THE ' OREGON, SUNDAY JOURNAL - PORTLAND. : SUNDAY MORNING. - JULY 13.. 1913
(UpmcnTm the sta cmvw, rftt gugntajftwetvea,
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The Many Amazing Predictions of;"The
Nun of Viterbo," Which Have Come Strange
lyTrue, Capped by a Deathbed Prophecy
of Incredible Disaster to the United States
Bom June II ,
rns HOLT NUN OT VTTEBBO," Hater Ml
Benedetto, ' who has Just passed away
enjoyed tremendous fame throughout Italy -
Cor her success ta predicting coming treats. , , , .
Her power ni usually exercised with the object of .,
everting misfortune from people or preparing them fo?
' fcwvttahle disaster. Hundreds ot people were enabled '
to escape from the Messina earthquake through her ,
' warning,, and ta many other eases her admonltiona
irara timely. TWa gave her a great refutation tor
sanctity, end aba waa particularly beloved among tha
' poor and almpla peaaanta
Oaa of the moat remarkable predictions ever made
by tha ana related to America, and was uttered on her t
s deaabeoY V The " extraordinary and ' aaqaeatJoaed,
accuracy at many 'of her previous predictions gtraa
Added tatoreet to die Tery sJarmmg statement Ira
wo to believe that the jmaa atnd was disordered by.
bar feat fibtai or waa her propbeflo faculty sharpened
by the near, approach of deatht .
This la t&o terrifying statement which the dytog ua
. la aald to have made to visitors jut before her death:
Trouble la coming from the East; The Yellow Peril
threatena the world, bat It la agaliirt America that it
- ;win be first directed. Prepare to defend yourselves to
the last gasp. . - . ---"''-J ''
"Before two year are pastabout tha end of 1914
yellow faVadert and negroes will be' throwing dice for
the last Amerlcaa alrl la Central Park. New Tork,
' amid th smoking ruins of tha great city, glrea ap to
tha idolatrous cult of the Golden Calf, -
"Bat true-hearted Americaaa will male a brare stand
t
nurse, who grew old y ker bedside and died before
her, aald aha never area heard her algh. " :
People ol an ranka crowded to her bedside (or years
v to oak her help ia time of trouble, or else out of
' curiosity to hear her remarkable prophecies. .
The roomWwbloh tha nun UtooT and suffered was
-af bar u ft piisoa, celL Its only ornaments were a
A Wclflx on the wall and ft small Image of the Satlour,
1 which she kept near her bed and for which aha had a
special Teneratlon. ' It is stated that when anbeUerers
" went to see her out of curiosity, she would show them
thta Image and ft strange change would come ora
; them.
' The prediction that raised her fame to tha highest
- pitch throughout Italy foretold the aasasilnatloa o
King Humbert at Iionaa. on ray zs. asso. ; ;
- On July II the Mother Abbess of Sissr Maria Beat
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''Abotrt Ui tad of 1914 jtSOtiw (oficlefi ftndl neffroes.will be Uirowinf Hem
ffAtV. 1.. AmrtMf trl h. rMnl P.rlo Nm. Vrlr
T 77 Pv aaa eraieiajsw wm ftaia mmm viiwa a MfBay aww ssa
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Qster.Rtftriai BerMdetta,
I the Nan of Vkorbo, as
.Shej Appeared Wlten
Mns m Death goad
L Viewed bp Many Thooa
. ands cf Italians Who
Venerated Her Frophet-
le Power. , c-
warning carefully and. al
though the. Grand Duke
waa the most hated of ftQ
the Russian rulers, he
want unharmed for pump,
months.'
On Pebrvary i 1108, the
nasald: '"'::'-;;,:
Tan the Russian Grand
Dachess that her husband
la In great peril today."
.' The warning came too
late, for oa that day the
Grand Duke Berglus, who
treated Ms wife with great
harahness, went out with
out her, in spite of tier .
warnings, and was blown
to shreds ; by; : Mhfliat
bombs. t":v-V.
Warnlnga were repeat:
edly sent from the nun to
King Alfonso of Spain tatt
ing him to be oa hu guard
against assassins and rer
olutioaaries. A timely mes
sage waa aent to him the
day before his wedding;
and tola ls,saM to hare
enabled hint to escape the
murderous attack which
killed so many of his suite
I
J liiiiiri'-IHY
and subjects on that day.'
The King always paid respectful heed to the warn- ,
Inge. and. although he nerer ran away from danger.
It is stated that being on bis guard enabled him to
make the alight moremant needed to put him beyond
danger on many desperate oooaalons. .
The nun warned King Carloa of. Portugal that a v
plot waa being formed : against him,' but the stoat -lirrlal
monarch replied:
- "Thanks, rery much; but I can take oare of myself.'
The King, who waa killed with his son on February ,
1 190s, wras a first cousin of the King of Italy. Hla
mother, who waa a sister of the late King Hmnber
waa deeply Impressed by the nun's message, but failed
to produce any effect on her son. ; .
The forecasts and warnings of the mm at the time
of the dreadful - Messina earthquake did more than
anything else to make her beloved by the common
people. On December 37, 1908, she spoke more lmpres- r
slTely. and tragically than she i.khd ajw done before, v
saying:
"Woe to the people of Sicllr, A dreadful catastrophe
"The Nun sent -word to the Grand Ducfceas , $eVgIus Ihet her husband would be killed if
fae went in public without her. . Hi disobeyed the warning and waa
assassinated Fabruary 4, 1905."
Cor their race In' the interest of tSelr country, t see a
great battle upon a vast plain by a great lake. I
cannot see how it will end."
It must be admitted that this blood-curdling predlo- ?
tlon hardly seem like an outpouring of holiness, yet It
the pun, in her strange, psychio condition, saw sach '
things about to happen, what could she do but utter
them' - Doubtless she felt K her duty to warn Amer-
leans. Her prediction has been widely published here
and is implicitly believed by hundreds of thousands,
probably by millions of people.
The nun'a same was Maria Benedetto Prey. She
waa bora ta Borne in 1836 and brought tip in a convent '
of the Cistercian nuns. At the age of twenty-ona she
refused an Offer of marriage, and then, having shown af ,
deeply religious pent or mina, joined the Cistercian
Order. After two years of novitiate she became a pre v
lessea nun saa uos up nex residence at viterbo, neat,
datta's convent informed the sub-Prefect of Viterbo,
a Government official, that the slaer had had a vision
of King Humbert's, assassination. The official wired
to Home tor information and received word that noth
ing had happened to the King. As ft matter of fact,
the officials in Boms had not then received news of
the King's death. ' He waa stabbed late la the afternoon
by Gaetano BrescL an anarchist, and died within an
hour to the castle, of Idonsa.-. c r
The extraordinary inquiry from Viterbo gare rise to
' the belief that the plot against the King must have been
hatched there, but Investigation ahowed that there waa
no ground tor this. Bresoi plotted the King's assas
sination in Peterson, Mew Jersey,' The widowed Queen
Marguerite soon afterward visited the ana and was
greatly impressed by her gltts of second sight and
prophecy. The Queen became one of her stanohest .
hAiiTra and helned to snread her fame. throughout
In 1881 she was stricken with paralysis of the spine; v-. 1 Ten years ago the Pope allowed the nun to receive .
which kept her a helpless, suffering cripple tor the rest visitors in her room, thus, relaxing f the rule of the 1
of her Ufa : It was after thta attack that she developed m?V Cistercian Order that strangers, can speak to the nuns 0
tha gift of prophecy. She lived for fifty-two years after . 1 only through an iron wiW4''&?A
her attack and her fame Increased durlng.aU tola tmei:al the umo the revoluttohary disturbancea were ,
meter aria ceneao epeni more man nail a cen-. ; , ; acuta In Russia, the. nun told Queen Margnerita tnat
tunr with her bead tightly bandaged and supported bv a
i steel frame fixed at both ends of her bed.' ' She endured
a- continual xaartyrdom, but she never complained. Her
her friend, the Grand Duchess Seraius of Russia.
-v -: abouM never let her husband to: alone In' public or
,' he woul4 be kUled, -The Grand Duchess followed hgt ;
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t-"Tt "" ---r-syi i iftsii i ! -ts isBBsMHMb.-M, x-wt 4waaMni t-
CH L
r"A elnpadhd . eatastropba Is coning to Sicdy, Wo to yoa people of 4Mtlaal flee
; v V fr yoor UvmI'. The Nun's warning the day Worolhe MMlne Mrth ; )j
Cnakf is ad aave aeea tae aMsaa or saving aaaanae i uve,
Is coming to them, ft will bi worie thin anything tSSX
v have known' In their long tragic ; history. Woe to
Messinal The beautiful city will be destroyed,; I 'see
death, devastation, famine, pestilence everywhere. Tell
the poor people to fly while there is yet time. Let them
leave evm7thlng they possess and save their liTea." "
The mm had by that time ft great reputation, aai
her.warnlag, which came the, day before the disaster,
' was servioeable tn induemg .many hundreds to escape
or else . to make timely preparations to leave the
1 doomed area. ,,;.. ,
Another prediction which made the nun ft venerated.
. character throughout Italy related to the war, with:
Turkey. A party of youngxecrulta, ordered to join
vthe colore lofcp oefOiwwaTliadbeeif decided on, Tisited'
the nun to ask her blessing. To them she said: ' ' '
, "A war Is coming. I see' scenes of bloodshed and
agony on burning, sandy plalna ,. ;But it will be ft
glorloue war. It wiU be the first glorious war In
which Italy baa fought tit will be a war of the' Cross
against the Crescent, and the Cross will be victorious.
Borne of you will never return, but do not be afraid
for you will meet a death that wUl be better than
years of sordid misery and labor. Fight bravely and
do not' shrink from death. . Be that tries hardest to
lose his life shall keep it. -4,
' "JFor you, young man (here,the nun torned ftw
eyes on a very handsome young ' soldier), ! sell ft
splendid: military career and a long and happy life?
When the war actually broke out her popularity
' became enormous.-; 8he - waa : constantly' visited by
aoldlera going to the war and by the toothers, wives
and relatives of those who had gone, v
The toothers and wives of the soldiers usually asked
the nun to pray tor her. loved ones. She would ask ;
for ' the names of the soldiers for whom she was'
requested to pray, and after thinking a while replied, '
either : bidding her visitor to hope or gently sug
gesting that the Soldier would fall gloriously in the'
fight for his country and hla faith.
It la declared that she never, made a single mJstaka
and thousands of persons are ready to give evidence
that whenever ahe told them to hope, .their sons, hue
bands and relatives at the post were not killed.
The nun's i answer to ill-judged, requests for infor
mation about the future frequently had a character of
dry humor. . During the famous Camorra trial, Don
Ciro JVitosrf, who was1 particularly forceful and
dramatic in protesting his innocence, sent to ask her
if he would be ccqultited.' She sent back this message:'
, "If you are Innocent, you will certainly be acquitted." ',
The Nun's mind and supposed powers of second--eight
tended to deal principally with death, war, dis
asters; and traglo ocurrences. .. , She . Is , credited with)
having foretold the Praaco-German .war of 1870, the
entry ot the Italian army Into Rome, which occurred
In toe name year, the assassination of President Carnot
.of Franca and the Empress Elizabeth of Austria, the
deaths of the .Emperor Frederick: ot Germany and of
King Edward of England, the TUanlo disaster and many. -ether
tragedies of world-wide toterast.vv,4.'--:i,i '
It Is widely believed that .ahe haa foretold forth'eY '
dlsastera to the Italian royal family as a punishment
for keeping, the Pope out of his temporal possessions la i
Boma Much secrecy is maintained upon this point;,,
but she la said to have sent the following message to
the Dowager Queen Margnerita: :. . . ,
"As long as the House ot Savoy rules In Rome,"
death and 'disaster will attend it Bemove the throne '
to another city and new glory will crown your house.":
"The nun predicted her own -death a week abead.
On the morning of the day aha had fixed, she called
the Abbess and the other nuna to her cell and begged r
their forgiveness. She passed away at the very hour ;
;ahe had forewld.e-4r:;:f:;:-'?-:.v,iiA; .",,;, if:
The room In which she died was left exactly as & ,':
.had used it and waa sealed up by order of the Bishop '
of Viterbo. . Every article left by the nun will be care
fully preserved .for the veneration ot this and future,
generations. Ua-v ' .': ; 1 ' --v
i s ' Scientific ' men era greatly Interested in the anale '?
"'l case. While hot ready to accept every feat ftttrfttttt.'
to her, they are Inclined to believe that she possessSt
's f ; supernormal psychical powers. : Her nervous system s
' was. in an entirely abnormal condition. Many of her :
nervous ..centres, which would have - been used in a .
hormal axlstenec were destroyed br the disease that ;
enlcted her and. it is conceivable that the remaining '
P&A $if&& by thoae ;.of . ordihairpotsoaa. Her sense of hearingA
I tot instance, was acute to ah almost lnoredlble degree.';,'
inn., ok. t.V. Mm X. fhtnV ll.tnvK.iiii. ''
of the earth caused by the Messina earthquake, several
Those who take tnis view tnink zl the disturbance ,
al
, ounarea mues away, may nave neon percepunie v ner.
- The other eues are, of course, more difficult to explain.
but it la suggested Chat she learned much from tha
actions of those who came to make Inquiries ot harj
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