Archbishop's 1850's vision of Cuba's patron saint
told of bearded leader's demise in 40th year of rule
An obscure Cuban legend, based on the reported vision of a Spanish priest 150 years ago that tells of a bearded leader who rules with an iron fist and dies in his bed in the fourth decade of his reign, has gained fresh currency with the recent illness of Cuba's dictator, Fidel Castro.
According to a strong oral and written tradition preserved by the Catholic congregation of Santiago de Cuba, a Spanish priest, sent to the city to be it's archbishop in the 1850s, had a vision of Cuba's patron saint, La Virgen de la Caridad del Cobre, in which she told him of a coming Cuban leader who bears an uncanny resemblance to Castro.
San Antonio Mar?a Claret arrived in Santiago ? Castro's home province ? in 1851. Pastoral duties took him into the Sierra Maestra ? the mountainous region from which Castro launched his revolution and seizure of power in the late 1950s. While riding on horseback, he later told his congregation, the virgin appeared to him in a vision to tell him of Cuba's future.
Fidel Castro, 1959
According to the legend, she spoke of a "very bold young person" who would arise from those very mountains ? armed, bearded and triumphant. He would be accompanied by other bearded men with long hair.
They would arrive wearing the medal of the virgin around their necks, but soon would deny their belief in it.
The young leader would be acclaimed by all because of many popular reforms, but little by little, he would seize all the power, weighing down the Cuban people with an iron dictatorship that would last 40 years. During his 4 decades in power, Cuba would undergo numerous calamities and shortages. The bearded leader, the prophecy said, would die in his bed.
A short period of instability, conflict and bloodshed, would follow his death, but "soon" Cuba would rise little by little to an outstanding position among the nations.
San Antonio Mar?a Claret
In February 1857, Mar?a Claret returned to Spain to serve as confessor to the queen.
"So far, everything that it predicts has happened," a church worker at La Ermita de la Caridad chapel in Miami's Coconut Grove told the Miami Herald. "A lot of people are taking about it."
The Cuban government last week announced that Castro, 79, had temporarily transferred control of the government to his younger brother Raul so that he could be operated on for internal bleeding. Neither of the two leaders has made a public appearance since the announcement.
Cuba's vice president denied media reports today that Castro had been diagnosed with stomach cancer. The official says Castro has "been made well by the operation and is recuperating favorably.
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/artic ... E_ID=51407
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