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T h e F a t h e r s K n o w B e s t
Private revelations
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This Rock
Volume 6, Number 7/8
 July/August 1995 
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PUBLIC revelation is binding on all Christians, but private revelation is binding only on those who receive it. The Catholic Church teaches that public revelation stopped with the death of the last apostle (Vatican II, Dei Verbum 4) but private revelation has continued. As the new catechism puts it:
"Throughout the ages, there have been so-called 'private' revelations, some of which have been recognized by the authority of the Church. They do not belong, however, to the deposit of faith. It is not their role to improve or complete Christ's definitive revelation, but to help live more fully by it in a certain period of history. Guided by the magisterium of the Church, the [collective sense of the faithful] knows how to discern and welcome in these revelations whatever constitutes an authentic call of Christ or his saints to the Church.
"Christian faith cannot accept 'revelations' that claim to surpass or correct the revelation of which Christ is the fulfillment, as is the case in certain non-Christian religions and also in certain recent sects which base themselves on such 'revelations'" (Catechism of the Catholic Church 67).
Non-Catholics tend to go to one extreme or the other on private revelation. The sixteenth century Protestant Reformers denied all private revelation--they had to, for all the miracles and private revelations given over the previous fifteen hundred years had confirmed rather than attacked the Catholic faith. The Reformers' actions were in direct disobedience to the standing, never-revoked command of the New Testament: "Do not quench the Spirit. Do not despise prophetic utterances. Test everything; retain what is good" (1 Thess. 5:19-21).
After the Reformers' removal of all private revelation, and thus the distinction between public and private revelation, Protestants were left vulnerable to thinking any new revelations would be binding on all Christians. Thus in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, groups which do just this have arisen out of Protestant circles--for example, Irvingites, Mormons, Seventh-Day Adventists, and the "Word-Faith" or "Prosperity Gospel" movement.
When the Pentecostal movement started in 1900, it had a problem explaining why the private revelations had stopped for so many centuries, as the original Protestant Reformers claimed. The answer, as the following passages from the early Church Fathers show, is that they never did.
Hermas
"The vision which I saw, my brethren, was of the following nature . . . [An] old woman approached, accompanied by six young men . . . [And] she said to me . . . 'Lo! Do you not see opposite to you a great tower, built upon the waters, of splendid square stones?' For the tower was built square by the six young men who had come with her. But myriads of men were carrying stones to it, some dragging them from the depths, others removing them from the land, and they handed them to these six young men. . . . [And the woman said:] 'The tower which you see building is myself, the Church . . . the tower is built upon the waters . . . because your life has been and will be "saved through water" [1 Pet. 3:20-21] . . . the six young men . . . are the holy angels of God . . . [And] when the tower is finished and built, then comes the end" (The Shepherd 1:3:1-8 [A.D. 147]).
Justin Martyr
"For the prophetical gifts remain with us [Christians], even to the present time. Hence you [Jews] ought to understand that [the gifts] formerly among your nation have been transferred to us" (Dialogue with Trypho the Jew 82 [A.D. 155]).
Martyrdom of Polycarp
"While he [Polycarp] was thus at his prayers, three days before his arrest, he had a vision in which he saw flames reducing his pillow to ashes; whereupon he turned to his companions and said, 'I must be going to be burnt alive.' . . . [After his arrest, the crowd called] loud demands for the Asiarch Philip to let loose a lion at Polycarp. However, he told them that the rules would not allow him to do so since he had already declared the beast-fighting closed; whereupon they decided to set up a unanimous outcry that he should have Polycarp burnt alive" (Martyrdom of Polycarp 5, 12 [A.D. 156]).
"Polycarp was . . . bishop of the Catholic Church at Smyrna and a teacher in our own day who combined both apostle and prophet in his own person. For indeed, every word that ever fell from his lips either has had or will have its fulfillment" (ibid. 16).
Irenaeus
"In like manner we do also hear many brethren in the Church who possess prophetic gifts and who through the Spirit speak all kinds of languages and who bring to light for the general benefit the hidden things of men and declare the mysteries of God" (Against Heresies 5:6:1 [A.D. 189]).
Pionius
"I, Pionius, have made a fresh transcript of [The Martyrdom of Polycarp]. I found them after Polycarp the blessed had revealed their whereabouts in a vision, as I will explain hereafter. Time had reduced them almost to tatters, but I gathered them carefully together in the hope that the Lord Jesus may likewise gather myself among his elect into his heavenly kingdom." (Martyrdom of Polycarp, copyist note 2 [A.D. 250]).
Constantine the Great
"A most marvelous sign appeared to him [Constantine] from heaven, the account of which it might have been hard to believe had it been related by any other person. But since the victorious emperor himself long afterwards declared it to the writer of this history [Eusebius] . . . and confirmed his statement by an oath, who could hesitate to accredit the relation, especially since the testimony of after-time has established its truth? He said that about noon, when the day was already beginning to decline, he saw with his own eyes a trophy of a cross of light in the heavens, above the sun, and bearing the inscription 'Conquer By This.' At this sight he was struck with amazement, and his whole army also, which followed him on this expedition and witnessed the miracle. He said, moreover, that he doubted within himself what the import of this apparition could be. While he continued to ponder and reason on its meaning, night suddenly came on; then in his sleep God appeared to him with the same sign which he had seen in the heavens and commanded him to make a likeness of that sign . . . and to use it as a safeguard in all engagements with his enemies. . . . [B]eing struck with amazement at the extraordinary vision, and resolving to worship no other God save him who had appeared to him, he sent for those who were acquainted with the mysteries of his doctrines and inquired who that God was and what was intended by the sign of the vision he had seen" (Eusebius, Life of Constantine 1:28-32 [A.D. 337]).
Anthony of Egypt
"[St. Anthony told his monks:] When, therefore, they [demons] come by night to you and wish to tell the future, or say 'We are the angels,' give no heed, for they lie. . . . But if they shamelessly stand their ground, capering and change their forms of appearance, fear them not, nor shrink, nor heed them as though they were good spirits. For the presence either of the good or evil by the help of God can easily be distinguished. The vision of the holy ones is not fraught with distraction: 'For they will not strive, nor cry, nor shall anyone hear their voice' (Matt. 12:19. But it comes quietly and gently that an immediate joy, gladness, and courage arise in the soul." (Ambrose, Life of St. Anthony 35 [A.D. 359]).
Augustine
"For even now miracles are wrought in the name of Christ, whether by his sacraments or by the prayers or relics of his saints . . . The miracle which was wrought at Milan when I was there. . . [and when people] had gathered to the bodies of the martyrs Protasius and Gervasius, which had long lain concealed and unknown but were now made known to the bishop Ambrose in a dream and discovered by him" (City of God 22:8 [A.D. 419]).
"A certain man by [the] name Curma [was in a coma] . . . He was seeing many things like as in a dream, which, when at the last after a great many days he woke up, he told that he had seen. . . . [He also saw] Hippo, where he was by me seemingly baptized . . . After much that he saw, he narrated how he had, moreover, been led into Paradise and how it was there said to him, when he was then dismissed to return to his own family, 'Go, be baptized if you want to be in this place of the blessed.' Thereupon being admonished to be baptized by me, he said it was done already. He who was talking with him replied, 'Go, be truly baptized, for you only saw that in a vision.' After this he recovered, went his way to Hippo. . . . He was baptized [and] at the close of the holy days [of Easter] returned to his own place . . . Why should we not believe these to be ang elic operations through the dispensation of the providence of God?" (On the Care to be Had for the Dead 15 [A.D. 421]).
"[T]he martyrs, by the very benefits which are given to them that pray, indicate that they take an interest in the affairs of men . . . For not only by effects of benefits, but in the very beholding of men, it is certain that the confessor Felix . . . appeared when the barbarians were attacking Nola, as we have heard not by uncertain rumors but by sure witness" (ibid. 19).
St. Patrick
"And there truly [in Ireland] one night I heard in my sleep a voice saying to me, 'You fast well; soon you will go to your fatherland.' Again, after I very short time, I heard the heavenly voice saying to me, 'Lo, your ship is ready.' It was not near at hand, but was distant, perhaps two hundred miles. I had never been there, nor did I know any person living there. Thereupon I took flight and left the man with whom I had been for six years. I came in the strength of God, who prospered my way for good, and I met with nothing to alarm me until I reached that ship" (Confession of St. Patrick 17 [A.D. 452]).
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