The Fathers teach unanimously, that all exegesis of prophecy is preliminary. One or the other theologian claims that this or that idea (e.g. Antichrist is a certain person)  is de fide. But that doesn't mean de fide in the sense of official Church teaching. It rather expresses the idea, that this theologian didn't read any other theologian contradicting.

Additionally, canonized Scripture and Fathers as well as other commentators explain that prophecy about the end times is "sealed". Nobody knows in advance what exactly will happen. Things have to come to pass for then contemporary witnesses to understand that corresponding prophecy of Scripture is being or has been fulfilled.

And if the prophet himself heard and did not understand, what will be the case with those men who presumptuously expound a book which has been sealed, and that too unto the time of the end, a book which is shrouded with many obscurities? But he comments that when the end comes, the ungodly will lack comprehension, whereas those who are learned in the teaching of God will be able to understand.

Some quotes from the Church Fathers (and other saints) which support the coming Great Monarch and the return of the Holy Roman Empire.  Then the fall of the Roman Empire, and the rise of the anti-christ.  [my comments in blue]


St Methodius (4th cent) speaking of the a coming Great and Holy King

"A day will come when the enemies of Christ [freemasons] will boast of having conquered the whole world.  They will say, "Christians cannot escape now!"  But a great King will arise to fight the enemies of God.  He will defeat them, and peace will be given to the world, and the Church will be freed from Her anxieties."

---

St Remigius (5th cent), Bishop of France who baptized King Clovis and 3,000 followers into the Faith in 496 AD.

"Take notice that the Kingdom of France is predestined by God for the defense of the Roman Church which is the only true Church of Christ.  This kingdom shall someday be great among the kingdoms of the earth, and shall embrace all the limits of the Roman Empire, and shall submit all other kingdoms to its own scepter."

[France has never held this much territory under its power.  It has never embraced all the limits of the Roman Empire.  If this prophecy is true, it is yet to come.]

---

St Caesar of Arles, France (6th cent), Father of the Church, according to Jurgen's "Faith of the Early Fathers".  Presided over the 2nd Council of Orange in 529 AD against Pelagianism.

"When the entire world, and in a special way France - especially the provinces of the north, the east, and above all that of Lorraine and Champagne - shall have been laid waste by the greatest miseries and trials, then the provinces shall be comforted by a prince who had been exiled in his youth, and who shall recover the crown of the lilies.  This prince shall extend his dominion over the total universe.

At the same time, by the will of God, a most holy man shall receive the Papacy, who will be most perfect in every spiritual perfection.  This Pope will have with him the great Monarch, the most virtuous man, who shall be an eminent leader of the holy line of French Kings.  This great Monarch shall assist the Pope in the reformation of the whole earth.  Many nations and their princes that are living in error and impiety shall be converted and an admirable peace shall reign among men during many years, because the wrath of God shall be appeased through their repentence, penance and good works.  There will be one common law, only one faith, one baptism, one religion.

All nations shall recognize the Holy See of Rome, and shall pay homage to the Pope.  But after an extended period of time, fervor will cool, inquity will abound and moral corruption shall become worse than ever before, which shall bring upon mankind the last and worst persecution of anti-christ and the end of the world."

---

St Epheaem (5th cent):

"Then the Lord from his glorious heaven shall set up His peace.  And the kingdom of the Romans [Roman Empire] shall rise in place of this latter people, and establish its dominion upon the earth, even to its ends, and there shall be no one who will resist it.

After iniquity shall have multiplied, and all creatures have become defiled, then Divine Justice shall appear, and shall wholly destroy the people, and coming forth from perdition, the man of iniquity [anti-christ] shall be revealed upon the earth, the Seducer of men, and the distruber of the whole earth."

---

St Catald(us)  (7th cent):

"The Great King will wage war till he is 40 years of age.  He will assemble great armies and hurl back the tyrants out of his empire."

---

Rabanus Maurus  (9th cent), the most thorough chronicler of both prophecy and Oral Tradition in Western Europe.  He was abbot of the famous Benedictine Monastery in Fulda.  According to the Catholic Encyclopedia, "His fame as a teacher spread all over Europe.  He was the most learned man of his age.  In scripture and patristic knowledge, he had no equal and was thoroughly conversant in canon law and liturgy."

"Our principle Doctors [teachers of the Faith] agree in telling us, that towards the end of time one of the descendents of the kings of France shall reign over all the Roman Empire; and that he shall be the greatest of the French Monarchs and the last of his race.  After having governed well his kingdom, he shall go to Jerusalem and lay down his scepter and crown at Mt Olivet.  This shall be the conclusion of the Roman and Christian Empire."

---

St Anslem  (11th cent), Doctor of the Church

"Certian Doctors [esteemed teachers of the Faith] truly say, that one of the kings of the Frankish Empire shall possess it in its entirety, which King shall live in the last time and shall be the greatest and last of kings.  Who after he shall have happily governed his Kingdom, shall come to Jerusalem and lay down his scepter and crown on Mt Olivet.  He shall be the last and consummate Emperor of the Roman and Christian Empire.

And immediately thereupon [after he lays down his scepter/crown], according to the sentence of Paul, they [esteemed teachers of the Faith] say antichrist will come."

---

St Thomas a'Becket (12th cent)

"A knight shall come from the West.  He shall capture Milan, Lombardy and the three Crowns [Italy].  He shall then sail to Cyprus and Famagoste and land at Jaffa [the oldest part of Tel Aviv, Israel], and reach Christ's grave, where he will fight.  Wars and wonders shall befall until the people believe in Christ toward the end of the world."

---

St Hildegard (12th cent)

...There are so many prophecies from St Hildegard that you can look them up yourself.


William D'Otrante (13th cent), an abbot of a monastery in Southern Italy

"The Great Monarch and the great pope will preceed anti-christ.  The nations will be at war for 4 years and a great part of the world will be destroyed.  The pope will go over the sea carrying the sign of Redemption on his forehead.  The Great Monarch will come to restore peace and the Pope will share the victory.  Peace will reign on earth."

---

John of Vatiguerro (13th cent)

"Spoilation, pillaging and devastation of that most famous city which is the capital and mistress of France [Paris] will take place when the Church and the world are grievously troubled.  The Pope will change his residence and the Church will not be defended for 25 months or more, because during all that time, there will be no Pope in Rome, no emperor and no ruler in France.  But, after this, a young captive Prince shall recover the Crown of the Lilies and shall extend his dominion all over the world."

---

St Vicent Ferrer (14th cent), known as the "Angel of Judgement" spoken of in the Apocalypse.

"Armies from the East, West and North will fight together in Italy and the Eagle [Great Monarch] shall capture the false king, and all things shall be made obedient unto him, and there shall be a new reformation in the world."

---


Concerning the Fall of the Roman Empire and the rise of the anti-christ...


---------------------------

St Cyril of Jerusalem (4th cent):  Speaking of the fall of the Roman Empire and the rise of the anti-christ

"Since the true Christ is to come a second time, the adversary makes use of the expectation of the simple, and especially of those of the circuмcision [the joos]; and he brings in a certain man who is a magician, and who is quite expert in sorceries and enchantments of beguiling craftiness.  This one shall seize the power of the Roman Empire, and shall falsely style himself Christ.  By the name of Christ he shall deceive the joos, who are expecting the Annointed and he shall seduce the gentiles by his magical illusions.

This aforementioned anti-christ is to come when the times of the Roman Empire have been fulfilled and the end of the world is drawing near.  There shall rise up together ten kings of the Romans, reigning in different parts, perhaps, but all reigning at the same time.  After these there shall be an eleventh, the anti-christ, who by the evil power of magic [false miracles] shall seize upon the Roman Power.  Of the kings who reigned before him, 3 shall be humble and the remaining 7 he shall have as subjects under him [see book of Daniel].  He shall desplay against all men and especially against Christians, a spirit that is murderous and most cruel, merciless and wily.  For three years and six months only shall he be the perpetrator of such things.

Now these things we teach not of our own ingenuity...that this kingdom is that of the Romans has been the tradition of the Church's interpreters..."

---

St John Chrysostom (4th cent):

"In the same way as those kingdoms which existed before the Roman Empire were destroyed (the Babylonian by the Persian, the Persian by the Greek, the Greek by the Roman), so will the Roman Empire be destroyed by anti-christ.  This will happen when the Roman Empire shall have been divided into 10 kingdoms [after the Holy Monarch dies]."

---

St Jerome (4th cent)...in his commentary on the Book of Daniel:

"Therefore, let us state what all the Ecclesiastical writers [omnes scriptores ecclesiastici] have passed down [tradiderunt]: At the consummation of the world, when the Kingdom of the Romans has been destroyed, when ten kings shall have divided the territory of the Romans between themselves, an eleventh shall rise to a small kingdom, who when he shall have overcome three of the ten kings, i.e. the kingdom of the Egyptians, of the Africans and of the Ethiopians and consequently as we learn more manifestly - whom he shall have killed, the other seven kings shall submit their necks to the victor [the eleventh king].

Who is the eleventh king?  St Jerome explains:

"Nor do we think him to be the Devil or a demon, as some others do, but one of mankind in whom satan shall dwell totally...his mouth uttering great boasts, for he is the man of sin, the son of perdition, such that he will seat himself in the Temple as if he were God.  [Here Jerome is directly quoting from St Paul's description of the anti-christ in 2nd Thessalonians, 2:15]

---

There are many, many, many more where this came from.

Here's my take on the beast, the mark, on Chapter 13 of The Apocalypse of St. John. It's free from the influence of private revelation, based on the literature of the Church, and my own contemporary observations.



Summary:

In the last days, all the rivers of history run together into one big river delta. There will be a beast which integrates the four beasts of Daniel, i.e. an empire which integrates the characteristics of the empires of history. The false Catholics will adore it, and they’ll adore the devil who is giving power to the empire. The empire is given “a mouth speaking great things”, i.e. a new false church of a new pentecost. The god or idol of the new religion is man. Man is adoring man instead of God.


Structure:

Part I: Overview version of the story (Rev 13:1-8)
Part II: Admonition (Rev 13:9-10)
Part III: Recapitulation of the story (Rev 13:11-17)
Part IV: Admonition (Rev 13:18)


Keys to interpretation:

water/sea: not even called, non-Catholics, sects, pagans
earth: called but not elect, false/untrue Catholics, not written in the book (lukewarm/liberal/modernist/hypocrites)
heaven: called and elect, true Catholics, written in the book
beast: social body with a head, empire


Part I:

The Holy Roman Empire began with the coronation of Charlemagne by Pope Leo III in Rome on Christmas Day, 25th of December, A.D. 800. It was defeated a thousand years later, when the Holy Roman Emperor, Francis II of Austria, requested an armistice on Christmas Day, 25th of December, A.D. 1800, after a crushing victory of Napoléon Bonaparte at the battle of Hohenlinden near Munich.

Napoléon is the first emperor of the beast coming out of the sea, the resurrected ancient pagan Roman Res Publica. He isn’t crowned by the Pope, rather, in an ostentatious symbolic act rejects the crown of Charlemagne, already wearing a golden diadem. The final battle of the devil, who was loosed after having been bound for a thousand years (Rev 20:2-7), had begun.


The kabbalistic, freemasonic, capitalist, communist beast shows the aspects of all the beasts of Daniel, and is powered by the devil.


The pagan Roman Empire is the last of the four beasts of Daniel. It had been conquered by Christendom, and was thought to have been overcome. But after a thousand years it came up again, out of the pagan sea, and the false Catholics, earthbound not heavenbound, were full of admiration of the resurrected Republic. It’s the “beast which … was, and is not, and shall come up out of the bottomless pit …” (Rev 17:8).


They are again those who “dwell on earth”, “not written in the book”. Their adoration is marked by ignorance or rejection of the one true King, who will not only fight with but also crush the beast.


The mouth will be shown as a second beast below (Rev 13:11), out of the earth, i.e. a bunch of false Catholics. A false church will be the mouthpiece of the beast, speaking “great things, and blasphemies”. The power comes from the devil, via the beast, to the false church.

After three and a half years that mouth will be overcome by the mouth of “one like to a son of man” (Rev 1:13). “From his mouth came out a sharp two edged sword” (Rev 1:16). The sword is the Word with two edges, Old and New Testaments.

The 42 months, 1260 days, three and a half years, a time, and times, and half a time, are the seventy years of the Babylonian captivity looked up by Daniel (Dan 9:2) in Jer 29:10. These are ended when the writing (mane, thecel, phares) appears on the wall (Dan 5:5). Seventy years correspond to “this generation will not pass” (Mt 24:34, Mk 13:30, Lk 21:30).


This is how the Revelation of St. John spells out, what many today euphemistically call “crisis of the Church”.


Those who are overcome and adore the beast are the false Catholics, who “dwell upon the earth” (and not in heaven), whose names are not written in the book. They’re from all over the world.
The “inhabitants on the earth” “are not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world” (Rev 17:8) The book of life of the Lamb was written from the beginning of the world, hence the Lamb was slain from the beginning of the world.


Part II:

Those not written in the book of life may read, but won’t understand.


The false Church leads into captivity/sin and shall be locked up behind the gates of hell.

The sword is the Word of God, which has two edges, Old and New Testaments. Heretics twist the Word of God and use it to kill, like the rider named Death on the pale horse of Rev 6:8, who “kills with sword, with famine, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth.” They will for their part be “slain by the sword of him that sitteth upon the horse, which proceedeth out of his mouth; and all the birds were filled with their flesh.” (Rev 19:21)


Part III:

Another beast, coming out of the earth, i.e. a bunch of false Catholics, forming a false church, i.e. appearing like a lamb, with Old and New Testaments, but incorporating the mouthpiece of the first beast.


The false church is fully supported and authorized by the pagan empire, and it makes the false Catholics adore the pagan empire, which had been overcome by the true Church, but finally was resurrected.


Fire coming down from heaven is the symbol of Pentecost. This new fire coming down from heaven is the symbol of a new, a second pentecost" the symbol of the inauguration of a new false church.

The Gloss (Glossa Ordinaria, Anselm of Laon et al.) comments on this verse: “Ut apostolis datus est Spiritus sanctus in specie ignis, et sic illi dabunt spiritum malignum in specie ignis.” Just like the Holy Ghost is given to the apostles under the species of fire, so they will give a malicious spirit under the species of fire.

in the sight of men: to seduce them.


The Lord allows the false church to seduce the false Catholics. They’re told to make an idol, a statue of the beast, similar to the statue in the dream of Nabuchodonosor (Dan 2:31). The statue of Nabuchodonosor represents four empires, gold, silver, brass, and iron, and the beast represents four empires, leopard, bear, lion, plus the wounded head, the wounded and later resurrected fourth empire.

To make an image of the beast is to idolize the empire. To put the empire in the place of God. The false Catholics virtually say: “Non habemus Regem, nisi Cæsarem.” (Jn 19:15 we have no king but Caesar), repeating the blasphemy of the Joos.


So far, the statue was a mute idol. Now it becomes a living idol, a speaking idol. The beast to be adored is given a mouth to speak. The second beast is giving a mouth, and at the same time is the mouth, that’s given to the beast. The beast now has the appearance of legitimation by God.

The false Catholics are directed to accept the voice of the beast as the word of God. Montini said: the UNO is our last hope, and today, the false church and the empire preach climate-doom and vaxx-charity.

slain: like the Lamb, or hopefully only starved, not be allowed to buy or sell (see below).


All, whose names are not written in the book. Several Fathers say that the characters refer to confessing the ideas of the beast (forehead) or doing the deeds of the beast (hand). One more explicit way to do this, may be attending the NOM.


Character means stigma or brand. The brand shows the number and/or the name of the owner. Today it is called company logo. Many big companies today display the number of the beast in their logo. But as mentioned above, a literal brand is not needed for adoration of the beast.

Not being allowed or able to buy and sell leads to famine (1 Mach 12:36, 1 Mach 13:49). The beast is trying to starve the true Catholics. This is to be understood both literally and spirtually. It is clear that not all true Catholics will be slain or starved, since some will make it to the last of the last days.


Part IV:

Some have understood this to be a call to use gematria to compute the name of the beast. But it doesn’t say “compute the name”, it says “compute the number”. Now, the number is already given, it’s six hundred sixty-six. Nothing left to compute. Also: gematria is like reading tea leaves. Not the type of thing we’re expected to do.

The number of the beast is the number of a man. Is the name of the beast the name of a man, too? Or are there two names? One of the beast, another of a man. But which man?

Well, the name of the beast is given in Rev 17:5. The harlot has a brand of the beast on her forehead: “And on her forehead a name was written: A mystery; Babylon the great, the mother of the fornications, and the abominations of the earth.” So the name of the beast is Babylon.

And the “name of a man”? Here is wisdom. … six hundred sixty-six: This reminds of king Solomon, the wisest man on earth ever: “And the weight of the gold, that was brought to Solomon every year, was six hundred and sixty-six talents of gold.” (Chr 9:13, see also Chr 10:14)

So the names are Babylon (beast), and Solomon (man). And both their numbers are the same: six hundred sixty-six.

Now, what does it all mean? What does one need the name or the number for? (assuming that no one plans to adore the beast.)


666

That’s the “trinity of man”. Man himself is the false god of man, of the church of the beast, the church of the new pentecost.

Signature of Paul VI:
Paulus PP IV - (6aulus 66 IV -)



Babylon

1 Peter 5:13 “The church that is in Babylon … saluteth you …” Babylon is Rome, the pagan world capital at the time of St Peter. Pagan Rome was resurrected, and Rome has become the seat of the harlot.

Solomon

The rites of the freemasons are about the reconstruction of the Temple of Solomon.
The reconstruction of the Temple of Solomon in Jerusalem is expected by many.

There is disagreement on the timeline.

St John Eudes and the Early Church Fathers held that the reign of Mary comes after the Anti-Christ unlike the other prophecies that state it comes before.