A 12-Century Irish Saint Reckons the Next Pope Is the Last

The Journal
February 12, 2013

http://www.thejournal.ie/prophecy-of-the-popes-saint-malachyh-792810-Feb2013/

Saint Malachy - the first Irish saint canonised by a pope - supposedly predicted the identities of all 112 popes after his life. Benedict is the 111th.

SAINT MALACHY is not the most high-profile of saints – but the oncoming vacancy in the office of pope has thrust him back into the limelight.

Malachy is the supposed author of the ‘Prophecy of the Popes’ – a list allegedly written in 1139, but ‘rediscovered’ in 1590 – which claims to have predicted the identities (or at least attributes) of each pope between the time of its writing and the end of the Church.

While its authenticity is not affirmed by the Church itself, and while it is impossible to know whether the list was written retrospectively before it was first published in 1595, it appears to have been successful in some ways – though of course its predictions are suitably vague so as to apply to most cases anyway.

The argument that the list is a hoax gathers further weight with the fact that for each of the popes mentioned before 1590, it describes something historical about their upbringing or background – but only makes vague references to events in subsequent pontificates.

Nonetheless, the whole point of Malachy’s list – which is occasionally attributed to Nostradamus, supposedly to give the latter a way of publishing a prediction without having it stained by association with his name – is that it claims to predict the existence of 112 popes from the time of its writing.

The first of those popes is Celestine II; the 111th is the current pontiff, Benedict XVI. (The full list is outlined in detail on Wikipedia.)

The prophecy refers to the 112th pope as…

Peter the Roman, who will nourish the sheep in many tribulations; when they are finished, the city of seven hills will be destroyed, and the dreadful judge will judge his people. The end.