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Thursday, May 14, 2020
The Hermit of Loreto
An elderly Tom Zimmer sitting outside the Holy House.
Tom Zimmer
I’m sharing this story because I met Tom Zimmer, many years ago. I only realized after reading this story that he has died. He was an eccentric, and was known to receive Communion several times a day – since throughout the day, he attended every Mass he could. Tom also knew about and pretty much followed nearly every apparition ever reported. He had a huge devotion to The Mother of All Nations, and Our Lady of the Roses – Bayside and San Damiano. Needless to say, I was skeptical about his spirituality. He took copious notes, his writing similar in style to that of the Unabomber, Ted Kaczynski. His printing extremely small, filling every space on a sheet of paper. He did this in a spirit of poverty. Though he could be a bit critical of the post-VII Church, he was devoted to the Ordinary Form and faithful to Catholic teaching in every way.
I met him in Garabandal, then later, at San Damiano, and then again in Rome. He was tall and very thin, and had thick black hair when I met him. He looked gaunt and seemed to be fasting all the time. Without boasting, he told me he originated the Pieta prayer book, but never accepted payment. His spiritual life was devotional, many rosaries, chaplets, litanies and novenas. He prayed without ceasing. He was an authentic soul, a genuine pilgrim, and a very gentle man – albeit eccentric. I do finally believe that he was a very holy man as well. The Capuchins seem to think so as well.
I’m genuinely sorry, if not ashamed, that I dismissed him as crazy or naive, just because his spirituality/devotion was expressed in response to reputed apparitions and locutions from Heaven, and his prayer seemed to be centered around so many devotions of popular piety. Eccentrics, fools for Christ, however one describes men or women like Tom, they cling to Christ and Our Lady, and persevere to the end. Thank God for men like Tom who contradict the proud, the self-righteous, and the rigid.
(Edit note:) The claims he made about Trump are interesting, that’s all. If he made such a statement it isn’t a testimony to Trump’s personal holiness. Indeed, he could be a bad man and yet under his watch, the U.S. could well return ‘back to God’ as Tom put it. That said, as far as promonitions and locutions go, remember what St. John of the Cross said regarding them:
“[…] Souls are misled by imparting to God’s locutions and revelations a literal interpretation, and interpretation according to the outer rind. As has been explained, God’s chief objective in conferring these revelations is to express and impart the elusive, spiritual meaning contained in the words. This spiritual meaning is richer and more plentiful than the literal meaning and transcends those limits.”[…] “Anyone bound to the letter, locution, form, or apprehensible figure cannot avoid serious error and will later become confused for having been led by the literal sense and not having allowed for the spiritual meaning which is divested of the literal sense. (‘The letter kills, the spirit gives life’ – 2 Cor. 3:6)” – Read St. John of the Cross, The Ascent, Bk II, Chapter 18 and 19
The Story about Zimmer:
[I] spoke with Fr. Giuseppe Santarelli, who has been in Loreto for decades and would surely know more.
I knew Fr. Santarelli to be one of the more erudite and learned friars in Loreto. He works as the director of the “Congregazione Universale della Santa Casa” which promotes devotion to the Holy House and publishes a magazine, among other things. So I popped in and introduced myself.
I immediately sensed that Fr. Santarelli, not much taller than five feet, was a kindly gentleman. I told him that I was there to inquire about an American “penitent” who lived in Loreto back in the 1990s and prayed frequently in the Holy House.
Fr. Santarelli cut me off, “Ah sì, Thomas Zimmer si chiamava… certo che mi ricordo…” (“Ah yes, Thomas Zimmer was his name, of course I remember him…”). He went on to say that everyone in Loreto knew of him.
I told him about the “premonition” Tom had made about Donald Trump and that a video of an American priest discussing it had just gone viral on the internet. Fr. Santarelli just smiled and added that he did not know anything about that, but that him making such a prophecy was perfectly in character. I asked him what he knew about Thomas.
He said Tom was in Loreto for about ten years, he was very pious and devoted, he went to Mass every opportunity he could, he was constantly in prayer, he spoke fluent Italian and possibly other languages, and the friars held him in high regard. The only issue that any friars may have had with him is that he received Communion more than twice daily, and they asked him to refrain from doing so. He said that he knew Tom had gone back to the US before he died. He didn’t recall exactly, but he thought somewhere around 2008.
He said that the basilica had received word of his death and they had a record of it. He took me into another room where there were some archives and pulled out a ledger or two, but could not find the document he was looking for.
He then said that he had a photo of Tom, and he pulled out a hardbound book from a different shelf. It was a type of album. In it, Tom Zimmer can be seen frail and hunched over leaning on a cane sitting in front of the Holy House. He let me take a picture of it. – Tom Zimmer, Hermit of Loreto
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If you’ve read Charisma or my newsletter, you’ve read about some of the pre-election prophecies that said God had raised up Donald Trump and he would win. I personally know four prophets who said this. I went out on a limb and reported this before the election, knowing if it didn’t happen, I would be embarrassed. But it did come to pass.
Recently, a friend sent me a story from the internet about a Roman Catholic priest that is so incredible I hardly know whether to believe it. Since we don’t run this type of article in Charisma, I decided to run it here. I am compelled to share it, if only to make you wonder if it might be true and if it’s one more confirmation—from a very different perspective—that God somehow raised up Donald Trump.
After the election, the remarkable prophecy came to light that a Catholic “holy man” named Tom Zimmer prophesied in the 1980s that “Donald Trump would lead America back to God.” Zimmer, who died on Sept 10, 2009, was known as the “Hermit of Loreto,” a town on the east coast of Italy. An American, he moved to Loreto in the early 1970s and lived there until 2008, when he returned to America to die. He was no ordinary Catholic. He co-authored the Pieta prayer book, which sold millions of copies, and is said to have attended Mass many times a day.
The month after Trump’s inauguration, an American priest named Giacomo Capoverdi posted a video on YouTube that tells this amazing story. A few weeks later, Catholic blogger Brett Thomas, Secular Order of St. Francis, wrote about it. He tells about the video and how the Rev. Capoverdi says he met the Hermit of Lorento.
Capoverdi said it was around 2000 when a friend of his, an Italian-American doctor named Claudio Curran, told him he had to meet this holy man. He took the train from Rome to Loreto the next time he was there, went to the basilica and saw an old man sitting on the floor hunched over in prayer at the “Holy House”—which Catholics believe was the home of Mary from Nazareth. Capoverdi seems to believe the story that, to save the house from being destroyed by Arabs during the Crusades, angels transported it to Loreto, now a place of Catholic veneration.
Capoverdi asked him in English if he was Thomas [Zimmer], and the two had a delightful conversation. When Trump was elected, Dr. Curran called and told him that, back in the 1980s, Tom Zimmer said he had received a “premonition” and that “a certain man would lead America back to God”—and that man would be none other than Donald J. Trump.
“The millionaire playboy from New York?” the incredulous doctor is said to have asked Zimmer.
“Yes,” the Hermit of Loreto responded, adding he was so sure Donald Trump would become a great spiritual leader of America that he wrote his name on a brick and had it placed in the reconstruction of St. Peter’s Holy Door after the Jubilee so Trump would receive blessings from the many Masses that would be said in the Vatican.
Thomas wrote: “After looking into Tom Zimmer, the ‘Hermit of Loreto,’ I have no reason to doubt Capoverdi’s statements that Thomas Zimmer communicated to his friend that he received a “premonition” that Donald Trump would “lead America back to God.” He then says what the church says to do in order to determine whether a prophecy is true or false. First: Was the prophet a good and virtuous person? Zimmer was. Next, the prophecy must not contradict Scripture or church doctrine. Here, too, “there is nothing scriptural or in church teachings that would suggest that a political leader cannot lead people to God; on the contrary, Scripture indicates it as a duty,” Brett writes.
Finally, Thomas says the prophecy must come true. And of course, there’s also the possibility of searching for the brick at St. Peter’s door with Donald Trump’s name on it—to see if Zimmer really left it there. It does seem extraordinary that a prayerful elderly man would have had such an intuition about Donald Trump as a future Christian leader when Trump was, indeed, living a life quite the opposite. Here we must wait and see if that happens, but I’m sure whether or not Trump leads America back to God will be open to dispute and interpretation.
Watch the video to see if you think the story is valid and let me know your thoughts. {eoa}
Tom’s Substack
1983 Prophecy: Donald Trump Will Lead America Back to God
James Lasher
Nov 14, 2024
1983 Prophecy: Donald Trump Will Lead America Back to God
Originally reported by Charisma on July 7, 2017.
A striking prophecy about Donald Trump from the 1980s, attributed to a devout Roman Catholic named Tom Zimmer, prophesies that Trump would “lead America back to God.”
This story gained renewed attention following Trump’s second election victory, pointing to Zimmer, known as the “Hermit of Loreto,” who lived as a prayerful recluse in Loreto, Italy. Zimmer, who passed away on Sept. 10, 2009, was no ordinary Catholic. A co-author of the Pieta prayer book, which sold millions of copies, Zimmer was said to have attended Mass several times daily as part of his deep religious devotion.
The prophecy came to light shortly after Trump’s inauguration when an American priest named Giacomo Capoverdi shared Zimmer’s story in a YouTube video.
A few weeks later, Catholic blogger Brett Thomas from the Secular Order of St. Francis reported on Capoverdi’s video and offered further context.
Capoverdi explained that he first learned of Zimmer’s prophecy in 2000 from an Italian-American doctor, Claudio Curran, who urged him to meet the “holy man” of Loreto.
When Capoverdi arrived in Loreto, he found Zimmer at the “Holy House,” a Catholic shrine believed to be the original home of Mary from Nazareth.
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In Capoverdi’s words, “When Trump was elected, Dr. Curran called and told him that, back in the 1980s, Tom Zimmer said he had received a ‘premonition’ and that ‘a certain man would lead America back to God’—and that man would be none other than Donald J. Trump.”
An astonished Dr. Curran reportedly asked, “The millionaire playboy from New York?”
Zimmer, unshaken, replied, “Yes,” and was so confident in his vision that he even “wrote [Trump’s] name on a brick and had it placed in the reconstruction of St. Peter’s Holy Door after the Jubilee so Trump would receive blessings from the many Masses that would be said in the Vatican.”
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Thomas, the Catholic blogger, explored the story’s credibility.
After investigating Zimmer, Thomas wrote, “I have no reason to doubt Capoverdi’s statements that Thomas Zimmer communicated to his friend that he received a ‘premonition’ that Donald Trump would ‘lead America back to God.’”
He explained that discerning the validity of a prophecy involves evaluating three elements: the prophet’s character, the prophecy’s alignment with Scripture and church teachings, and its ultimate fulfillment.
To the first point, Thomas observed, “Was the prophet a good and virtuous person? Zimmer was.”
For the second, he noted, “There is nothing scriptural or in church teachings that would suggest that a political leader cannot lead people to God; on the contrary, Scripture indicates it as a duty.”
Lastly, Thomas acknowledged the importance of whether a prophecy comes true.
He added that evidence of Zimmer’s faith in his prophecy could lie in searching for the brick bearing Trump’s name at St. Peter’s door.
Thomas concluded, “Here we must wait and see if that happens, but I’m sure whether or not Trump leads America back to God will be open to dispute and interpretation.”
Should Zimmer’s prophecy be fulfilled, it stands as an extraordinary example of faith, prayer and endurance.
The idea that Zimmer, a secluded Catholic elder, could have had such an intuition about Trump remains a thought-provoking possibility—one that may continue to resonate among those who view Trump’s role as more than political one.
Whether Trump will, in fact, lead America back to God may be seen only in time.
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