The Prophecy of Orval

In 1840 the French magazine L'Oracle published a story told by the baron of Manonville in his diary. During the Revolution, in May 1793, he and some other royalists were in the abbey of Orval, that belonged to the Austrian Netherlands and was situated on the border with France. There was a war between Austria and France, and the republican troops of general Loison had sacked the abbey, but where chased by the Austrian army.

An old monk showed the baron a booklet, written in 16th century French, which for centuries had gathered dust in the archives of the abbey. The booklet was titled "Sure Prophecies revealed by the Lord to a Solitary for the Consolation of God's children" and was printed in 1544, in Luxembourg. The baron of Manonville copied the prophecies in his diary, because they seemed to predict a restoration of the monarchy in France...

From the book "The Christian Trumpet" by Gaudentius Rossi, published in 1875 - Part 1:

I. At a certain time a young man, coming from over, the sea to the country of Celtic-Gaul (France), will make himself remarkable by his power and counsel (sagacity ?).[N. B. Napoleon Bonaparte I; from the island of Corsica, went to France.]But the great ones, beginning to fear him, will send him to fight in the land of captivity. (Egypt, in the prophetic style of the Bible, is called the land of captivity.)

II. Victory shall bring him back to the first country (France). The Sons of Brutus will be very much stupefied at his return, for he will domineer over them, and assume the name of Emperor. [N. B. In this, as well as several other modern prophecies, the Red Republicans, or rather secret societies and conspirators, are decorated with the ignoble title of Sons of Brutus. Pagan Roman history can supply the reason for this title. This word Brutus can also. Those who desire the best explanation, in the words of our divine Redeemer, may read it in the Gospel - John 8:44.]

III. Many high and powerful kings shall conceive much fear because of the Eagle, which shall seize many sceptres and crowns. Infantry and cavalry Eagles and blood shall with him fly like midges in the air. All Europe is greatly terrified at the shedding of blood, for he shall be so powerful as to induce the belief that God is fighting with him. [Napoleon, like Attila, was God's scourge in Europe; he took the Eagle for his war standard.]

IV. God's Church is somewhat consoled in beholding again her temples opened to her own sheep entirely dispersed; and God is praised. [During the first French Revolution by the Red Republicans, Christianity was officially and totally abolished in France. Bishops, priests, religious, pious lay Catholics, were martyred. Napoleon I abolished this impious law, and restored our holy religion in France. But his motive was more political than religious. The good attempted by bad men is always imperfect, and of a short duration. We are going to witness this fact.]

V. But it is finished.; the moons are passed. The old man of Zion (Pope Pius VII) cries to God from his heart very much oppressed by burning grief. [This holy Pope was confined in prison, and much harassed by order of Napoleon. Temporary success always makes bad men proud, arrogant, and tyrannical. But when they dare persecute the Church of Christ, and his holy Vicar upon earth, their punishment and humiliation is inevitable. Our Holy Father, Pius IX, is at the present kept prisoner in his own capital, and oppressed with burning grief by an apostate and impious government. He and the whole Catholic Church is crying to God. We are certain of final victory.]

VI. Behold the powerful man (Napoleon) blinded by gin and crimes. He leaves the grand city (Paris) with Buch a splendid army that the like nobody ever saw. But no military man is able to resist the face of the weather. Behold a third part of his army, and again a third part, perish (in Russia) through the cold of the Almighty Lord. [God is always at every time and in every country the Lord of hosts. "And now, O ye kings, understand: receive instruction, you that judge the earth. Serve ye the Lord with fear. Embrace discipline, lest at any time the Lord be angry, and you perish from the just way, when his wrath shall be kindled in a short time. Blessed are they that trust in him." Psalm 2.]

VII. But now ten years are passed after the era of desolation, as I have said in its place. (See No. V.) Widows and orphans have raised vehement lamentations. Lo! God is no longer inexorable. [Observe the efficacy of the fervent prayer of afflicted souls in moving God to mercy. He uses what instruments he likes for the welfare of his people. On this occasion, to restore peace to his Church, the Lord of hosts employed the power of three schismatical and heretical nations, - Russia, Prussia, and England.]

VIII. The depressed potentates recover their strength, and form an alliance for the overthrow of the man so much feared. Coming with them, behold the old blood of former ages (the Bourbons), which recovers its dignity and place in the great city (Paris), whilst the above-mentioned man, deeply humbled, goes to a place on the same sea whence he came. [The small island of Elba, to which Napoleon I was exiled, in April, 1814, is not far from Corsica, his native island.]

IX. God alone is great. The eleventh moon is not yet risen, and the bloody scourge of the Lord chastises again the great city, and the old blood flies away from Paris. [Napoleon, after ten months of exile, broke his parole, returned again to France, where he remained during the one hundred famous days, was again defeated at the battle of Waterloo, sent to St. Helena, where he died in 1821.]

X. God alone is great. He loves his people, and abominates blood. The fifth moon shone upon many soldiers from the East. France is covered with military men and war machinery. It is all over with the man of the sea. Behold, the old Capetian blood returned once more.

XI. God wills peace. May His holy Name be blessed. Now a great and prosperous peace will flourish in France. The white flower is held in great honor. Many sacred canticles are sung in the house of God In the mean while the Sons of Brutus look with rage at the white flower. They obtain an important decree. [N. B. The white lily is the emblem of the old royal house of Bourbons. Their flag is also white. The lily is the emblem of purity; the white flag that of peace and honesty. No wonder, then, that the impious Sons of Brutus, or rather of Belial, like their father, hate the very sight of such emblems, as the Devil hates the sight of the cross. Look, if you can penetrate into their secret conventicles; they are busy at their old work; they are conspiring in the great Babylon; they obtain a decree against the Jesuits and other religious teaching communities in France. This is always and everywhere the first attempt of that anti-christian sect.]

XII. For this cause God is again grievously offended, because he loves his elect (religious), and because the sacred days (Sundays and holy days) are profaned. God will try, during eighteen times twelve moons, their return to Him. [Some explain that God will await the return of the French to faith and piety during the period from the first exile of Napoleon to 1830, which not being obtained, then the punishment follows.]

XIII. God alone is great. He purifies his people through various tribulations, but always to the detriment of the wicked; therefore, through the instrumentality of a numerous and accursed sect, which walks in the dark (secret societies), a terrible conspiracy is formed against the white flower, and the poor old blood of the Capet (Bourbons, Charles X) has to fly from the great city (Paris), for which the Sons of Brutus are very much rejoiced. [Who can be so willfully blind as not to see in these prophetic words the spirit, character, and aim of secret European societies? During the last one hundred years they have been the forges of all revolutions and persecutions against the Catholic religion.]

XIV. Listen how the servants of the Lord very strongly cry to the Most High God, and He does not hear on account of the noise of his arrows, which he tempers in the fires of his wrath to transfix the heart of the impious. [Reflect, here, why sometimes the fervent prayers of the just are not immediately granted by God: it is for the greater punishment of their enemies; for, according to St. Augustine, God delays to hear our petitions, in order to grant them to our best advantage.]

XV. Woes to France! The Gaul [Gallican?] will erase the white flower, and a great one will be saluted King of the People. A strong commotion shall be experienced among nations, because the crown will be imposed by those artisans who fought in the vast city. [Louis Philippe was not, like the old Bourbon, King of France, but King of the French. He was crowned by the victorious mob of Paris: hence he was styled the citizen-king, - better, perhaps, the King of Democracy.]

From the book "The Christian Trumpet" by Gaudentius Rossi, published in 1875 - Part 2:

XVI. God alone is great. The power of the impious shall sensibly increase; but let them make haste! [our Divine Lord used a like expression with Judas,] for behold the opinions of the Gauls [Gallicans ?] come in collision, and there is great dissension in their councils. The King of the People, who at first was considered very weak, yet will go against many of the wicked. But he was not well established [in faith and religion; he was a high Freemason] ; lo! God casts him down. * [At the bloody revolution in Paris, July, 1830, when Charles X. was dethroned, Louis Philippe, Duke of Orleans, his cousin, was elected King of the French. But history shows that only a truly Christian Catholic monarch can reign long and prosperously in France. Louis Philippe was not a good Catholic king, much less a Most Christian King, as all monarchs of France were styled: hence, in his turn, he was expelled in February, 1848, when a French Republic was again proclaimed. But France can never be long a Republic. For France, a Republic, is inevitable civil war. Only a solidly

established kingdom or empire can procure peace and happiness to France; for such monarchy the foundation must be laid in the heart of the French nation, and this must rest on St. Peter's Rock! As only a true Pope can be the real Bishop and legitimate King of Rome, so only a monarch, indeed most Christian, can be able to govern France well. Such is the decree of Heaven. The second part of this prophecy, as well as several other prophetical predictions, have proclaimed it. Do you, reader, cry, Superstition? Is it superstition to believe that Jesus Christ, very God and man, is the King of kings and Lord of lords of " Every creature in heaven and on the earth and in the sea, I heard all saying, To him who sitteth on the throne, and to the Lamb, benediction and honor and glory and power for ever and ever" (Apocalypse 5:13). This evidently embraces more than France and Europe. I believe it embraces the whole universe ; therefore this earth, and every human government. But the history of at least fifteen hundred years sufficiently shows that only a monarch indeed most Christian can govern France well. In the year 505, the apostle of France, St. Remigius, wrote to his great spiritual son, Clovis, the first Christian king of Catholic France, offering, for his acceptance, the best charter for the successful government of the French people: " Choose wise councillors, who will be an honor to your reign. Respect the clergy. Be the father and protector of your people. If you do this, you will draw down upon yourself the divine blessings." Does not this also imply that these promised divine blessings will be withheld from every ruler in France who does not live and act as a most Christian monarch ? The evidence of the past is the best guaranty for the future.]

XVII. Howl, ye Sons of Brutus. Call upon you the wild beasts, which are ready to devour you. God alone is great! What booming of arms! There is not yet a full number of moons, and, behold, many warriors are coming. [We are arrived at the threshold of the future. No wonder, then, if this portion of the Predictions of D'Orval appears more mysterious and obscure than the former, which had for us relation to the past. Let the past, then, be our light and guide to the dark future. For the present, those who desire to understand the highly important meaning of the above prophetic words should never forget what is signified by Sons of Brutus. Let us hold this fact of secret history as certain, that, during the last one hundred years, the principal revolutions, at least in Catholic countries, and consequent persecutions of the best classes of Catholics and religious, have been precipitated upon society by the worthy Sons of Brutus. This has been the fact in France, Spain, Portugal, and in all their dependencies; in Italy, Hungary, Austria, Bavaria, and other parts of Germany. By the same class of men the attempt has lately been made in Ireland. It will soon be more successful in England. Simple-minded Christians may not believe this truth, secret accomplices in these intrigues may affect to deny this assertion, or pretend to sneer at this statement. But others, more sincere, have acknowledged the fact. Let American Catholics be upon their guard; the storm so long brewing in the East (Orient) is fast spreading to the far West. Is it very improbable that the secret wire-pullers may soon use it as a political machine? Watch, and you will discover more than one ominous sign! What is the object and intention of the so-called Grand Army of the Republic? It forebodes no good for Catholics. We may fear, but we shall not despond. Read again the prophecy No. XIII. Reflect on these words: " He (God) purifies his people through various tribulations, but always to the detriment of the wicked." Here again the prophet says: " Howl, ye Sons of Brutus " (to express their distress and rage). "Call upon you the wild beasts, which are ready to devour you." Men not guided by superior lights of faith and reason, but impelled by passion, always act with precipitation; this very precipitation forms the pit, which, under the wise and just, but mysterious design of Divine Providence, they dig for their own fall and destruction. "There is not yet a full number of moons." In his long-suffering patience, God would have allowed some years longer tranquillity and peace to France and Europe; but the violent passions and impatient eagerness of the Sons of Brutus precipitate the calamity. But lo! they suffer a crushing defeat where they expected certain victory; they bring upon themselves the wild beasts, prepared and ready to devour them. What these wild beasts are, we may learn from the epithets used by the defeated Sons of Brutus against the German armies and their leaders in France. The Sons of Brutus fight against, but are defeated by, their brothers! God punishes his people through various tribulations; but always to the detriment of his wicked enemies.]

XVIII. It is finished. The mountain of God, desolated (the Church), has cried to God, the children of Juda have invoked God from a strange land, and, behold, God is no longer deaf. [N. B. By these children of Juda, in the prophetic style, we should understand the priests and faithful Catholics, who shall be soon exiled, or who will emigrate through the impending civil war, and religious persecution by the Sons of Brutus in France. We may also understand the old royal Bourbon family so long exiled from their country, and that will in a few years be restored to the throne of St. Louis.]

XIX. What flre goes together with his (God's) arrows! Ten times six moons, and again six times ten moons have nourished his wrath (about eleven years). Woes to thee, populous city (Paris)! Behold kings armed by the Lord! . . . . But fire hath already burned thee to the ground. Thy just ones, however, shall not perish; God has heard them; the place of wickedness is purged by fire; the ample river (Seine) has carried to the sea its waters all red with blood.

XX. France (continues the Prophecy D'Orval), France, that appeared dilacerated, is on the point of being reunited. God loves peace. Come, young Prince, leave the Island of Captivity. Join the lion to the white flower. Come. God wills what has been foreseen. The ancient blood of centuries will also put an end to long divisions. Then shall be seen in France one shepherd only. [N. B. More than twenty different prophecies in this book distinctly predict the appearance in France of a young Prince, a lineal descendant of the old Capetian blood. Who this young Prince can be it is difficult to tell. It is one of those mysteries with which the wisdom of God likes to baffle the calculations and designs of men. He is invited by the prophet D'Orval to leave the Island of Captivity. What is meant by this island we cannot explain. In relation to Napoleon I, by this expression the same prophet indicated Egypt. In this particular case it may be Egypt, or it may be England.]

XXI. The powerful man, assisted by God, will establish himself well. Many wise laws shall restore peace. This scion of Capet will be so prudent and wise that all men will believe God to be with him. Thanks to the Father of mercies, the Holy Sion (Holy Catholic Church) sings again in the temples, One only God. Many poor wandering sheep (Protestants) shall come to drink of the living spring of truth and grace. Three princes and kings shall throw off the garb of error, and will see clearly the faith of God. At this time two thirds of a great nation of the sea (England) shall reassume the true faith. [Several other prophecies foretell these consoling future events even in more clear expressions. In fact, they announce the general conversion of mankind to Catholic Christianity before the end of twenty years from this date, through the zeal of the future Angelic Pope (Papa Angelicus), with the energetic co-operation of the future Monarch of France and the new religious Order so distinctly foretold by St. Francis de Paula, and by other saints and servants of God. I do not expect that all those who read these announcements will believe them. For my part, I like to say with holy Job: I know that my Redeemer liveth This my hope is laid up in my bosom. (Job 19:25.)]

From the book "The Christian Trumpet" by Gaudentius Rossi, published in 1875 - Part 3:

XXII. God is again praised during fourteen times ten moons, and six times thirteen moons. God is the only Master of Mercies, and for this He will, moreover, for the sake of his elect, prolong the peace during ten other times twelve moons. [All this gives about forty years. However, this last sentence indicates that, during the period of peace and prosperity, many Christians will begin to grow cold; hence the Lord of Mercy has to exercise this divine attribute for the sake of his elect.]

XXIII. God alone is great. Much good has been accomplished. The saints are about to suffer. The man of sin arrives. He (Antichrist) is born from two bloods. The white flower becomes obscured during ten times six moons, and six times twenty moons (one hundred and eighty months), and it disappears, nevermore to be seen. In that time much evil will be done; little good. Many flourishing cities shall perish through fire. Israel, with good heart, comes to Christ-God. The accursed sects and the faithful believers shall form two distinct parties.

XXIV. All is over. God alone shall be believed. A third part of the Gauls (France), and again a third part and half, shall have no more faith. The same shall be with other nations. And, behold, already six times three moons, and four times five moons, which are separated, and the age of the end is begun.

XXV. After a number of moons not full (those evil days shall be shortened, as promised by our Divine Saviour, because of the elect. Matthew 24:22) God fights through his two just ones (Henoch and Elias), and the man of sin (Antichrist) will get the upper hand (he will kill them). But all is finished. [The apparent temporary success of the wicked is ever the most certain sign of their impending defeat; and this defeat is always more complete in proportion to their success.]

The high God sets a wall of fire that obscures my understanding. I can see no more. May He be forever praised.

(End of time, and beginning of eternity, in about one hundred years hence.)