Exorcist Diary #266: Are Satan's 100 Years Up?

[Michie]

Why is it that only in the last few years, after decades of a long drought, has the Church actually started to train exorcists? When I started in this ministry years ago, there were only a handful of exorcists and no formal training. Even now, despite the Holy See's request that every diocese have an exorcist, there are still entire countries without any. Moreover, almost all seminaries still do not include any deliverance training.


Now, however, there is a veritable explosion of interest here and in some countries abroad, and many young priests are getting involved in deliverance work. St. Michael Center provides on-going training for exorcists and has trained hundreds of priests in the deliverance ministry, including how to recognize the presence of the Evil One and cast him out in Jesus' name. Previously, Satan was able to hide and go about doing his destructive work in secret. Those days are rapidly disappearing.


Why the change? Here is a quote from an article from the Catholic News Agency:


Continued below.

Exorcist Diary #266: Are Satan's 100 Years Up?

["Last Judgment," Michelangelo, 1536-1541] Why is it that only in the last few years, after decades of a long drought, has the Church actually started to train exorcists? When I started in this ministry years ago, there were only a handful of exorcists and no formal training. Even now, despite...

www.catholicexorcism.org

 

[JSRG]

The "100 years" the article refers to a supposed vision Leo XIII had, which it describes thusly:

On October 13, 1884 Pope Leo XIII, just after celebrating Mass, turned pale and collapsed as though dead. Those standing nearby rushed to his side. They found him alive but the pontiff looked frightened. He then recounted having a vision of Satan approaching the throne of God, boasting that he could destroy the Church.

According to Pope Leo XIII the Lord reminded him that his Church was imperishable. Satan then replied, “Grant me one century and more power of those who will serve me, and I will destroy it.” Our Lord granted him 100 years.

The Lord then revealed the events of the 20th century to Leo XIII. He saw wars, immorality, genocide and apostasy on a large scale. Immediately following this disturbing vision, he sat down and wrote the prayer to St. Michael. For decades it was prayed at Mass until the 1960’s. Like many of the Church’s spiritual defenses, it was discontinued in the second half of the 20th century.

I recall looking into this a while ago. Unfortunately, I don't have all of the sources I looked at saved, so people will have to somewhat take my word for this based on what I remember. While Leo XIII did write the St. Michael the Archangel prayer, there seems to be little evidence that this vision prompted him to write it. Versions one can find of this vary considerably, not only just in the details but even the date it supposedly happened (I also can't help but notice that it seems the more time goes by, the more embellished the details of this vision become). But more importantly, no contemporary source to Leo is ever cited... in fact, it's quite rare for any source to be cited at all, but those that are cited come well after the fact. If Leo did have such a vision, why is no one apparently able to find any documentation of it? Surely there should be some writing of his that mentions it, or the writing of someone who knew him. One can't say he simply didn't tell anyone, because if that was the case there'd be no way for us to know there was any vision.

Note also the timeline doesn't seem to make sense; this says it happened October 13, 1884, and he "immediately" wrote the prayer. So, knowing of the imminent danger the church was in, and with the prayer all ready to go, he decided to... sit on it for a few years before implementing it in 1886. That doesn't make much sense.

Now, maybe there is some contemporary source out there that refers to him having this vision. But if there is, I've seen no one ever be able to point to it (certainly, the linked article doesn't!). Until that happens, I don't see much reason to take this as anything other than a pious legend about the St. Michael prayer that was made up well after the fact.