St. Malachy's prophecy: only two popes remain.

I'm not sure if you have heard of this, but it was interesting, at least I thought.

The most famous and best known prophecies about the popes are those attributed to St. Malachy. In 1139 he went to Rome to give an account of the affairs of his diocese to the pope, Innocent II, who promised him two palliums for the metropolitan Sees of Armagh and Cashel. While at Rome, he received (according to the Abbé Cucherat) the strange vision of the future wherein was unfolded before his mind the long list of illustrious pontiffs who were to rule the Church until the end of time. The same author tells us that St. Malachy gave his manuscript to Innocent II to console him in the midst of his tribulations, and that the document remained unknown in the Roman Archives until its discovery in 1590 (Cucherat, "Proph. de la succession des papes", ch. xv). They were first published by Arnold de Wyon, and ever since there has been much discussion as to whether they are genuine predictions of St. Malachy or forgeries. The silence of 400 years on the part of so many learned authors who had written about the popes, and the silence of St. Bernard especially, who wrote the "Life of St. Malachy", is a strong argument against their authenticity, but it is not conclusive if we adopt Cucherat's theory that they were hidden in the Archives during those 400 years.

The last of these prophecies concerns the end of the world and is as follows: "In the final persecution of the Holy Roman Church there will reign Peter the Roman, who will feed his flock amid many tribulations, after which the seven-hilled city will be destroyed and the dreadful Judge will judge the people. The End." It has been noticed concerning Petrus Romanus, who according to St. Malachy's list is to be the last pope, that the prophecy does not say that no popes will intervene between him and his predecessor designated Gloria olivoe. It merely says that he is to be the last, so that we may suppose as many popes as we please before "Peter the Roman". Cornelius a Lapide refers to this prophecy in his commentary "On the Gospel of St. John" (C. xvi) and "On the Apocalypse" (cc. xvii-xx), and he endeavours to calculate according to it the remaining years of time.

This is what he said about John Paul II:

De labore Solis
(of the eclipse of the sun, or from the labour of the sun)
Hist.:Karol Wojtyla was born on May 18, 1920 during a solar eclipse. He also comes from behind the former Iron Curtain. He might also be seen to be the fruit of the intercession of the Woman Clothed with the Sun labouring in Revelation 12 (because of his devotion to the Virgin Mary).

John Paul I:

De medietate Lunae
(of the half of the moon)
Hist.: Albino Luciani, born in Canale d'Ogardo, diocese of Belluno, (beautiful moon) Elected pope on august 26, his reign lasted about a month, from half a moon to the next half...

Paul VI:

Flos florum
(flower of flowers)
Hist.: his arms displayed three lilies.

John XXIII:

Pastor et Nauta
(pastor and marine)
Hist.: prior to his election he was patriarch of Venice, a marine city, home of the gondolas

Anyone know more about this?

according to this is only going to be an interim Pope for only a few years before "Peter the Roman".

that you can take a small snippet of vague stuff and apply to almost any life. I don't see any obvious connection to "Labor of the Sun" to John Paul II.

Also, it doesn't really say that there are only two more popes. It says Peter of Rome will be the LAST pope, but it's not clear that such a pope immediately follows Gloria Olivae.

Also, there seems to be some dispute as to whether the so-called prophecies were actually written by Malachy at the time. Evidently, they were hidden for a very long time.

in short, such prophecising is a matter of people reading into things what they want to see. People do it with Nostradamus all the time. If a prophecy is vague enough, you can make it fit anything.

not sure if I believe what I heard.

do you REALLY think any upcoming pope is bonkers enough to call himself Peter?

And do you think the college of Cardinals are crazy enough to elect a Roman named Piero or anything even close to Peter if that's on the menu? I just can't help but think that they'd all kinda go, "mmmm.... all things being equal, let's not take the risk."

Most of the priests I've known - an upper clergy as well - have been fairly rational, sensible, intelligent men with a solid education and not much patience for conspiracy theories.

Besides, if the Church isn't going to accept the Pope Joan documents (which have a 400 year gap, uncertain provenance, and similar questions about their accuracy), which only claim that the corruption of the 9th century allowed for a woman to get on the throne, do you really think they're going to put much faith in equally suspect documents that predict the *Anti-Christ* will become Pope?

I'm just saying I think prophecy is a bit of an interpretive device.

In Search Of...

He was Archbishop of Krakow, where Copernicus had attended university.

I've also heard that before John XXIII was elected, some cardinals were seen sailing up and down the Tiber with sheep in their boats.

the prophecies were published. We don't know how many popes between Gloria Olivae (the next pope, according to the list) and Peter of Rome (the last pope).

For the Pastor et Nauta (Shepherd and Sailor) prophecy, Cardinal Spellman of the United States loaded a boat with sheep and sailed it up and down the Tiber river.

Interesting analysis here. Search Google on the keywords "last pope prophecies" for more.

And I still have no freaking clue how anyone is getting what they're getting out of any of this. :shrug:
Duckie

http://sunearth.gsfc.nasa.gov/eclipse/SEmono/HSE2005/HSE2005.html

snip- "On Friday, 2005 April 08, a hybrid1 eclipse of the Sun will be visible from within a narrow corridor which traverses the far Southern Hemisphere. The path of the Moon's shadow begins southeast of New Zealand and stretches across the Pacific Ocean to Panama, Colombia and Venezuela. A partial eclipse will be seen within the much broader path of the Moon's penumbral shadow, which includes New Zealand, much of the South Pacific, South and North America." end snip

Last I heard, the Pope's funeral will be either Thursday or Friday. So let assume that it will be Friday....that would mean that he was born on the day of a solar eclipse, and he will be buried on the day of a solar eclipse.

Can't get more "De labore Solis" than that, can you?