The Secrets of La Salette    217 

parents will be a nun and a Bishop, for the Antichrist is the offspring of the 

mortal sins committed by Christians, especially priests and religious. 

    The Antichrist will be successful in evil endeavors from an early age. He 

will be evil even at his birth, but will not give himself over entirely to the 

devil and to the power of evil until he is older. He will become a military 

leader by the age of 12 years. Recall that Manasseh, a leader of ancient 

Israel, began to reign when he was only 12 years old (2 Chronicles 33:1). 

 He did what was evil in the sight of the L

ORD

, according to the abominable 

practices of the nations whom the L

ORD

 drove out before the people of 

Israel.  (2 Chronicles 33:2). Manasseh was a foreshadowing of Antichrist. I 

do not know at what age Antichrist will become leader of the whole world. 

Perhaps this will occur when he is in his thirties, or perhaps he will be older 

when he takes power. 

    When the Virgin Mary said that the Antichrist will be the devil incarnate, 

she did not mean that the devil could become a human being, body and 

soul. The Virgin Mary is using this expression to indicate how thoroughly 

the Antichrist will be similar to, and controlled by, the devil. He will be as if 

he were the devil incarnate. 

    Melanie  also commented on this point, as follows:  It is said that the 

antichrist will be the devil incarnate, that is to say that he will be entirely 

possessed. I have seen that the good God does not permit the demon to 

personally incarnate himself in a human soul and body, but that the demon 

under a visible form will have familiar relations with the parents of the 

antichrist, and that they will consecrate him to his service from the first 

moment of his existence. 

42

 She wrote this comment at the end of her 

handwritten copy of the secret, the one which she gave to Abbe Combe for 

the 1904 edition of Le Secret De Melanie. (The phrase,  have communication 

with  is sometimes used as an idiomatic expression to refer to sexual 

relations.) 

    The Antichrist will have brothers who are also very evil. This probably 

does not mean sons of the same parents, but brothers in the more general 

sense of close relatives or associates. 

    Holy Scripture says that Jesus had brothers (Mt 12:46; Mark 3:32; Luke 

8:19), but the ever Virgin Mary had no other children. Holy Scripture is 

using the word  brothers  in the more general sense of close relatives. This 

usage is also seen in the book of Tobit (Tobit 5:10 13; 6:14; 7:16; 8:4). 

    Antichrist and his brothers (his peers) win brilliant military victories by 

the age of twelve. This is a contrasting parallel to Jesus' life, for at the age of 

twelve Jesus taught and contended with the teachers in the Temple of 

Jerusalem,  and all who heard him were amazed at his understanding and 

his answers.  (Luke 2:47).