay of times, places, and persons foretold in these prophecies could also be fulfilled in various ways, depending on the free response of present and future men and women to the promptings of the Holy Spirit. What is quite certain is that God will soon put an end to this present darkness, with chastisements more or less severe depending upon our response to His Divine Mercy.
Through the prayers of the Mother of God, may the Holy Ghost guide us all into all the Truth!
Yours in Christ through the Immaculata in union with St. Joseph,
Hugh Owen
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P.P.S. Several members of our leadership team have started a new Telegram channel called “Created for God,” where we will have weekly LIVE-stream Kolbe Center presentations, interviews and discussions of various creation-related topics as well as Q&A sessions. You will need to download the Telegram app on your smart-phone and you may also add Telegram on your desktop. Please join the channel! Our first guest speaker will be Mr. John Wynne on Thursday, December 4. Our English group meets EVERY Thursday night at 8pm Eastern time: “Created for God” Link: https://t.me/KolbeCenter. Our Spanish group meets every Tuesday Night at 8PM Eastern Time: “Creados Para Dios” Link: https://t.me/CreadosParaDios. To download the Telegram app go to: https://telegram.org/ (also available on Google Play).
