This is a late 14th century prophecy of a pious 98-year old spiritual father given to Byzantine Emperor Manual II Palaeologus (1391-1425 AD), regarding the fall of Constantinople, and it’s future resurrection at a future appointed time.
The reader will once again notice, we have a consistent theme of detailed battles of a future war (we would assume here World War III) followed by a cessation of the war by an Angel. Then a description of a future “Constantine the Great” figure or emperor chosen by God, with strong parallels to the legend of the Great Monarch or Last Roman Emperor we find in the other Byzantine prophecies previously posted, but with slight differing or new details on the war and post war activities. Whether it is authentic one, or based on earlier prophecies by Saints Andrew, Methodius or Leo the Wise, we can only speculate. But we certainly can add it to our collection of Greek Apocalypses.
What is also interesting, like the Agathanghelos 1279 AD prophecy on the fall of Constantinople, it predicted an approximate 400 year occupation of the Greeks by the Turks.
Text of the Prophecy
When the Lord our God gives His decree, the Ishmaelites shall take siege upon Constantinople and the many islands and lands will fall prostrating before Ishmael. After the City has been conquered, and after a passage of 10 years, 2 months and 390 years of control by the Ishmaelites, that is, almost until the fourth century since its fall, it will be the task of the Christians to create a great naval force. And the members of the clergy and the monastics as well as every social class of humanity, against their own will, but led by a divine sign will come to Constantinople and only a few chosen ones will be left behind, to and fro; this naval force will become so great that counting only the heads and leaders of the navy it shall reach the figure of 70,000 officers. And each one of them would have under his command 10,000 men.
The naval ships will be placed into the sea and they shall depart for Constantinople and to the place called Kontoskalion. Ishmael, having seen how great a force is gathered in the City, shall abandon Constantinople and will speedily take flight to safety in Asia.
And all of the leaders of the Christian armies shall begin fighting among themselves, to decide who is to be the one to rule over Constantinople; and they shall draw their swords and shall then attempt to cut each other into many pieces, and so much slaughter will take place that all low-graded areas in the lands of the City and all its soil will be saturated in blood to such a depth, so that a three year old calf could be drowned in it, and the blood shall flow to the sea up to 18 stadia distance and this slaughter is destined to be so large that all sinners will die in its course and none amongst them will survive.
But then, an Angel of the Lord God will descent from heaven through the merciful good will of God, and the Angel will hold in his hands the scepter and the sword of the most saintly Emperor Constantine and he will crown the Emperor of Peace. This King will already be in Constantinople, and will be a participant in the war along with the rest; and the Angel will offer to him the scepter and the sword and he will call him ‘Charitable One’, and he will say to him: ‘be strong and courageous and be victorious over the enemies of Christ and of His Holy Apostles and immediately that battle and war will stop; and three Angels will take the King and having escorted him to the great Church of the Holy Wisdom of God they will crown him Emperor.
All those people who will have survived the war will also be just persons in the future, because the fighting against each other will not cease, until all sinners have perished. And there, in the new Zion, namely, the Church of Holy Wisdom of God (Haghia Sophia) the people shall gather in order to pay homage to this benevolent Emperor; and people will come from all over the world, everyone will come to pay him homage.
Seeing them coming from far away, the Emperor shall rise to go to greet them and with much joy he will accept them; they will ask where he comes from, and King will tell them; and then he will provide a large sum of money to all those who come to the city Constantinople, and they will ask what is the purpose of the money, and he will then respond ‘that much even more than this is for you and for all those who come to the City to settle; I will provide such person houses and lands and everything else he wishes; and I be like one of your brothers to you and we shall all be brothers, and our father is the Lord Jesus Christ’. Therefore, for the duration of 7 years people shall re-settle in Constantinople and all islands will become barren by virtue of resettlement. And within these 7 years, all of Constantinople will be refilled with Christian people along with their wives and children.
Then the Emperor will say to them: ‘Fathers and brothers of ours, it is good to start an expedition against our enemies, in order to raise the Cross and to avenge the blood of our people’. Then everyone with one voice, as if coming from God, will tell him: ‘let your will be done, oh Master, since it was the voice of God that spoke through your mouth, so, let it be done according to your decree’. Then the Emperor shall rise and all the people will be at his side, and they will campaign against the Ishmaelites, and then the prophecy will be fulfilled which sayeth that ‘one will chase one thousand and two will force to flight myriads’, and this expulsion will continue until they reach the Beautiful Gates which the Emperor Alexander (the Great) of Macedonia closed up in his time. And they shall force the enemy to move beyond that spot, and then the Emperor will say that the Ishmaelites shall not be able to raise their head from now on, and not only the Turks, but also the Saracenes and the Scythians and every other nation that does not believe in Christ.
Then the Emperor shall return to Constantinople, and having entered the City, the treasures of the earth will become revealed and wherever there is gold or silver to be found, there the earth will release smoke. And this wise and charitable Emperor of ours will say: ‘enter and see what is this smoke’, and upon the command of the noble Emperor they shall go and discover treasures of gold and silver and all this shall be offered as gift to the pious ones; later on, many more and even more valuable treasures will be discovered and the Emperor shall do with those treasures likewise.
Such will be the abundance of the treasure that a portion of it they will cast down on the ground as superfluous, because they will be unable to identify any more uses for it.
And rejoicing and exultation shall prevail all over the world, and there shall be no one who is spreading injustice or is a victim of injustice, considering that all evildoers will have been already wiped out from the face of the earth. And the earth will give forth it’s fruits an enormous crop, a hundredfold, and according to the common saying milk and honey will flow from the land.
The Emperor shall spend three years warring against the non-Christian nations; afterwards he will return to the Queen of Cities, Constantinople, and there he shall rest in joy for the duration of 20 years; and afterwards his own son will reign in great joy for 30 years; (…).
The Byzantine Apocalyptic Tradition 