The Collected Prophecies of Emperor Leo the Philosopher – Emperor of Byzantium

Anonumou Paraphrasis Ten Tou Basileos Leontos Chresmon
(Greek Title of Prophecy in English Phonetics)

Title: ”Regarding the poor and selected King of the Legends, who is known and yet unknown, and who is staying in the geographical edge of the Empire of Byzantium”

Text of Prophecy:
“The one true King, who inhabits a humid place to avoid the heat; whom men have exiled from his own dwelling and gave him a place to live in the islands; who is involved in navigation and fishing every week; he will be revealed at the time of the Ishmaelites’ power comes to an end. He will closely follow the days of ‘Livas’ and the second one will become first and the first one will become second.

What then will happen afterwards in the killing-fields in the middle of the city and upon an avenue that is paved?

During a Friday, in the third hour of the day (3:00 o’ clock in the morning), while three are perturbed the third arrives first. And it is then that the Anointed One will be made manifest; he, who is destined to be revealed, will become manifest by means of arrows [arcs] and by signs emanating from the Lord. The King will hear the voice and the instructions by an Angel appearing to him as a man dressed in white, who is his Guardian Angel.

And while he is still asleep, the Guardian Angel will take him by the hand and will speak into his ear and say to him: “Arise, you who are sleeping and rise from your grave for, from among the dead; and Christ will shine upon you, for, He is calling you to govern a large number of people.”

And the Guardian Angel will say to him further: “come forth from your hiding place, do not hide yourself any longer, many are those who are searching and asking for you; everybody will exit and only you, alone, will enter.” And the Angel will address him for the third time and will give him stone tablets, upon which two Commandments are etched:

1. to avenge, to effect justice among the nations, and to persecute impiety; and
2. to exterminate through fire all those engaging in acts of sodomy; and to chase the bad Priests away from the holy places and to restore the worthy ones to the Altars; by so doing, he will well please the God of Heaven and Earth.

The King has identifying marks: the nail of the big toe of his right foot has a callosity; his voice is soothing; his features are prepossessing; his figure delicate like that of a woman; he is about middle-aged; he began developing a bald head and his hair has started to turn gray a little; he is intelligent and knows many things, he has foresight and is cognizant of the text of prophecies, which he relates to others and shares that information with others; his nose is a little curved; the eyes are prominent. He is poor, his hair is cut short and he is dressed in poor clothing which is used for custodial work.
And the King will be mild in character and gentle and merciful; liberal, forceful, formidable and brave. His right hand has joints of two chains; an he has two purple crosses on his two shoulders, upon the chest and also exactly upon his neck. He also has design of chains (tattoo or coat of arms?) on his sides, and upon his neck, and upon his thighs and upon his arms; the name (identity) of the King is concealed and hidden among the nations.

And this name of the King is similar to the last day the week, the seventh one. And it can also be written from the first letter into the 18th letter, namely the 301st one. The King is a man of piety and pays great attention to prophecies. Men thought of him as a nobody who is useful for nothing.

However, in the End Times, the Lord will place hand upon the head of this King and the oil consecration will anoint him, consequently, he will become noted in History as the ‘anointed one’; and he will march forward to fight against the Ishmaelites. And he will conquer them because in those days mankind will be afflicted and they will turn their faces to the soil of the earth and will sprinkle their heads with dirt and will cry aloud towards the Lord and God of Heaven and earth; and then the Lord will hear their supplications and He will place His ears upon inhabitants of the earth, and He will dispatch his Archangel in the form of a human being, and the Archangel will come to the islands.

And the Archangel will find the holy man he is looking for, the anointed one, who is unseen by the men of the world and not recognized by one person; the useful, yet useless; the pauper, yet desiring nothing of value; the merciful one and recipient of alms; the naked one and yet dressed in fine linen; the mortified one in the flesh, and yet he is very lively and vibrant in his spirit; the healthy one and at the same time the crippled one [some sort of ailment in his feet or legs], the leader and the first person ever to undertake a certain task and yet considered useful for nothing; the inexperienced one and yet very intelligent; the one who is obscure and invisible to everyone else, yet, to God and to himself he is known; the one emanating from a lower class and of royal progeny simultaneously, himself the son of a King and he, on his turn, the king of glory;
He has set his place of residence at the outer area of the City of Byzantium, close to the western gate of the city, in the vicinity of the “Sigma.”

He was schooled and educated ever since he was born, and the king has a name 80 figures long. And it is from the 12th element. [12th element of the Greek Alphabet is A, to the sound of L ???]. And the other name is written from the first letter into the 18th letter.

And he will be made similar to the Most High God.

And the name of his Father is a divine royal title. He is high-minded; he is without father, without mother and without a genealogy.’

And the King has three joints. He has been with only one woman and bore children with her, boys and girls. The names of the male and the female children, respectively, begin with the letters m, d, g, a, a, a, i [english equivalent of the Greek: mu, delta, gamma, alpha, alpha, alpha, iota].

And it will become obvious that these are truly his own offspring by virtue of the birth mark of the nail in the toe of the right foot and of his right eye, which is the squinty eye of unchastity.

And the King is a holy person in the eyes of God; he has beauty marks on his right side, also under the breast; and more on the shoulder, and on the thigh and on the earlobe, as well as on the right eyebrow according to the measure of charity.

He is graceful, charming and his cheeks turn red when he blushes. He is tall in stature, he has a beard, and there is a moustache, also. He is gentle, soft-spoken, he has dark hair, his head begins to turn bald in the front, he has an elderly looks, he is a victor and he carries trophies. He is a king, the very best one among all kings.

He has set up his living quarters in the place with four gates, in the cooler portion of the SIGMA and in the southern part of the sea of Marmara, and in an area without renown, muddy and miry.

He is coming out from the golden gate and the wooden one (the Xylokerkos); and his tabernacle is connected with two gates (or doors) that are revolving around an axis. The street on the Right Hand Side is broad and paved with stones cut and carved in squared shapes. There is a serpentine column flat on the ground and a fourth one representing an animal and there is also a female charioteer standing opposite his tabernacle. And an unidentified male has arrived holding a wreath speaking in loud voice regarding the destiny of the chosen king. Opposite his tabernacle there is a place of worship of a male god to which sacrifices and worship is being offered by the king having one belt; and its name is etched.

And he brings forth both the war and the military devices of the blond ones (blond nation?), and the effusion of blood in a small drinking cup placed in the earth.

Depicted on his back, the King features the king of the animals [a lion?], and on his chest he has the mark of his army. On the Left Hand Side of his quarters there is a very narrowed street; and there is a profusion of waters and deep waters making sounds and waves beating against the steep littoral of the seven-hilled city, and a river is making loud noises as it bursts out from the iron steep side.

There is a grove of pine trees which was planted at the time of the King’s birth. There are branches and there is a nest on the branches of the trees of the kind of bird that possesses a crop. In the nests there are the young ones of various types of birds and also of pigeons. There is also here a huge tower and formidable fortifications. The King is being attended to by a man dressed in black. He is giving and receiving mercy. And there is also a ‘wolf with the name of an animal’ who is playing music of some kind. And the illustrious King was born in this orderly life to preserve every piety and every prophecy. He has not spoken of the prophecies in the past and has not been used for anything, people in the past treated him with contempt and scorn, considering him as good as dead and useful for nothing.

God will reveal him and will make him manifest and will anoint him with oil in the End Times; this King actually has been anointed with the holy oil of God while still in his mother’s womb.

And the particular manner of the king’s manifestation to the world will take place as follows:

A star will appear for three days long and during the third hour of the night, on the eve of the feast day of the Mother of the Most High it will become visible in the middle of the City. And this star is not one among the planets, but rather it is of the kind that appeared during the Salvation-bringing Nativity of Christ. And a herald speaking with a very loud voice in the course of the three days will summon and will reveal the one hoped for. Then the inhabitants of the City, watching the phenomena in the heavens and hearing the thunderous proclamation of the herald will become overwhelmed; and having stood still with emotions of joy and fear simultaneously, they will cry aloud that they are unable to learn the identity of the man of hope.

At that moment in time everyone will be looking up to the heavens and ardently and for prolonged stretches of time will be praying aloud ‘Lord have Mercy’. These people had already beaten their foreheads to the ground, and sprinkled dirt upon their heads, and sighed and shed tears because of the tribulation that is coming their way. They will address to God their prayers and He will favorably receive their supplication. And with a merciful eye He will look down upon the inhabitants of the earth; the chosen one will then become revealed for the sake of the chosen Elect who will be left alive at that time.

There will become visible in the sky a ‘nebulous firmament of the sun’ being in size similar to a summer-time threshing floor using six oxen; under that image there will be suspended a cross, and at the left hand side from the purple cross an extended arrow [arc], such as the one that was settling our affairs in eternal covenant; and since everybody ignores the identity of the man of hope, the arc will bend back [or, reflect] at the southern portion thereof, which is becoming decomposed in the vault of the heavens.

And the revealing will be brought about by showing the place of the residence of the One True King; then the people having given glory to God, will make haste and go running in a hurry to the edge of the arc [arrow]; and having received the precious and aged-looking King with lit candles and palm-branches and beautiful songs they will fetch him to the Great Zion. For, they desire all pomp and circumstance for the occasion.

And when the One True King will eventually issue forth opposite his tabernacles between two vaults and an image [icon] standing on a high place, the star that appeared in the heavens from the Right Hand Side of the purple cross will pour out and touch him on his hands and anoint him with spiritual light.

And the invisible herald from Heaven with his thunderous voice will say to the people: ‘Is this man agreeable to you’? At that moment everybody will be taken by fear and terror and ecstasy, because of the thunderous tone of the sound of the message. And afterwards, beating their breasts, with tears and sighs, raising their hands towards Heaven, they will say: “Yes, Lord, because it is You Who gave him, he is agreeable to us”; and having paid homage to the King they will bring him to the Great Zion.

And the King having prayed to God, and having beaten upon the gates, they will become opened while everybody is turning his head and watching. And those who were there at that location will run away filled with much fear and terror; and those with the King having all prayed they will elevate him on a high spot and will proclaim him their hereditary Monarch; afterwards, having sung hymns, they will turn around and they will arrive to the palace by night time and the signs in the skies will fade and change.

Two Guardian Angels will also be leading the way, having the appearance of men dressed in white robes; and in his ears they will tell him what he must do in the future. And there will be many who would like to lay their hands upon him, but they will not do it, having seen the signs emanating from God and also because they are being constrained by Angels. And they will say to themselves: ‘we heard about him that he is the good one of God. And as far as we are concerned, we all are constrained by our own chains, and we are sharing in the sins and trespasses of these famous names also, and of those who are collecting taxes along with the very impious priests.

And, consequently, many will escape to the tenebrous and ill-lit places of the earth. And everybody remaining who did not flee having given glory to God will become pacified.

And there is also another man emanating from the East, he, too, is illustrious in his deeds and favored by fortune; he also has been a poor man, and like the Elect King he is going from glory to glory in a lifestyle of virtue; pious to a very high degree; his body and hair are shining; and he is carrying inside him the hope of the invisible God; he is similar to the poor King and likewise a Chosen One by God; and he also has received from Above the calling of God and has been imbued by the Light of God [the Holy spirit].”

2. Additional Poetic Form Oracles Organized by Leo the Philosopher

These are listed in Jacques-Paul Migne’s Patrologiae Graecae pp. 1129-1140. These may have been originated from the lost Sibylline Books nos. 9 and 10

Oraculum 9 Titled: Act of Giving Thanks

You have pretended a vulpine kind of friendship
and you have been slow to anger and capable of controlling your emotions;
as a man who is very much mature in years and very wise.
And having come twice to the islands of the 7 tablets,
you let the others slaughter each other off.
And, woe, woe, so much blood has been shed.
You have stretched out your hands with great gratitude
and in the end it is you who have received the scepter as your trophy of victory.
Two have been doing the beating,
the third one ended up being the first one.

Oraculum 10 Titled: Sovereignty
Woe to you city of the Seven Hills
when the twentieth element is being praised on your
At that moment the ruin and perdition of your strong leaders will have finally arrived,
and of those who judge without justice;
and of that certain leader of yours who has scythe-like fingers
which scythe is the scythe of desolation and a blasphemy against the
Most High God.

Oraculum 12 Titled: Reverence, Piety
You, the foreigner who is living in a stone, come, get out of it.
Abandon the shedding of tears and the wailing and the agricultural
type of living in the countryside and resume your life,
you who were dead and filled with sorrows;
having recollected once again the best of everything
and having dispersed for ever the trophy of injustice and lawlessness.
And when the major star (the sun) will be seen black (through a solar eclipse?)
naked you will go forward once again in the bottom of the earth.

Oraculum 13 Titled: Piety
The one who is considered already dead and escaping notice or identification,
many know him, although nobody sees him;
He will rise up, all of a sudden, as if from a wine-revelry
and will certainly hold the scepters of the kingdom.
For, a column having been seen in the vault of heaven as if twisted by spinning,
an invisible herald will thrice thunderously shout:
“Make haste and go to the western parts of the Seven-Hilled city
and (there) you will find a servant of mine, a man dear to Me;
Bring him to the royal palace, he wears a helmet, he is soft-spoken,
calm, noble-minded, he has a very sharp knowledge of the future.
Thus, Oh Seven-Hilled city, you will achieve sovereignty once again.”

Oraculum 14 Titled: Preference
Lo, and behold, a man of royal issue
who has been concealed in the earth for a very, very long time,
naked comes forth out of a stone without sunlight
and begins a second life full of splendor and shining.
He is the very picture of renewed life, true and veritable.
However, when the suns double an even number of times,
He will die and be buried under a stone.

Oraculum 15 Titled: Election
Receive the gift, do not grow lazy, old man.
But having received it, oh you, the best of them all, be consistent with its purpose.
And you should lead the command towards beneficial results.
And to everything else, besides,
without being fearful of the passing of time.
Because you received time from Above, only by the Grace of God.
And after a certain period of time passes, have a happy death.
Why are you astounded as you receive this message?
Oh, you the best one, abandon the human habitation
Go forth, to Him Who is calling you to the glory awaiting you.
Having spent in the proper manner the days given to you to be a ruler,
fill up the entire earth with good deeds.
And then go to the heavenly chambers.
in you there is the beginning and the end of the good things.

Title: Oracle of the most wise Emperor Leo the Philosopher concerning the Resurrection of Constantinople
You, who have been the courtyard of Byzas
and the home of Constantine,
Rome, Babylon and another, new, Zion,
in three hundred and three hundred minus about twenty you will become the seat of power.
You will amass the gold of the nations
as if it were the dust of the earth.
And you will be the leader of all the surrounding powers.
But a blond nation, with fire-red hair will turn to ashes
and completely destroy your power.
You will appear again as if you had never began.
Till the moment that the finger of God will be visible at dawn
and will strike two fingers with the saving hand
these fingers having edges like the hot currents emanating from a furnace
and with those they take revenge over the death of their father.
And from all around, your children will arrive in a centripetal fashion,
from the periphery to the center and justice will be administered;
you will become renewed and renovated again
and your power will be greater than ever in the past.
Because you will become the house of the Glory of God
and those who are near, will prostrate themselves before your feet.

3. Additional Prophecies Preserved by Emperor Leo by a Monk Named Leontios on the Future King

(Untitled) prophecy by Monk Leontios
“Oh, look at this hawk who is coming to sit and watch over the vineyard for three days in a row: namely, Sunday, Monday and all of Tuesday; yet, on Wednesday the heir of the vineyard is arriving; he is holding a bench and a sword and lit candles and a table set up for a banquet; the clergy dressed up in festive robes are following behind him carrying religious books and chanting hymns, whose text is as follows: ‘Lord, took down from Heaven upon this vineyard of Yours and visit it, and restore it and repair it, for, it was Your own hand Which planted it.’

And after finishing these words, the vineyard becomes fenced off all around, and everybody is called in and they are preparing to meet the heir and demand to know where is he now, because they have been told that the vineyard belongs to him; and having entered and appeared before him they enquire: ‘what is your name?’ and he responds to them with these words: “the poor one, the poor-lion, my name is IW (iota omega, Joe or John???) I was a fugitive from everybody and I have only come to fulfill my 36 days. (i.e. days = years).

Poetic prophecy by Monk Leontios concerning Constantinople and the King who will be under the protection of the Angels

Rejoice, oh most unhappy one, oh New Babylon! (note: Constantinople is New Rome, i.e. New Babylon)
For, God from Heaven has watched, He alone, and He saw,
and He took pity of your utter undoing (destruction).
Therefore, accept now with eagerness
all bountiful Grace that gracefully is being offered to you
Accept with equal eagerness also the peace in its entirety.
An Angel of the Lord arrives bringing peace,
carried down to you, when you had despaired.
You, who are the New Babylon rejoice now on behalf of Zion!
New Babylon, dance, bounce and leap greatly,
make known even to those in Hades what a Grace you have received.
Because that peace which was yours to enjoy in times past,
nd which God deprived you of in the course of battles,
receive it once more from the hand of an Angel.
God once again took pity of you and became compassionate
towards you softening every evil wrought upon you by impious nations.

(Untitled) prophecy by Monk Leontios
A column will appear and a great voice will be heard;
Go in a hurry to the West of the Seven-Hilled City;
you will find there a man who is dear to Me;
he is given to prayer, he has dark hair, hon colored skin
he is gentle and noble-minded;
he is cognizant of the things of the future;
and on his right foot he has a sizeable callosity;
Many know him, although nobody sees him;
because he will become manifest all at once as if rising from his sleep;
bring him, bring him, to the royal palace;
he will reign for the duration of four times nine years,
and once again, oh, City of Seven Hills the dominion will be yours.

Another prophecy by Monk Leontios in prose
“As it has been said, this man, having ascended the throne, will strike and annihilate all the impious nations and will chase them away, and Egypt will become a waste land and every city and village will become inhabited again, and the entire earth will enjoy peace, and every one will return to his own country, and the emperor’s reign will last for 36 years.

The fame and the excellence of this King has gone out (from Constantinople?) and reached every corner of the earth and many wise men, scribes, highly placed magistrates and consuls, and satraps and governors of districts and prefects and generals, having been apprised that the King is in Rome have come to see him and to pay him homages, well, having gone there and having beheld him and gazed upon him, each one was granted by the King according to his wish; and they enquired the King saying: ‘what is your name?’ and he responded to them saying: ‘the poor one, the poor lion, my name is “Io”; I was a fugitive from everyone and I came to fulfill only the 36 days; I am the King who is poor, the one who is merciful to the poor and the needy and my name is iota and omega along with the long syllable, which is called ‘Io’;. And I have come to the world in order to mediate for the sake of the Christians, to take care of them for the duration of 36 years. Afterwards I will go to where I exited from; and then the wolf will also come but for a few days.”