A medieval mystic predicted Christendom’s triumph through missionaries, not crusades

Evidence

Joachim of Fiore, the Calabrian abbot and mystic that Richard had stopped to visit on his way East, identified Muhammad and Saladin with key elements in the Apocalypse and predicted that Christendom would be devastated by an alliance between Saracen armies and Cathar heretics. This devastation would be followed by a final Christian victory to be won not by crusading armies but by humble, pious missionaries. — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 1005

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to apocalyptic millenarianism literature and to how prophetic frameworks (not policy analysis) drove medieval religious conflict, resonates with Joachim of Fiore scholarship.
• QUESTION: What specific Apocalypse passages did Joachim map Muhammad and Saladin onto—and did Cathar/Saracen alliance fears feed later crusade rhetoric against heretics?