Posted on 02/11/2013 9:47:24 AM PST by Alex Murphy
Full Question
Someone in my parish told me about the prophesies of St. Malachy, which he claims, prove that we are nearing the end of times. What are these prophesies?
Answer
St. Malachy was an Irish bishop who lived in the 12th century. By far the more famous of his prophecies concerns the sequence of popes.
The prophecy consist of 112 short Latin descriptions of future popes; the prophecies were discovered in 1590 and attributed to Malachy. Each description indicates one identifying trait for each future pope, beginning with Celestine II, who was elected in 1130. In some instances, the descriptions hit home in an uncanny way; they have led to centuries of speculation that the prophecy might be a real one.
For instance, the description of the future John XXII (1316-1334) is "de sutore osseo"--"from the bony shoemaker." This pope was the son of a shoemaker, and his family name was "Ossa," which means bone. In another example, "lilium et rosa" was the phrase used to describe the pope who would be Urban VIII (1623-1644), whose family coat-of-arms was covered with "lilies and roses."
Malachy's prophecy has been cast into doubt by the fact that the descriptions become vague from the 16th century on--about the time the prophecy was "discovered" in the Roman Archives. But there have been a few good matches in modern times. The phrase "pastor et nauta," meaning "shepherd and sailor," was attributed to John XXIII. This pope hailed from Venice, historically a city of sailors, and on the day he took office he indicated the goal of his pontificate was to be "a good shepherd."
There have been many more misses, though. Describing the popes to follow John XXIII are the phrases "flower of flowers" (Paul VI), "from a half-moon" (John Paul I), and "from the toil of the sun" (John Paul II), none of which is an obvious connection. After our current pope there are only two left in Malachy's prophecy, "the glory of the olive" and "Peter the Roman." The latter will supposedly lead the Church through many tribulations, concluding with the last judgment.
Is "Malachy's" prophecy legitimate? Probably not. The consensus among modern scholars is that it is a 16th-century forgery created for partisan political reasons.
I grew up 15 miles from a SAC base. When they tried the duck and cover drills in elementary school, even the kids laughed at the futility of it. We all understood there were four or five bombs with our address on them.
Try explaining that feeling to your kids...they have no concept.
BTW, if "No.4 Mk I" means anything to you, please contact FReepmail me.
Yes, that would be the right categorization as I understand the categories but I"m not sure whether he's and postmillennial or amillennial.
Those categories are actually modern. I've read that Abraham Kuyper actually coined the unfortunate term "amillenial". (Unfortunate because inaccurate.) Prior to him, that position was simply considered postmillenial.
Ain't necessarily so. The last pope means the end of the papacy.
What struck me in the article was that the "prophecies" were discovered in 1590 "in the Roman Archives", and are now dismissed as a "16th-century forgery created for partisan political reasons". If Wikipedia can be believed, they were first published in 1595 by Arnold de Wyon, a Benedictine historian, as part of his book Lignum Vitæ. Maybe someone can enlighten us on what the partisan politics were at that time.
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