In this hellish age, it’s easy to believe those who say the End Times are close at hand.
But it’s important to remember that history was the first casualty of Clown World. We’ve been down this far – maybe even farther – before. And some, including prominent Catholic hagiographers with the tacit assent of the Vatican, say that the Fourth Angel of the Apocalypse already came.
To understand that claim, we have to turn back the clock to late fourteenth century-early fifteenth century Europe. The Black Death had torn through the continent, leaving one-third of the population dead. The faith hadn’t fared much better. In many places, people had stopped attending Mass. Errors and religious indifference ran rampant. Those among the clergy who’d cared about the cure of souls had died tending to plague victims, leaving cowardly, venal, and aloof social climbers in charge of the hierarchy. This perfect spiritual storm culminated in the Western Schism, which sowed widespread confusion among the faithful as to which of two popes was the real heir of St. Peter.
The more things change …
Onto this chaotic stage stepped Vincent Ferrer, the son of a notary from Valencia. It is said that certain signs attended Vincent’s birth, including a mysterious Dominican friar appearing to the elder Ferrer in a dream and foretelling his son’s fame. Young Vincent got an early start on fulfilling the prophecy. Starting from the age of eight, he adopted advanced devotions such as fasting two days a week, memorizing the whole Bible, and giving to the poor. Vincent began classical studies in earnest at age fourteen and overcame severe temptations in order to become a professed Dominican at eighteen.
Vincent himself would receive a disturbing vision which informed him that he was the fourth angel of the Apocalypse. He was further told that only he could prevent the destruction of the world, which God was poised to bring about due to man’s wickedness. When challenged on his claim, Vincent instructed the doubters to bring him a dead body. They brought him the corpse of a man four days dead that had already begun to rot. Vincent restored life to the corpse – one of seven such miracles he performed – who sat up and verbally confirmed the vision.
Having received a divine commission to preach repentance to wayward Europe, Vincent traveled as far from his native Spain as Scotland. He is credited with personally converting tens of thousands of people, including an entire synagogue congregation, to whom he preached in eloquent Hebrew despite speaking only Catalan.
After he preached to a convent of nuns in Burgundy, their abbess St. Colette of Corbie foretold that Vincent would die in France. This prophecy also came true when, after years of illness – brought on by his sorrow at the schism, they say – Vincent died in Brittany in 1419.
Vincent was declared a saint within forty years of his death, a remarkably speedy canonization for the time.
Considering that the Vatican proclaimed him to be holy, it’s safe to say they didn’t think he was lying about that Fourth Angel of the Apocalypse business. And since the world is still here, we can conclude that Vincent succeeded in his mission.
Watch this excellent video for more of Vincent’s story.
The story of St. Vincent Ferrer has two pertinent lessons:
- Western Christendom has been on the ropes before.
- God is in charge of history, and He will raise up servants capable of saving His people if it so pleases Him.
So make sure to praise God through St. Vincent for the existence of you and all your ancestors for the past six centuries.
And do your part to stem the tide of depravity by not funding people who hate you.
Learn how here:
Fascinating, I never heard about this claim of being the 4th ange until now. Thanks for writing this.
My pleasure
While we’re at it, let’s give a shout out to Bishop Challoner for properly explaining the four horsemen:
http://drbo.org/chapter/73006.htm
This is one of those areas where I have to do battle with my own nature, as much as I enjoy hagiography, it instantly causes a spiteful little gremlin to rise up in my soul and boldly shout that all those stories are fat lies for stupid people, and an accompanying sentiment that “things like that don’t REALLY happen”. Perhaps it’s caused by all the time I spent as an atheist as a youth. Still, thank you very much for telling me about this, Brian.
Command the gremlin to be silent in Christ’s name.
This works, BTW.
Brian,
If you want a fictitious example of his preaching (based on a real sermon) you can find it in the l’Atles furtiu. Despite being fictionalized, the sermon, was really astounding to read.
Here’s some selections It’s in 14th century Catalan but easily translatable
https://www.laserpblanca.com/sermons-svf
And here’s the collection of all his sermons. 5 Volumes
https://www.editorialbarcino.cat/?post_type=product&s=Ferrer&col=&tem=
xavier
Thanks for sharing this. As a Protestant, I do think one of the biggest things we’ve lost is that we don’t do a good job teaching church history – I honestly don’t even know where I’d start in finding resources for church historical stuff like this.
I do find it interesting that if St. Vincent’s claims are true, that would further support the Amillenialist interpretation of Revelation, which is a view I’ve found myself increasingly drawn to, despite having spent my formative years hearing (and believing) that the literal premillenial interpretation of Revelation was the only “correct” interpretation possible.
Aaron
Head over to shop.catholic.com they have many books/booklets on church history. They’re quite accessible and relatively inexpensive http://www.ignatius.com and https://www.sophiainstitute.com/
are also good sites.
xavier
Aaron, I think you’re right. As Protestants, we don’t do a good job of teaching church history. We seem to skip through it, from Paul to Patmos to the Reformation and then forward to the present, or perhaps to the beginning of our own denominations, with little or no mention of all that God has done in between. We do ourselves, and our Catholic and Orthodox brethren, a profound disservice when we do that. One of the things I’ve learned over the last few years it how much I have to learn from our brethren, including all the history I didn’t know I didn’t know growing up.
While he didn’t really write it as a church history, and stops somewhere before the Nestorian Crisis, I recommend G K Chesterton’s “The Everlasting Man” as a worthwhile reflection on the Apostolic and Patristic Ages. It’s the tip of the iceberg, of course, but still not a bad place to start.
Yeah, St. Vincent’s career is often featured in preterist writings.