Information on Antichrist

What follows is compiled from many sources and reproduced in chronological order.
However, the information from Dom Gueranger is added at the end, because of the numerous
references he makes to Antichrist and his fear that the falling away of II Thessalonians 2:3 is
near.

Marks of Antichrist
1. “Who is a liar, but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is Antichrist, who denies the
Father and the Son.” I John 18:22
2. II Thessalonians 2:4: “Who opposeth and is lifted up above all that is called God or that is
worshipped, so that he sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself as if he were God.”
3. II Thessalonians 2:9-10” “him whose coming is according to the working of Satan, in all
power, and signs, and lying wonders: and in all seduction of iniquity to them that perish:
because they receive not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.”
4. Apocalypse 13:5-6: “And who shall be able to fight him? And there was given to him a
mouth speaking great things and blasphemies: and power was given to him to do, two and
forty months. And he opened his mouth unto blasphemies against God, to blaspheme His
Name and His Tabernacle and them that dwell in heaven.”
5. Apocalypse 13:7: “And it was given unto him to make way with the saints and to overcome
them.”
6. Apocalypse 13:7 “And power was given to him over every tribe and people and tongue and
nation.”
7. Daniel 7:21: “I beheld, and lo, that horn made war against the saints and prevailed over them.
... And he will speak words against the High One and shall crush the saints of the most
High.”
8. Daniel 7:25: :And he shall think himself able to change times and laws: and they shall be
delivered into his hands until a time and times and half a time.”
9. Daniel 8:11-12: “And it was magnified even to the prince of strength: and it took away from
him the continual sacrifice and cast down the place of his sanctuary. And strength was given
him against he continual sacrifice because of sins: and truth shall be cast down on the
ground, and he shall do and shall prosper.”
10. Daniel 11:30-31,36: “And the galley and the Romans shall come upon him: and he shall be
struck and shall return and shall have indignation against the covenant of the sanctuary. And
he shall succeed: and he shall return and shell devise against them that have forsaken the
covenant of the sanctuary. And arms shall stand on his part and they shall defile the
sanctuary of strength and shall take away the continual sacrifice: and they shall place there
the abomination of desolation. ... And the king shall do according to his will, and he shall be
lifted up and shall magnify himself against every god: and he shall speak great things against
the God of gods and shall prosper till the wrath be accomplished. For the determination is
made.”
11. “And here is wisdom. He that hath understanding, let him count he number of the beast. For
it is the number of a man: and the number of him is six hundred sixty-six.” Apocalyse 13:18

1
12. John 17:12: “While I was with them, I kept them in thy name. Those whom thou gavest me
have I kept: and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition: that the scripture may be
fulfilled.”
13. John 5:43: “I am come in the name of my Father, and you receive me not: if another shall
come in his own name, him you will receive.”

Saint Hilary On Antichrist

The time for speaking is come, the time for silence is past. Let Christ now appear, for
Antichrist has begun his reign. Let the Shepherds give the alarm, for the hirelings have fled. Let
us lay down our lives for our sheep, for thieves have got into the fold, and a furious lion is
prowling around it. Let us prepare for martyrdom. . ., for the angel of satan hath transformed
himself into an angel of light.
‘Why, O my God, didst thou not permit me to confess thy holy Name, and be the minister
of Thine Only Begotten Son, in the times of Nero or Decius? Full of the fire of the Holy Ghost, I
would not have feared the rack, for I would have thought of Isaias, how he was sawn in two. I
would not have feared fire, for I would have said to myself that the Hebrew Children sang in
their fiery furnace. The cross and the breaking of every bone of my body should not have made
me a coward, for the good thief would have encouraged me, who was translated into thy
kingdom. If they had threatened to drown me in the angry billows of the deep ocean, I would
have laughed at their threats, for thou hast taught us, by the example of Jonas and Paul, that thou
canst give life to thy servants even in the sea.
‘Happy I, could I thus have fought with men who professed themselves to be the enemies
of thy name; every one would have said that they who had recourse to tortures, and sword, and
fire, to compel a Christian to deny thee, were persecutors; and my death would have been
sufficient testimony to thy truth, O God! The battle would have been an open one, and no one
would have hesitated to call by the honest name these men that denied thee, and racked and
murdered us; and thy people, seeing that it was an evident persecution, would have followed
their Pastors in the confession of their faith.
‘But nowadays, we have to do with a disguised persecutor, a smooth-tongued enemy, a
Constantius who has put on Antichrist; who scourges us, not with lashes, but with caresses who
instead of robbing us, which would give us spiritual life, bribes us with riches, that he may lead
us to eternal death; who thrusts us not into the liberty of a prison, but into the honours of his
palace, that he may enslave us: who tears not our flesh, but our hearts; who beheads not with a
sword, but kills the soul with his gold; who sentences not by a herald that we are to be burnt, but
covertly enkindles the fire of hell against us. He does not dispute with us, that he may conquer;
but he flatters us, that so he may lord it over our souls. He confesses Christ, the better to deny
Him; he tries to procure a unity which shall destroy peace; he puts down some few heretics, so
that he may also crush the Christians; he honours Bishops, that they may cease to be Bishops; he
builds up Churches, that he may pull down the Faith.
‘Let men talk as they will, and accuse me of strong language, and calumny: it is. the duty
of a minister of the truth to speak the truth. If what I say be untrue, let me be branded with the
name of an infamous calumniator: but if I prove what I assert, then I am not exceeding the
bounds of apostolic liberty, nor transgressing the humility of a successor of the Apostles by
speaking thus, after so long observing silence. . . No, this is not rashness, it is faith; it is not
inconsiderateness, it is duty; it is not passion, it is conscience.

2
 ‘I say to thee, Constantius, what I would have said to Nero, or Decius, or Maximian: You
are fighting against God, you are raging against the Church, you are persecuting the saints, you
are hating the preachers of Christ, you are destroying religion, you are a tyrant, not in human
things, but in things that appertain to God. Yes, this is what I should say to thee as well as to
them; but listen, now, to what can only be said to thyself: Thou falsely callest thyself a Christian,
for thou art a new enemy of Christ; thou art a precursor of Antichrist, and a doer of his mystery
of iniquity; thou, that art a rebel to the faith, art making formulas of faith; thou art intruding thine
own creatures into the sees of the Bishops; thou art putting out the good and putting in the bad.. ..
By a strange ingenious plan, which no one had ever yet discovered, thou hast found a way to
persecute, without making Martyrs.
‘We owe much to you, Nero, Decius, and Maximian! your cruelty did us service. We
conquered the devil by your persecutions. The blood of the holy Martyrs you made has been
treasured up throughout the world, and their venerable relics are ever strengthening us in faith by
their mute unceasing testimony. . . . But thou, Constantius, cruel with thy refinement of cruelty,
art an enemy that ragest against us, doing us more injury, and leaving us less hope of pardon....
Thou deprivest the fallen of the excuse they might have had with their Eternal Judge, when they
showed him the scars and wounds they had endured for him, for perhaps their tortures might
induce him to forgive their weakness. Whereas thou, most wicked of men! thou hast invented a
persecution which, if we fall, robs us of pardon, and, if we triumph, does not make us Martyrs!
We see thee, ravenous wolf, under thy sheep's clothing. Thou adornest the sanctuaries of
God’s temples with the gold of the State, and thou offerest to him what is taken from the
temples, or taxed by edict, or extorted by penalty. Thou receivest his Priests with a kiss like that
which betrayed Christ. Thou bowest down thy head for a blessing, and then thou tramplest on
our Faith. Thou dispensest the clergy from paying tributes and taxes to Caesar, that thou mayest
bribe them to be renegades to Christ, foregoing thy own rights, that God may be deprived of his!’
ST HILARY

Saint Thomas Aquinas

I Q113 A4 Objection 3: Further, angels are appointed to the guardianship of men, that
they may take them by the hand and guide them to eternal life, encourage them to good works,
and protect them against the assaults of the demons. But men who are foreknown to damnation,
never attain to eternal life. Infidels, also, though at times they perform good works, do not
perform them well, for they have not a right intention: for "faith directs the intention" as
Augustine says (Enarr. ii in Ps. 31). Moreover, the coming of Antichrist will be "according to the
working of Satan," as it is written (2 Thess. 2:9). Therefore angels are not deputed to the
guardianship of all men. Reply to Objection 3: Just as the foreknown, the infidels, and even
Anti-christ, are not deprived of the interior help of natural reason; so neither are they deprived of
that exterior help granted by God to the whole human race---namely the guardianship of the
angels. And although the help which they receive therefrom does not result in their deserving
eternal life by good works, it does nevertheless conduce to their being protected from certain
evils which would hurt both themselves and others. For even the demons are held off by the good
angels, lest they hurt as much as they would. In like manner Antichrist will not do as much harm
as he would wish.
II-II q178 a1 Reply to Objection 2: Our Lord is speaking there of the miracles to be
wrought at the time of Antichrist, of which the Apostle says (2 Thess. 2:9) that the coming of

3
Antichrist will be "according to the working of Satan, in all power, and signs, and lying
wonders." To quote the words of Augustine (De Civ. Dei xx, 19), "it is a matter of debate
whether they are called signs and lying wonders, because he will deceive the senses of mortals
by imaginary visions, in that he will seem to do what he does not, or because, though they be real
wonders, they will seduce into falsehood them that believe." They are said to be real, because the
things themselves will be real, just as Pharaoh's magicians made real frogs and real serpents; but
they will not be real miracles, because they will be done by the power of natural causes, as stated
in the FP, Question [114], Article [4]; whereas the working of miracles which is ascribed to a
gratuitous grace, is done by God's power for man's profit.

III Q49 A2: Objection 3: Further, the might of Christ's Passion endures for ever, as,
according to Heb. 10:14: "By one oblation He hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified."
But deliverance rom the devil's power is not found everywhere, since there are still idolaters in
many regions of the world; nor will it endure for ever, because in the time of Antichrist he will
be especially active in using his power to the hurt of men; because it is said of him (2 Thess.
2:9): "Whose coming is according to the working of Satan, in all power, and signs, and lying
wonders, and in all seduction of iniquity." Consequently it seems that Christ's Passion is not the
cause of the human race being delivered from the power of the devil. Reply to Objection 3:
God permits the devil to deceive men by certain persons, and in times and places, according to
the hidden motive of His judgments; still, there is always a remedy provided through Christ's
Passion, for defending themselves against the wicked snares of the demons, even in Antichrist's
time. But if any man neglect to make use of this remedy, it detracts nothing from the efficacy of
Christ's Passion.

III Q8 A8 Objection 1: It would seem that Antichrist is not the head of the wicked. For
there are not several heads of one body. But the devil is the head of the multitude of the wicked.
Therefore Anti-christ is not their head.
Objection 2: Further, Anti-christ is a member of the devil. Now the head is distinguished
from the members. Therefore Anti-christ is not the head of the wicked.
Objection 3: Further, the head has an influence over the members. But Anti-christ has no
influence over the wicked who have preceded him. Therefore Anti-christ is not the head of the
wicked.
On the contrary, A gloss [*St. Gregory, Moral. xv] on Job 21:29, "Ask any of them that
go by the way," says: "Whilst he was speaking of the body of all the wicked, suddenly he turned
h i s s p e e c h t o A n t i -c h r i s t t h e h e a d o f a l l e v i l -doers."

I answer that, As was said above (Article [1]), in the head are found three things: order,
perfection, and the power of influencing. But as regards the order of the body, Anti-christ is not
said to be the head of the wicked as if his sin had preceded, as the sin of the devil preceded. So
likewise he is not called the head of the wicked from the power of influencing, although he will
pervert some in his day by exterior persuasion; nevertheless those who were before him were not
beguiled into wickedness by him nor have imitated his wickedness. Hence he cannot be called
the head of all the wicked in this way, but of some. Therefore it remains to be said that he is the
head of all the wicked by reason of the perfection of his wickedness. Hence, on 2 Thess. 2:4,
"Showing himself as if he were God," a gloss says: "As in Christ dwelt the fulness of the
Godhead, so in Anti-christ the fulness of all wickedness." Not indeed as if his humanity were

4
assumed by the devil into unity of person, as the humanity of Christ by the Son of God; but that
the devil by suggestion infuses his wickedness more copiously into him than into all others. And
in this way all the wicked who have gone before are signs of Anti-christ, according to 2 Thess.
2:7, "For the mystery of iniquity already worketh."
Reply to Objection 1: The devil and Anti-christ are not two heads, but one; since Anti-
christ is called the head, inasmuch as the wickedness of the devil is most fully impressed on him.
Hence, on 2 Thess. 2:4, "Showing himself as if he were God," a gloss says: "The head of all the
wicked, namely the devil, who is king over all the children of pride will be in him." Now he is
said to be in him not by personal union, nor by indwelling, since "the Trinity alone dwells in the
mind" (as is said De Eccles. Dogm. lxxxiii), but by the effect of wickedness.
Reply to Objection 2: As the head of Christ is God, and yet He is the Head of the Church,
as was said above (Article [1], ad 2), so likewise Anti-christ is a member of the devil and yet is
head of the wicked.
Reply to Objection 3: Anti-christ is said to be the head of all the wicked not by a likeness
of influence, but by a likeness of perfection. For in him the devil, as it were, brings his
wickedness to a head, in the same way that anyone is said to bring his purpose to a head when he
executes it.

Shorter Quotes
Saint John Eudes discussing the Spirit of Martyrdom in Kindgom of Jesus in Christian
Souls: “This is the spirit of martyrdom. Implore, O Lord, who is the King of Martyrs, to fill you
with this spirit. Pray to the Queen of martyrs, and all the martyrs, too, that they may obtain this
spirit for you from the Son of God, by their holy prayers. Cultivate a particular devotion to the
saintly martyrs. Make a point, also, of praying for all those who will have to suffer martyrdom,
in order that God may grant them the spirit and grace of martyrdom. Pray especially for those
who will have to suffer the persecution of antichrist at the end of the world, for it will be the
most cruel and horrible of all persecutions.”
Saint John Eudes speaks about Antichrist on several occasions. “Pray especially for
those who will have to suffer the persecution of antichrist at the end of the world, for it will be
the most cruel and horrible of all persecutions.” He tells us. But he gives us hope: “All the holy
Fathers agree that after the death of antichrist the whole world will be converted,” (Saint John
Eudes, page 319, ‘The Admirable Heart of Mary’)

Saint Louis de Montfort, ‘True Devotion to Mary’ (died 1716): “And, lastly, Mary must
be terrible to the devil and his crew, as an army arranged in battle, principally in these latter
times, because the devil, knowing that he has but little time, and now less than every, to destroy
souls, will every day redouble his efforts and his combats. He will presently raise up new
persecutions, and will put terrible snares before the faithful servants and true children of Mary,
whom it gives him more trouble to surmount than it does to conquer others.
“It is primarily these last and cruel persecutions of the devil, which shall go on increasing
daily until the reign of Antichrist, that we ought to understand that first and celebrated prediction
of God, pronounced in the terrestrial Paradise against the serpent. It is to our purpose to explain
this here, for the glory of the most holy Virgin, for the salvation of her children, and for the
confusion of the devil.”

5
 Saint Francis de Sales, ‘The Catholic Controversy, page 62: “Is it not written that the
revolt and separation must come (II Thessalonians 2:3), and that the sacrifice shall cease (Daniel
12:11), and that the Son of Man shall hardly find faith on earth at His second visible return (Luke
18:8), when He will come to judge? Answer: all these passages are understood of the affliction
which antichrist will cause in the Church, during the three and a half years that he shall reign
mightily; but in spite of this the Church during even these three years shall not fail, and shall be
fed and preserved amid the deserts and solitudes whither is shall retire, as the Scripture says
(Apocalyspe 12)”

‘Dignity and Duties of the Priest’, Saint Alphonsus, pages 211-2: “Hence the devil has
always sought to deprive the world of the Mass by means of heretics, constituting them
precursors of Antichrist, whose first efforts shall be to abolish the holy sacrifice of the altar, and,
according to the prophet Daniel, in punishment of the sins of men, his efforts shall be successful:
“And strength was given him against the continual sacrifice because of sins.” (Daniel 8:12)”
Saint Alphonsus, ‘The Blessed Eucharist’: “It is true that it” (the Sacrifice of the Mass)
“will cease on earth at the time of Antichrist: the Sacrifice of the Mass is to be suspended for
twelve hundred and ninety days, that is, for three years and six months and a half, according to
the prophesy of Daniel: "And from the time when the continual sacrifice shall be taken away,
and the abomination of desolation shall be set up, there shall be a thousand two hundred and
ninety days." (Daniel 12:11)”
Saint Alphonsus ‘The Priest Before the Altar’, compiled by F. Macnamara, C.SS.R.,
1929, pages 10-11: “Hence St. Bonaventure says that in the Mass God manifests to us all the
love that He has borne us, and includes in it, as in a compendium, all His benefits. On this
account the Devil has always endeavored to abolish the Mass throughout the world by means of
heretics, making them the precursors of Antichrist who, before all things, will endeavor to
abolish, and in fact will, in punishment for the sins of men, succeed in abolishing the Holy
Sacrifice of the Altar, according to the prediction of Daniel: “And strength was given him against
the continual sacrifice because of sins.”

Henry Cardinal Manning: “ The holy Fathers who have written upon the subject of
Antichrist, and of these prophecies of Daniel, without a single exception, as far as I know, and
they are the Fathers both of the East and of the West, the Greek and the Latin Church—all of
them unanimously,—say that in the latter end of the world, during the reign of Antichrist, the
holy sacrifice of the altar will cease. In the work on the end of the world, ascribed to St.
Hippolytus, after a long description of the afflictions of the last days, we read as follows: "The
Churches shall lament with a great lamentation, for there shall be offered no more oblation, nor
incense, nor worship acceptable to God. The sacred buildings of the churches shall be as hovels;
and the precious body and blood of Christ shall not be manifest in those days; the Liturgy shall
be extinct; the chanting of psalms shall cease; the reading of Holy Scripture shall be heard no
more. But there shall be upon men darkness, and mourning upon mourning, and woe upon woe."
Then, the Church shall be scattered, driven into the wilderness, and shall be for a time, as it was
in the beginning, invisible, hidden in catacombs, in dens, in mountains, in lurking-places; for a
time it shall be swept, as it were, from the face of the earth- Such is the universal testimony of
the Fathers of the early centuries.”

6
 Saint Pius X in his first Encyclical, ‘E Supremi Apostolatus’, October 4, 1903, stated:
“So extreme is the general perversion that there is room to fear … that the Son of Perdition, of
whom the Apostle speaks, has already arrived on earth.”

Antichrist from Dom Gueranger

Dom Gueranger lived from 1801 to 1875
‘The Liturgical Year’ Volume 1, page 375: “Let us consider that last visible preparation
for the coming of the Messias: a universal peace. The din of war is silenced, and the entire world
is intent in expectation. `There are three silences to be considered,' says St. Bonaventure, in one
o is sermons for Advent; `the first in the days of Noah, after the deluge had destroyed all sinners;
the second, in the days of Caesar Augustus, when all nations were subjected to the empire; the
third will be at the death of Antichrist, when the Jews shall be converted. (Psalm 45:10) O Jesus
Prince of peace, Thou wiliest that the world shall be in peace, when Thou art coming down to
dwell in it. Thou didst foretell this by the psalmist, Thy ancestor in the flesh, who, speaking of
Thee, said: 'He shall make wars to cease even to the end of the earth, He shall destroy the bow,
and break the weapons; and the shield He shall burn in the fire." And why is this, O Jesus? It is,
that hearts which Thou art to visit must be silent and attentive.”
‘The Liturgical Year’, Volume 1 page 443: “Holy Pontiff Damasus! during thy life on
earth, thou wast the light, which guided the children of the Church; for thou didst teach them the
mystery of the Incarnation, and didst guard them against those perfidious doctrines, wherewith
hell ever strives to corrupt that glorious symbol of our faith, which tells us of God's infinite
mercy towards us, and of the sublime dignity of man thus mercifully redeemed. Seated on the
Chair of Peter, thou didst confirm thy brethren, and thy faith failed not; for Jesus had prayed to
His Father for thee. We rejoice at the infinite recompense with which this divine Prince of
pastors has rewarded the unsullied purity of thy faith, O thou `virgin doctor of the virgin
Church!' Oh that we could have a ray of that light which now enables thee to see Jesus in His
glory! Pray for us, that we may have light to see Him, and know Him, and love Him, under the
humble guise in which He is so soon to appear to us. Obtain for us the science of the sacred
Scriptures, in which thou wast so great a master; and docility to the teachings of the Bishop of
Rome, to whom, in the person of St. Peter, Christ has said: `Launch out into the deep!'
“Obtain also for all Christians, O thou the successor of this prince of the apostles, that
they be animated with those sentiments, which St. Jerome thus describes in one of his letters
addressed to thee: ` It is the Chair of Peter that I will consult, for from it do I derive that faith
which is the food of my soul. I will search for this precious pearl, heeding not the vast expanse of
sea and land which I must pass over. Where the body is, there shall the eagles be gathered
together. It is now in the west that the Sun of justice rises. I ask the Victim of salvation from the
priest, and from the shepherd the protection of the sheep. On that rock I know the Church is
built. He that eats the Lamb in any house but this, is profane. He that is not in Noah's ark, shall
perish in the waters of the deluge. I know not Vitalis, I reject Meletius, I pass by Paulinus. He
that gathers not with thee, Damasus, scatters; for he that is not of Christ, is of Antichrist.'”

‘The Liturgical Year’ Volume 8, page 571 (Saint Gregory VII)

“We, therefore, who are bound, by our position, to destroy vice and implant virtue in the
hearts of our brethren, we pray and beseech you, in the Lord Jesus who redeemed us, that you
would consider within yourselves, and understand why it is that we have to suffer such anguish

7
and tribulation from the enemies of the Christian religion. From the day when, by the Divine
will, the Mother-Church, despite my great unworthiness, and (as God is my witness) despite my
own wish, placed me on the Apostolic Throne, the one object of all my labours has been that the
Spouse of God, our Mistress and Mother, should recover her just rights, in order that she may be
free, chaste and Catholic. But such a line of conduct must have caused extreme displeasure to the
old enemy; and therefore has he marshalled against us them that are his members, and has stirred
up against us a world-wide opposition. Hence it is that there have been used against us, and
against the Apostolic See, efforts of a more violent character than any that have ever been
attempted since the days of Constantine the Great. But there is nothing surprising in all this: it is
but natural that the nearer we approach to the time of Antichrist,, the more furious will be the
attempts to annihilate the Christian religion."”

‘The Liturgical Year; Volume 10 pages 356-7: “O glorious condition of this earth of ours,
from whose surface the Lamb that is slain, who is now receiving on the throne of God the
homage due to His triumph, is presenting each day, in His state of infinite lowliness as Man, total
satisfaction to His Father for the sins of the world, and a glory adequate to the perfections of the
divine Majesty! The angels are in admiration as they look down upon this our globe, mere speck
as it is amidst the bright heavenly spheres, and yet so loved, from the very outset, by eternal
Wisdom; they surround, trembling the while, this altar on earth, so closely resembling, so one
with, theirs in heaven, that on the two the one same High Priest pays homage to the one same
God in the one same infinite Offering. Hell, from its deepest depths, trembles at it; and raging as
it does against God, and vowing vengeance against man, it holds no object so hateful as this
Sacrifice. What untiring efforts has satan been making, what artful designs has he planned, in
order to make this much-detested Sacrifice cease! And alas! there has been, even in the very
heart of Christendom, some partial success to those efforts and designs: there has been the
protestant heresy, which has destroyed thousands of our altars, especially in our own dear
fatherland; and there is still the spirit of revolution, which is spreading as our modern times grow
older, and whose avowed aim is to shut up our churches, and do away with the priests who offer
sacrifice!
“So it is: and therefore our world, which heretofore used to be set right again after the
storms that swept its surface, now complains that the impending ruin is an universal one, and one
wherein there is no strength, save in the very chastisements sent by God. It vainly busies itself
with its plans of safety, and, at each turn, feels that the human legislation it would trust to is but
an arm of human folly stretched out to support a decrepit age of proud weakness. The Blood of
the Lamb, once the world's power, no longer flows upon it with its former plenty. And yet the
world goes on; it does so, because of that same Sacrifice, which, though despised, and in many
lands totally suspended, is still offered in thousands of happy spots on earth; and on the world
will go,
for the time yet to come, until, in a final access of mad frenzy, it shall have put the last priest to
death, and taken away from every altar here below the eternal Sacrifice.”

‘The Liturgical Year, Volume 10 page 388: “The sixteenth century was made to witness
hell triumphing over the ruins of altars in all the northern countries of Europe, especially in
England. The long interruption of liturgical solemnity brought with it, amongst many of the
faithful of these later times, a lowering, or even a total ignorance, of what the Mass is as a
Sacrifice. The great mystery of the Eucharist seemed, to certain pious souls, to be nothing else

8
than our Lord's presence, who abides among us for the purpose of receiving our private visits,
and of Himself occasionally coming to be our guest in holy Communion. That was all that the
Eucharist meant, as far as the practical knowledge of these people went! As to that part of the
Eucharistic mystery, which consists in our Lord's being mystically immolated by the wonderful
words of Consecration, and thereby expiating for the sins of men, and paying to His eternal
Father, in our name, the great debts of adoration and thanksgiving; as to His daily receiving
thereby the fervent supplications of our mother the Church, and, because of her suppliant
worship in union with His own Sacrifice, His warding off from this poor world the chastisements
it deserves: in a word, as to the Mass-it says much less to the hearts of these good people, than
does Exposition, or Benediction, or Forty-Hours, or even a mere visit to the blessed Sacrament
made very privately and very quietly. For them, Mass is but a preliminary condition for having
something else which they look forward to; Mass, in their minds, is but a means for producing
the real Presence.’

‘The Liturgical Year, Volume 11 page 455: “ACCORDING to Honorius of Autun, the
Mass of to-day has reference to the days of Antichrist." The Church, foreseeing the reign of the
"man of sin," and as though she were actually undergoing the persecution which is to surpass all
others, takes her Introit of this twenty-second Sunday from the Psalm De profundis.
“If, unitedly with this prophetic sense, we would apply these words practically to our own
personal miseries, we must remember the Gospel we had last week, which was formerly
appointed for the present Sunday. Each one of us will recognize himself in the person of the
insolvent debtor, who has nothing to trust to but his master's goodness; and, in our deep
humiliation, we shall exclaim: ‘If thou, 0 Lord, mark iniquities, who shall endure it.’”
‘ The Liturgical Year’ Volume 12, pages 64-5: “Holy martyrs, you all confessed Jesus
Christ, in the midst of the most terrific storm ever raised by the demon against the Church.
Though all three in different grades of the hierarchy, you were alike guides of the Christian
people, drawing them by thousands in your train, into the arena of martyrdom, and, by still more
numerous conversions, filling up the void made in earth's chosen band by the departure of your
victorious companions to heaven. Wherefore the Church this day joins her grateful homage here
below, with the congratulation that rings through the Church triumphant. Be propitious, as of
yore, in alleviating the ills that overwhelm mankind in this vale of tears. The excess of man's
misery is that he seems to have forgotten how to call on such powerful protectors in his hour of
need. Revive your memory, in our midst, by new benefits to our race.
“As thou, O Erasmus, wast formerly protected by heaven, do thou now, in thy turn,
succour those who are a prey to the tempest-tossed sea. In thy last hour of bitter anguish, thou
didst suffer thine executioners to tear thy very bowels; lend a kindly aid to such as call upon thy
name when racked by pains which bear some resemblance, though but faint, to what thou didst
endure for Christ. Peter and Marcellinus, linked one to another both in toil and in glory, cast
gentle eyes upon us: one glance of yours would make all hell to tremble, and would drive far
from us its cohorts. But how much is your aid needed in society at large, in the whole visible
world. The foe you so mightily thrust backwards into the fiery pit is once more master. Alas
have we come to the time in which, again taking up war against the saints, it shall be granted him
to overcome them?' Scarce does he even hide himself nowadays. Societies which formerly
worked in secret have now openly surrendered to him a thousand sources of evil; he may be seen
trying to push his way into gatherings of all sorts, into the very bosom of homes, as a family
guest, as a comrade in diversion or in business, with table-turning and all those processes for

9
divination, such as Tertullian denounced in your early day. The expulsion of demons by
Christianity had been so absolute that, up to more recent times, such fatal practices had fallen
into utter oblivion amongst us. If at first, in Christian families, the warning voice of the pastors
of God's Church has prevailed over the incitements of an unhealthy curiosity, a sect has since
been formed, in which Satan is sole guide and oracle. The spiritists, as they are called, in concert
with freemasonry, are preparing the way for the final invasion of the exterior world by infernal
bands. _ Antichrist, with his usurped power and vain prestige, will be but the common product of
political lodges and of this sect which proposes to bring back, under a new form, the ancient
mysteries of paganism. Valiant soldiers of the Church, make us, we beseech you, worthy of our
forefathers. If the Christian army must needs decrease in numbers, let its faith wax all the
stronger; let its courage neither fail nor go astray; may its ranks be seen facing the foe, at that
last, hour in which the Lord Jesus will slay, with the breath of his mouth, the man of sin, and
plunge once again and for ever the whole of Satan's crew down into the lowest depths of the
bottomless pit.”

A project of the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Roman Church

http://www.oneholycatholicchurch.com/catechismofthegreatapostasy/keytounderstanding
thecrisis/index.html

10