Handwritten Prophecies of Saint Odile c.1940

Description

An uncommon handwritten example of a uniquely French wartime phenomenon, the Prophecies of Saint Odile.

The first recorded references to “The Prophecy of Saint Odile” are in Parisian newspapers from the late 1910s, almost 1200 years after it was supposedly written, but that did not stop the text’s spread across the country during both the First and Second World Wars.

With descriptions of mountains covered with blood, the rise of the Anti-Christ, and Germany as the “most belligerent nation on Earth” the prophecy’s message seemed tailor-made for the war-ravaged nation’s population. In hindsight, it likely was.

Dying out between the wars, the prophecy returned in force during WWII despite efforts to stop its spread by Occupied France’s Vichy government, apparently kicked off when the long-dry holy spring dedicated to St. Odile began to flow again. This attempted censorship might explain why handwritten examples continue to be found, like the two written by American author Gertrude Stein—now at Yale’s Beinecke Library—while she lived in France through the occupation. In addition to directly referencing them in her 1943 satirical novel Mrs. Reynolds, she referenced her belief in the prophecies in the following note from the same year:

“To-day, the eleventh of September 1943, after all Saint Odile was right, she said, that Germany would conquer the world would be drowned in blood and tears, and fire would be thrown from the sky upon the earth beneath…”

In another letter to a friend, Stein suggests she must have the prophecies of Saint Odile to preserve her faith in life and humanity. The evidence suggests their role was the same for this anonymous copyist. In addition to transcribing the memetic prophecies, the scribe takes a unique step of applying them to a timeline for a possible future of the war, including: a German invasion of Glasgow by way of Norway, the United States entering the war nine months early, and the signing of a peace treaty in January of 1942.

Perhaps in recognition of Odile’s wartime popularity, the Catholic Church made her the patron saint of the Alsace-Lorraine region (the long-disputed region of France along the German border) in 1946.

Six-page handwritten French manuscript, over three sheets in two groupings, consisting of a two-page record of the purported prophecy of Saint Odile and a one-page speculative timeline, written in blue ink on graph-lined paper.Some wear and spotting, two sheets containing prophecy connected by mid-century adhesive tape. Good condition.

 

If you liked this item, you might also enjoy this original pamphlet on biblical prophecies for World War I.