More on St. Malachy, my favorite subject:

The Prophecy of St. Malachy

In 1139, good old St. Malachy, a 12th century Italian bishop, was summoned to Rome by our good old friend Pope Innocent II (more on him eventually). While there, St. Malachy had a vision of future popes, which he recorded with cryptic phrases describing each. There is much controversy as to who wrote the prophecy and when it exactly was written, but two things are for sure: they were credited to St. Malachy, and they are very accurate. Some believe that it could even be a 16th century forgery, but that would not make sense, because seemingly with each progressing pope the prophecy becomes more accurate, meaning that the author still experienced some kind of premonition. Interested yet? Well, let's see some of these cryptic descriptions then.

-Pope Adrian VI:
Leo Florentius (Florentine lion)
His coat of arms had two lions on it, and his name is sometimes given as Adriaan Florens, or other variants, from his father's first name.

-Pius VI
Peregrinus Apostolicus (Apostolic wanderer or pilgrim or eagle)
Spent the last two years of his life as a fugitive from the political aftermath of the French Revolution.

-John Paul I
(De medietate lunae)
De medietate Lunae translates to "of the half-moon". It could also be interpreted as de media aetate lunae, meaning of the average age of the moon. Albino Luciani, who later became Pope John Paul I, was born in Canale d'Agordo, diocese of Belluno (the name is similar to bella luna, beautiful moon). He was elected on 26 August, 1978, the day after the moon reached its last quarter, and reigned for 33 days, approximately five days longer than a lunar cycle. He died the day before the new moon. However, a much simpler explanation might be that he was born on the day of the half moon: on 17 October 1912, the moon was in its first quarter. Others point to his name before becoming pope, Albino Luciani: Albino is related to albus, white, and Luciani, although derived in fact from Lucius, looks like it might be from lux, lucis, light; whence "white light".

-And my personal favorite, John Paul II
(De labore Solis)
The prophetic motto corresponding to Pope John Paul II is De labore Solis, which literally means "Of the labour of the sun", but "labores solis" ("travails of the sun") is a not uncommon metaphor used to mean solar eclipse. Karol Wojtyla, who later became Pope John Paul II, was born on 18 May 1920, during a partial solar eclipse (over the Indian Ocean), and buried on 8 April 2005, the day of a rare "hybrid" eclipse (over the south-western Pacific and South America). 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).

Whoa. That last one always blows me away. But that's not all. After Pope John Paul II, St. Malachy gives us two more descriptions. One is of the pope to succeed him, Benedict XVI, whose description is Gloria Olivae, or glory of the olive. The reason for this description is yet to be determined. The other is a pope known as Petrus Romanus, or Peter the Roman. Here is the chilling description given to him:

During the final persecution, the seat of the Holy Roman Church will be occupied by Peter the Roman, who will feed the sheep in many tribulations, after which the seven-hilled city will be destroyed, and the terrible Judge will judge his people. The End.

From the description it is obvious that Peter II is one form of the Antichrist. (In the Catholic Church there has only been one pope named Peter, and that is the first pope, St. Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ. This is meant to signify that a Peter began the Church, and a Peter will end it.) But the Bible tells us that we can "calculate" and find the person responsible for such terror!

Right now, there are 20 Italian Cardinals eligible for the Papal office. But this does not mean that one of these cardinals is an Antichrist, because the prophecy is not specific. Since the prophecy of Petrus Romanus is not numbered like the others, we have no clue when he could come. There are three possibilities:
1: The most obvious choice. Peter the Roman comes directly after Pope Benedict XVI.
2: Any number of popes can come between the current pope and Peter II, seeing as he is not numbered. It just states that Peter II is the final pope.
3: Pope Benedict XVI is Peter the Roman. Of course, this would require a papal name change to Peter II, but this is not unheard of.

Fate supports choice #3.

666man.com is a great website, with in depth descriptions on why Benedict XVI is the last pope.

Resources include:
www.usatoday.com...
en.wikipedia.org...
www.newadvent.org...
www.newadvent.org...

OH NO! i didn't see that sticky at the top of the forum!! don't hurt me please! just delete this.

>Azi

Very interesting! I've studied the prophecy too, and I'd like to add these considerations...

1) Benedict XVI's choice of name and "De Gloria Olivae" - a good number of analysts expected this Pope to be from the Benedictine order, the symbols of which include the olive branch. Ratzinger wasn't a Benedictine, but he was born on April 16, the feast of St. Benedict Labre.

Another potential meaning, of course, is that Benedict could be a force for peace in a troubled world. After all, the last Pope to bear that name (and who Ratzinger wanted to honor) was Benedict XV, "Religio depopulata", who tried (unsuccessfully) to be an agent for peace during World War I. We can only hope there's no major conflict like that during this Benedict's reign...

2) About Peter the Roman - a French scholar of the Prophecy, Daniel Réju, has this to say about him (translated from the French text):

Is Peter the Roman a Pope? Certainly not - the sentences dedicated to him are clearly detached from the text as a whole... Furthermore, he alone is referred to by name. Not an antipope either - the Prophecy gives as much importance to the antipopes as to the pontiffs recognized by the Church (...) However, one situation that has never presented itself is that of a man occupying illegally the Holy See, while not being an antipope - and that for the simple reason that there would be no legitimate Pope opposite him (...) So, in its last days, the Roman Church would find at its head a man, either from the clergy or not, elected by no conclave, or whose installation ceremony or coronation wouldn't have taken place...

That author also mentions another possibility. Since the cardinals do believe in Malachy's prophecy, the conclave after Benedict's death could be a problem. Knowing that they were about to elect Peter the Roman, would the cardinals accept to meet in conclave? If they did and elected someone, would that person accept the job? In that case, Malachy's Prophecy would become a self-fulfilling prophecy...

what website was that from, what you quoted? that sounds very interesting.

and i've considered that as well. what will happen after the death of Benedict? that will certainly be a conclave to watch. maybe st. malachy could time travel?

>Azi

Unfortunately, that's not from a website - it's from a good ole book I own

You might be interested to know that the Palmarian Catholic Church in Spain elected an antipope this year who took the name Peter II. He succeeded antipope Gregory XVII (Clemente Dominguez y Gomez) who openly claimed he was De Gloria Olivae.

Link here