IT'S NOT OFTEN THAT AN AUTHOR GETS A SIGN FROM HEAVEN AS A BLESSING TO A STORY. IT NEVER EVER HAPPENS THAT HE ACTUALLY GETS TO TAKE OVER 40 PHOTOGRAPHS OF IT! ...This is David Dupuis' story of his story.
AUGUST 26, 1978, would turn out to be life-altering for a budding, history-loving writer from small town Canada! Why? On that date, a new and exciting pope had been elected at the Vatican in Rome, Italy! But then, thirty-three days later, on September 28, Pope John Paul I was dead! The world and the Catholic Church and its believers were shocked. So was a future award-winning author named David Dupuis, and his interest in world history and Vatican intrigue and papal politics exploded. Thus began a forty year odyssey of writing a story about a special, gifted boy, who would become a priest, destined to be the last pope at the end of the world - at Armageddon.
Over the ensuing years, Dupuis would be drawn into and inspired by the works of Colleen McCullough's "The Thorn Birds," Henry Morton Robinson's "The Cardinal," Father Malachy Martin's "Hostage To The Devil," Peter Blatty's "The Exorcist," and especially Morris West's excellent papal trilogy, "The Shoes of the Fisherman," "The Clown's of God," and "Lazarus." Then David's fascination with spiritual thrillers would be further cemented by spiritual blockbusters, James' Redfield's "The Celestine Prophecy," Ken Follett's "The Pillars of the Earth," and Dan Brown's "Angels and Demons" and "The DaVinci Code."
Dupuis wrote 2,000 hand-written pages of this "pope" story but then, work as a psychiatric nurse, marriage, family, children, volunteering and other writing projects, and life, got in the way. But one day his two grown children challenged him about a writing project he would pick up periodically and then return to a shelf: "Dad! Get at that pope story! It's your passion. It's what you're meant to write!" So he researched ancient seers who had visions of Armageddon, a battle between good and evil and found Hildegard of Bingen.
Then, the morning of DECEMBER 4, 2016 arrived, and David went out onto his deck on Penetanguishene Bay in Ontario, Canada, to take his daily Facebook sunrise picture! He had spent a restless night after finally choosing Saint Hildegard as the seer for his modern-day fictional tale. As the sun rose before his eyes, it transformed into a flaming cross that lasted eight minutes! It was so bright that he couldn't look at it as he took pictures. If he hadn't had his forty photographs as proof, Dupuis would have thought that he was crazy. But he wasn't. And what was even crazier was finding out later that when Hildegard died in 1179, a faming cross appeared in the sky over her convent, witnessed by her fellow sisters. Wow!
A retired psychiatric nurse, a father of two, and a grandfather of three, David lives with his companion, Susan, near his home town. What was originally intended to be one book, has metamorphosized into a new historical genre, this thrilling nine-book, contemporary spiritual historical series set in our times, titled, THE HILDEGARD PROPHECIES, beginning with Novel 1, DELIVER US FROM EVIL. It's a prophetic journey of a gifted boy and his holy destiny, to save his church and a dying world from the clutches of the Antichrist at the end of days—in our time. Amazingly, it's a "churchy" story that's not, appealing to believers and non-believers alike.
As a friend once said: "It's like Stephen King, Dan Brown, Ken Follett, Colleen McCullough and Morris West came together in David's head to produce this amazing historical and spiritual journey for the ages!"
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Born and raised in Penetanguishene, Ontario, Canada, David Dupuis also wrote books on local history while chairing three major historical committees in his town while helping raise millions of dollars for historical projects. He was the catalyst for saving the Penetanguishene Centennial Museum, creating the Penetanguishene Champlain-Wendat waterfront park and the Penetanguishene Sports Hall of Fame. His efforts have been recognized with major provincial and county wards.
David also wrote three major hockey biographies beginning with the 1998 hit, “SAWCHUK: The Troubles & Triumphs of the World’s Greatest Goalie,” with Stoddart Publishing, which was made into the 2019 movie, "Goalie." Dupuis was the only author to ever get permission from the Sawchuk family to write the “authorized” biography of the great goalie.
He then co-authored the 2013 biography, “HEART OF THE BLACKHAWKS: The Pierre Pilote Story,” and “THE RED KELLY STORY,” which won the 2016 Ontario Speakers Book Award.