IRELAND
The Journal
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.
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