Author: Magnus Lundberg

Images of the Celestial Messenger. Part 2.

Images of the Celestial Messenger. Part 2.

This post is the second part of my series of images of Giuseppe Maria Abbate (1886-1963), the Italian-American Celestial Messenger. They are part of my collection of documents related to Abbate and his Church. See part one.


In 1917, Abbate founded a formal church organization. It was called La Chiesa Cattolica di Nuova Gerusalemme del Messaggiero Celeste (the New Jerusalem Catholic Church of the Celestial Messenger). In Italian, the word is usually spelled “messagero,” but, for some reason, the Church always used “messagiero.” At about the same time, Abbate also established a male religious order, the Order of the Celestial Messenger.

Continue reading “Images of the Celestial Messenger. Part 2.” →

Images of the Celestial Messenger. Part 1.

Images of the Celestial Messenger. Part 1.

Giuseppe Maria Abbate (1886-1963) was the founder and leader of the New Jerusalem Church of the Celestial Messenger, based in Chicago. He was also God. In 2018, I co-authored a book about him. A few years later, I wrote a group profile for the World Religions and Spirituality Project, summarizing Abbate’s and his Church’s history and beliefs. At the time, we thought the Church’s archives had been destroyed in the early 1990s and had to rely mainly on secondary sources, including press material.

However, in 2021, something remarkable happened. I was contacted by a Chicago antique dealer who had bought a bulk of strange papers and objects as part of an estate. It proved to be a central part of Abbate’s archive! Some 100 kilos of material. The collection had been hidden away in a garage for about three decades. With the help of the Department of Theology at Uppsala University, I acquired the collection.

The discovery of the archive enables the study of the history of the Celestial Messenger and the detailed analysis of his theology and the religious practices of his Church. This is an ongoing project, and the results will be published in specialized works. However, here and in a series of posts that follow, I will briefly introduce the biography and ministry of the Celestial Messenger through a selection of the many images and photos that the Church distributed to members and potential followers.

In this first post, we follow Abbate from his birth in 1886 to the formal organization of his Church in the late 1910s. With time, Abbate’s official biography and self-understanding developed. Through much of the 1910s, he understood himself as a special envoy from heaven or a heavenly being with supernatural powers. However, in the 1920s, he became convinced of his pre-existence: he had lived on Mars before coming to earth. It also became increasingly clear that he believed he was the reincarnated Christ; that he was God. In this text, however, I will not include the elaborated biography presented in later church publications; instead, I will use the version he disseminated in the late 1910s.

Continue reading “Images of the Celestial Messenger. Part 1.” →

Uppsala Studies in Church History

Uppsala Studies in Church History

In 2017, the Department of Theology at Uppsala University launched a new open-access book series, Uppsala Studies in Church History. To date (June 2025), we have published 20 volumes: ten in English and ten in Swedish. The titles focus on both Swedish and international themes.

Uppsala Studies in Church History is an e-book series published by the Department of Theology, Uppsala University. It includes both works in English and in Swedish. The volumes are available open-access and only published in digital form on http://www.diva-portal.org.

Uppsala Studies in Church History är en skriftserie som utges vid Teologiska institutionen, Uppsala universitet. Serien innehåller arbeten på såväl svenska som engelska. Skrifterna i serien är fritt tillgängliga och utges endast i digital form på http://www.diva-portal.org.

Click on the hyperlinks below to get access to the full texts.

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Franz Engelhardt: The Fourth Seer of Fatima and Future Pope Peter II

Franz Engelhardt: The Fourth Seer of Fatima and Future Pope Peter II

Some compilations of twentieth-century alternative popes include a Julius Tischler, who asserted that he was Pope Peter II. Joachim Bouflet,who briefly described the case in his Faussaires de Dieu, is the only
researcher who offers some details. Bouflet stated that the claim was made in 1972, that Julius Tischler was a pseudonym, and that he was not a papal claimant in the strict sense but a claimant to a future papacy; he would be the last pope in history.

The person behind the pseudonym was Ferenc Egerszégi (1908–1982), a Hungarian Catholic priest who had lived in West Germany since the early 1960s. There, he officially changed his name to Franz Engelhardt. Apart from stating that he would be the pope of the End time, he made other far-reaching spiritual claims. He had been mystically present at Fatima in 1917, thus directly receiving the most known Marian apparitions of the twentieth century. Apart from the three Portuguese children, known to many Catholics, there was a “fourth seer”–himself. Unlike the other seers, Engelhardt received another, more important message from the Virgin in 1923. It was a continuation of the Fatima message and the starting point of his End time mission.

These claims are almost unknown today, even in apparitionist circles. If Franz Engelhardt is known at all today, it is probably as a sexual predator who was sentenced to prison for the abuse of minors. This
report will address Engelhardt’s background and apocalyptic teachings, as well as his life after the mystical claims in 1972.

Engelhardt report 2025Download

New Book on Polish-American Pope Adam II

New Book on Polish-American Pope Adam II

In 1927, a suspended Roman Catholic priest, Adam Anthony Oraczewski (1883‒1973), published a 60-page booklet in Kansas City, Missouri. It had a bold title: All in One True Faith. The front page features a photo of the author dressed in the papal white, declaring that as of August 7, he was Adam II, Pope of the Holy Catholic Church.

Oraczewski’s pamphlet scathingly criticized the Roman Catholic Church and proposed a drastic ecclesiastical reform that, according to the author, would lead to greater piety and human unity. The publication was the climax of fifteen years of conflicts between Oraczewski and Catholic church representatives in a long series of U.S. dioceses, parishes, and seminaries.

Among the twentieth-century alternative pontiffs we know of, Polish-American Adam II is one of the earliest and least known. In the book A Polish-American Pope:  Adam Oraczewski ‒ Adam II, I reconstruct Oraczewski’s biography by studying his own writings, newspaper articles, public records, and, not least, abundant files from ecclesiastical archives.

Oraczewski’s life story is very unusual and undoubtedly a part of the eccentric part of church history: an account of a pontiff in the periphery. It is a bewildering and tragic story, and it is worth telling.

A Polish-American Pope:  Adam Oraczewski ‒ Adam II is published as volume 19 in the ebook series Uppsala Studies in Church History and freely available here:

Uppsala Studies 19 LundbergDownload

Pennaspergilens historia

Pennaspergilens historia

I Kyrkohistorisk årsskrift 2024 har jag publicerat en artikel med titeln “Pennaspergilens historia” (se nedan för fulltext). Där jag kombinerar mina intressen för kyrkohistoria och äldre reservoarpennor

Kyrkohistorisk årsskrift ges sedan år 1900 ut av Svenska kyrkohistoriska föreningen och inkluderar såväl vetenskapliga artiklar som recensioner. För information om föreningens verksamhet och om hur man blir medlem, se föreningens hemsida.

I synnerhet under 1920- och 1930-talet, men i viss mån fram till början av 1960-talet tillverkade flera pennbolag i Förenta staterna lätt omformade reservoarpennor som salufördes som aspergiler: Holy Water Sprinklers. Tanken var att präster enkelt skulle kunna ha med sig dem i fickan när de gjorde hem- eller sjukhusbesök. Jag kallar dessa föremål pennaspergiler.

Till det yttre såg pennaspergilerna ut som ordinära pennor, om än försedda med kors på kolv eller huv. Den stora skillnaden fanns under huven. Aspergilen hade inget stift. På kolvens topp satt istället ett skruvbart perforerat lock och genom hålen kunde vigvattnet spridas vid behov.

Det är inte enkelt att ens inventera pennaspergiltillverkare och -modeller, vilket är målet med min artikel. Aspergilerna inkluderades sällan i pennbolagens kataloger och annonserades knappt, men det finns enstaka separata broschyrer och manualer. Den viktigaste källan är föremålen i sig själva. Som underlag har jag använt aspergiler från min egen samling, men också tagit hjälp av andra samlare. Dessutom har jag gått igenom försäljnings- och auktionskataloger.

Studien är kronologiskt disponerad. Den inleds på 1920-talet då de första modellerna kom ut på marknaden. 1930-talet var något av en guldålder, medan enstaka modeller tillverkades efter kriget. Minst åtta företag, samtliga i Förenta staterna, producerade pennaspergiler. De inkluderade såväl mindre bolag som några av de riktigt stora aktörerna: Parker och Waterman.

Artikeln är tillgänglig i fulltext här:

Pennaspergilens historiaDownload

För min omfattande allmänna översikt av reservoarpennans historia, se denna avdelning.

För fler bilder av pennaspergiler, se denna sida.

New Research Report on Valdir Ros – Pedro II: The Pope of Nova Iguaçu, Brazil

New Research Report on Valdir Ros – Pedro II: The Pope of Nova Iguaçu, Brazil

In 1968, Brazilian priest Valdir Ros (1942–1994) founded the Instituto Estrela Missionária (IEM; the Institute of the Missionary Star) in Urubici in his home diocese of Lages in the southern part of the country. It was an organization devoted to promoting mission among non-Christians and providing education for future missionaries. The same year, he moved to the diocese of Nova Iguaçu in the Baixada Fluminense, part of the Rio de Janeiro metropolitan era, where he also became a pastor of the impoverished parish of Riachão. The seminar was founded with the support of the diocesan bishop. Still, the IEM had an unclear canonical status for a long time, but in 1977, it received the status of a diocesan pious association (pia unio). However, that was nothing compared to Ros’ vision: to form a Latin American congregation that would contribute to world mission, not a group devoted to local parish work.

Though the relation had not been unproblematic before, in late 1979, an irreconcilable conflict grew between Valdir Ros and the bishop of Nova Iguaçu Adriano Hypólito OFM (1918–1996). There were several reasons: political,  religious, personal–and medical. In conversations, private letters, printed books, and pamphlets, Ros fiercely attacked the bishop, accusing him of being a Jew, a Communist, a Freemason–and a demon. When the conflict reached one of its many peaks in 1981, members of the IEM, too, regarded Ros as severely ill, and he was confined to a psychiatric clinic against his will. By this time, he was replaced as the parish priest in Riachão, and IEM soon left the diocese to move to another part of the country.

Continue reading “New Research Report on Valdir Ros – Pedro II: The Pope of Nova Iguaçu, Brazil” →

New Research Report: Francis Schuckardt, the Papacy, and the Apocalypse

New Research Report: Francis Schuckardt, the Papacy, and the Apocalypse

Bishop Francis K. Schuckardt (1937–2006), founder and leader of the Fatima Crusaders, the Tridentine Latin Rite Catholic Church, also known as Tridentine Latin Rite Church (TLRC), and the Congregation of Mary Immaculate Queen of the Universe (CMRI), was an important figure in early U.S. Catholic traditionalism. Without a doubt, he was also one of the most controversial.

Schuckardt condemned the Second Vatican Council (1962–1965) and the post-conciliar developments in non-uncertain terms. Towards the end of the 1960s, he publicly declared Paul VI (sed. 1963–1978) an antipope and that the Holy See was vacant, the position that was later referred to as sedevacantism. Schuckardt founded a small religious community in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, in 1967, which soon attracted larger groups of followers. In 1971, he was ordained a priest and consecrated a bishop by an independent Catholic prelate.

The group expanded from Idaho and moved its headquarters to Mount Saint Michael in Spokane, Washington state 1978. TLRC was the organization’s official name incorporated in Washington state, as they could not register as either the Catholic Church or the Roman Catholic Church, even if they asserted they were nothing less. Thus, they rarely used the name TLRC, and the adherents usually called their group the Mary Immaculate Queen of the Universe Community, of which the Fatima Crusade was the apostolate. In contrast, outsiders, especially after moving to Spokane, often called them the Tridentines.

Continue reading “New Research Report: Francis Schuckardt, the Papacy, and the Apocalypse” →

Recensioner i Kyrkohistorisk årsskrift 2007-2023

Recensioner i Kyrkohistorisk årsskrift 2007-2023

Under de senaste två decennierna har jag recenserat ett sjuttiotal böcker i facktidskrifter och kanske ytterligare ett dussin i dagspress. Recensioner är en genre som inte väger tungt i den akademiska världen. Oftast tillerkänns de inget värde överhuvudtaget. Det är inte karriärmässigt smart för en oetablerad akademiker att lägga mycket tid på att recensera böcker.

Det är synd. Jag menar att recensioner är en väsentlig del av vetenskapandet. De innebär, i den bästa av världar, ett en läsare på ett seriöst och rättvisande sätt introduceras för en annan forskares vedermödor. Ingen, ens specialisten, har möjlighet att ha överblick över allt som publiceras inom ett fält, om det inte är extremt smalt. Läsaren kan alltså uppmärksammas på böcker som hon inte kände till tidigare, men hon kan också få kunskaper om ämnen som ligger långt ifrån hennes vanliga intresseområden utan att ha möjlighet, tid eller lust att ta sig an boken i sig.

Att på ett noggrant och eftertänksamt sätt referera andras tankemödor är inte det enklaste. Det är en mer kvalificerad verksamhet än vad som ofta påstås. Att skickligt och ärligt, och med egna ord och infallsvinklar, redogöra för vad någon annan skrivit är en svår konst som kräver träning.

Visst kan, och bör, recensioner innehålla kritiska anmärkningar, men det är min erfarenhet att recensioner i specialtidskrifter ofta tenderar att bli för gnälliga. Ibland kan recensentens käpphästar bli så många att de helt döljer vad boken överhuvudtaget handlar om och mängden detaljanmärkningar kan få närmast komiska proportioner.

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Hovmålaren och bruksarrendatorn Laurens van der Plas (1579-1629)

Hovmålaren och bruksarrendatorn Laurens van der Plas (1579-1629)

I Personhistorisk tidskrift 2024:1 har jag publicerat en artikel med titeln “Från Antwerpen till Axbergshammar: Hovmålaren och bruksarrendatorn Laurens van der Plas”.

Gustav II Adolfs regeringstid (1611–1632) innebar en snabb ökning av invandringen i Sverige, inte minst från Nederländerna. En del av dessa invandrare inriktade sig på järnframställning eller exporthandel. Andra rekryterades som till exempel skeppsbyggare eller fick betydande positioner inom den statliga förvaltningen. Mindre yrkesgrupper – vetenskapsmän, arkitekter, musiker och konstnärer – rekryterades också från utlandet för att stärka, eller etablera, det svenska kulturlivet.

Studien behandlar en nederländare som var verksam inom båda områdena. Han var såväl konstnär som bruksarrendator. Laurens van der Plas (1579–1629) föddes i Antwerpen och verkade i Rotterdam, Breda och Dordrecht innan han blev hovmålare i Stockholm. Under sina sista år i livet drev han en hammarsmedja i Närke. Även om detta är en detaljerad källkritisk studie av en individ är det viktigt att inte frånse från ”det unikas generalitet.” Jag placerar alltså genomgående Laurens van der Plas i bredare historiska sammanhang och betraktar hans roll i professionella och sociala nätverk.

För att läsa texten i sin helhet, se Personhistoriska Samfundets hemsida https://personhistoriskasamfundet.org/1999-2/

Bildkälla: Östergötlands Museum