(Image of the holy Bishop George Wittman (d. 1833). His cause for canonization was officially opened on Jan 30, 1956 under Pope Pius XII)
"Violent hands will be laid on the Supreme Head
of the Catholic Church. ... Yes, yes, the flock will become small." (End Times Prophecy of Bp. Wittman )
BISHOP GEORGE M. WITTMAN, the pious and
devoted Bishop of Ratisbon, was born January
23, 1760. He was distinguished for extraordinary
learning and erudition, vigorous orthodoxy, and great
aptitude in teaching, an ardent zeal for souls, and for
his charity towards the poor.
In
1788 he became Vice-President and in 1803 Presi-
dent of the Ecclesiastical Seminary of Ratisbon; in
1821, Canon
of the Cathedral; in 1829, Suffragan
Bishop Provost of the Cathedral, and Vicar-General.
At the death of Bishop
Tailor, in 1832, he became his
worthy successor, and died March 8, 1833. The popu-
lar
voice proclaimed him a saint, and all who knew him
said, "He was a man of the first apostolic days of the
Church,
— a priest according to God's own heart."
The illuminated eye of Wittman foresaw the future
when he spoke in the following manner:
"Woe is me! Sad days are at hand for the Holy
Church of Jesus Christ. The Passion of Jesus will be
renewed in the
most dolorous manner in the Church
and in her Supreme Head. In all parts of the world
there will be wars and revolutions, and much blood will
be spilled. Distress, disasters, and poverty will every-
where be great, since pestilential maladies,
scarcity, and
other misfortunes will follow one another.
"Violent hands will be laid on the Supreme Head of
the Catholic Church; bishops and priests will be perse-
cuted, and schisms will be provoked, and confusion
reign
amid all classes. Times will come, so pre-eminently
bad, that it will seem as if the enemies of Christ, and
of
his Holy Church, which he founded with his blood,
were about to triumph over her. ... A general separation
will be made. The wheat shall be winnowed, and the floor
swept. Secret societies will work great ruin, and exercise
a marvellous monetary power,
and through that many
will be blinded, and infected with most horrible errors;
however, all this shall avail naught. Christ says, He
who is not with me is against me, and he who gathereth
not with me scattereth. Scandals will
be but too rife,
and woe to those by whom they come! Although the
tempests will be terrible, and will turn away many in their
passage, nevertheless they cannot shake the rock whereon
Christ has founded his Church. Porte
inferi non prevalebunt.
"The faithful sheep will gather together, and in Unions
of Prayer will offer potent resistance to the enemies of
the Catholic
Church. Yes, yes, the flock will become
small. Many of you will see those sad times and days
which will bring such evil in their train ... . Great confusion
will reign amid princes and nations. The incredulity of the
present day is preparing
those horrid evils."
(SOURCE: "THE CHRISTIAN TRUMPET; PREVISIONS AND PREDICTIONS ABOUT IMPENDING GENERAL CALAMITIES, THE UNIVERSAL
TRIUMPH OF THE CHURCH, THE COMING OF ANTICHRIST, THE LAST JUDGMENT, AND THE END OF THE WORLD." COMPILED BY PELLEGRINO, PP. 57-58, 1873)
"Qui mange le Pape, meurt!"