It is written that St. Malachy, a bishop in the Roman Catholic
Church, traveled from his home city of Armagh in Ireland to Rome in 1139
CE where he received a prophetic vision. In his vision he predicted the reign of 112 popes of which Celestine II (1143 – 1144) would be the first.
To each of the popes he attributed a descriptive Latin phrase.
Some of these phrases are accurate, for example, the 211th pope he described with “Grazing Ox”. Grazing Ox was Callistus III (1455 – 1458) and his coat of arms carried the emblem of a golden grazing ox.
Callistus was the 55th pope on Malachy’s list and reigned hundreds of years after his death.
Another example is John Paul II (1978 – 2005) who was described with “eclipse of the sun” or “labour of the sun”.
Karol Wojtyla was 110 on the list and he was born on the day of a solar eclipse. He was also buried on the day of a solar eclipse (visible in South America) in Rome.
These are just two examples but there are more where the prophecy seems to be remarkably accurate.
Is it a coincidence?
Or did Callistus merely read the prophecy before designing his emblem of the ox?
This is a tough question because it appears that the prophecy was lost and only discovered in the Roman archives in 1595.
When it was lost is not clear and it appears that very little information is available for the period between 1389 and 1667 when Clement IX took over. He was described as “constellation of swans” and the correlation, so they claim, is that he occupied the “Chamber of Swans” in the Vatican. It seems to be a bit of a long shot…but okay.
Pope Benedict XVI (2005 – 2012) is described with “Gloria olivæ”. The Benedictine order was founded in 1319 by Giovani Tolomei, a professor of philosophy who devoted his life to religion after miraculously regaining his eyesight.
The patch of land that St. Bernard Ptolomei, as he later became known, settled on was later dubbed the Monte Oliveto or Olive Mountain. Here the correlation with Malachy is clear.
According to Malachy the last pope on his list, number 112, would be Petrus Romanus. For this pope he wrote a whole essay in stead of a few words viz.
In persecutione extrema S.R.E. sedebit Petrus Romanus, qui pascet oves in multis tribulationibus: quibus transactis civitas septicollis diruetur, & Judex tremêdus judicabit populum suum. Finis.
Translated into English it reads: In extreme persecution, the seat of the Holy Roman Church will be occupied by Peter the Roman, who will feed the sheep through many tribulations, at the term of which the city of seven hills will be destroyed, and the formidable Judge will judge his people. The End. (from catholic-pages.com)
This points to the end of the World in the eyes of the Christians.
Will it be so?
Or will it be another 21st of December, 2012?
The World waits…