The Last Pope

In the blaze of publicity that attended the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI and the election of his successor, one name kept reappearing in Media reports from all over the world.

What made these reports so enigmatic, was that the name of the person they were referring to was not a living person, but someone who had died more than eight hundred and fifty years before. The person they were referring to was Malachy.

Malachy was not his birth name. He was born in the year 1094 A.D. in the ancient town of Armagh, in what is today Northern Ireland. His family name was O’Morgair, and his baptismal name was Maelmhaedhoc, which was later translated into Latin as Malachy.

Young Malachy was a devout boy, and was attracted to service in the Catholic Church of Rome. After a lengthy period of study he was ordained as a Priest at the age of twenty-five. He made rapid progress, and was soon promoted to the position of Abbot.

After he was appointed Archbishop of Armagh in 1132, his reforming zeal was devoted to promoting the benefits of the monastic life. Many miracles were attributed to him, and he is said to have even predicted the time and place of his own death.

Father Malachy died in France at the age of fifty-four on November 2, 1148. For his service to the Church, and for his success in rooting out barbarism throughout the land, Father Malachy was later canonized as the first Irish Saint in the Catholic Church by Pope Clement III on July 6, 1199.

And that might have been the last we heard of him, were it not for one dramatic incident in his life. This incident took place in the year 1139. It was then that Father Malachy decided to undertake a hazardous pilgrimage to Rome, to seek an audience with Pope Innocent II.

It is said that after all the hardships he endured along the way, when his eyes first gazed on the Holy City, he fell to the ground in a trance. During this trance Malachy had a unusual vision. In this vision he claimed that he had experienced a revelation of the future of the Church, starting with his own time, and leading up to the return of the Christ.

His strange vision included a sequence of all the Popes who would reign in Rome until this culminating moment in history. What made this vision so unusual, was that each succeeding Pope was identified by means of a short epigrammatic verse or “motto” written in Latin.

Starting with the reign of Pope Celestine II, there were 112 Popes listed by St. Malachy in his vision. This visionary list of Pontiffs was later committed to paper, and has since come to be known as “the prophecy of St. Malachy”.

It is likely that this vision would have long since been forgotten, had it not been for a Benedictine monk by the name of Arnold Wion. For in the year 1595, Wion published a history of the Benedictine Order which he called Lignum Vitae.

Included in this publication was a list of Popes which were attributed to St. Malachy. Wion not only included the short, cryptic Latin phrases associated with each successive Pope, but he added his own interpretation of the mottoes of the Popes who had previously held the Office of St. Peter up to that time.

These enigmatic Latin mottos have aroused much controversy and debate within the Church over the years, and the life and history of every succeeding Pontiff has been carefully investigated to see how it compares with the relevant Latin motto given by St. Malachy.

The motto given to the Pope at the time that Malachy visited Rome (Innocent II) was “ Ex CastroTyberis” , which is translated as “ From a Castle of the Tiber” . As it happened, Pope Innocent II was born in the town of Tiberinum, situated on the banks of the river Tiber.

The sequence of Popes predicted by Malachy has become more and more significant as the last of the 112 Popes has approached. Church historians have kept a record of each succeeding Pontiff up to the present day. Since the beginning of the 20th century the Popes predicted by Malachy have been as follows:

102   Leo XIII (1878-1903)      Lumen in Caelo      (Light in the Heavens)

103   Pius X (1903-1914)         Ignis Ardens            (Ardent Fire)

104   Benedict XV (1914-22)  Religio Depopulata  (Religion laid Waste)

105   Pius XI (1922-1939)       Fides Intrepida        (Intrepid Faith)

106   Pius XII (1939-1958)      Pastor Angelicus     (Angelic Shepherd)

107   John XXIII (1958-63)     Pastor et Nauta       (Pastor and Marine)

108   Paul VI (1963-1978)       Flos Florum             (Flower of Flowers)

109   John-Paul I (1978)    De Mediatate Lunae    (From the Middle of the Moon)

110   John-Paul II (1978-2005)  De Labore Solis   (From the Labour of the Sun)

The motto given by St. Malachy to the 111th Pope was “Gloria Olivae”, meaning “The Glory of the Olive”. So when the German Cardinal Ratzinger took the name of  Benedict XVI, named after the founder of the Benedictine order, the motto was seen to be a reference to the Olivetans, who are a branch of the Benedictine Order.

When Benedict XVI suddenly announced to a startled world that he was resigning as Pope on the grounds of ill health, the entire world was caught up in the guessing game of choosing his successor.

And the reason why the name of St. Malachy kept appearing in report after report in the Media was that, according to the prophecies associated with his name, the new Pope would be the last one to occupy the Vatican before the return of the Christ.

According to St. Malachy, the last Pope (Number 112) would bear the motto “Petrus Romanus” (Peter the Roman). He would be the Pope who would witness the collapse of the Church and the rise to power on the world stage of the man who would come to be known as the Anti-Christ. This would be followed by the return of the Christ as predicted in the Book of Revelation.

In describing the last Pope to hold the Office of Peter in the Church of Rome  before the return of the Christ, St. Malachy provided a chilling conclusion to his prophetic vision. He ended the description of his vision with the following words:

“ 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 end of which the city of seven hills will be destroyed, and the formidable Judge will judge his people. The End.”

We now know that the person elected to succeed Benedict XVI is Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio from Argentina. He has chosen to be called Francis, as a tribute to the life of service to the poor by the 13th century Saint Francis of Assisi.

Since the time of his election, students of prophecy have busily occupied themselves trying to find an association between the new Pope and the Latin motto attributed to him by St. Malachy.

Cardinal Bergoglio did not come from Rome, although he was the oldest of five children born to an immigrant father of Italian descent. Neither was he christened by the name of Peter. In fact there seems little to link him to the motto “Peter the Roman”.

But perhaps students of prophecy have been too preoccupied with names and words, and have missed the obvious fact pointed out by St. Malachy. He said that the final Pope would “feed the sheep through many tribulations”.

According to the gospel of St. John, when Jesus had risen from the dead after his crucifixion, he appeared before his disciples on three occasions. On the last of these appearances, Jesus sat down to dine with them. And at the end of the meal he spoke to Peter, the man whom he had chosen to be the leader of his church.

Three times Jesus asked Peter if he loved him. And three times Peter replied that he did. Jesus responded by saying to Peter: “Feed my sheep“. (John 21: 15-17) Is it not significant that St. Malachy uses these same words when speaking of Peter the Roman?

Already, in the space of just a few weeks, Francis has demonstrated that he will be a very different type of Pope from any we have known in the last century or more.

Whereas previous Popes have been ensconced in luxury in the Papal apartments at the Vatican, Francis has indicated that he is happier living in the Domus Santa Martha, a modern hotel-style residence inside the Vatican City.

Francis prefers simple robes to the ornate garments worn by his predecessors. In place of the solid gold ring normally worn by the Pope, Francis has chosen to wear a gold-plated silver ring. And he still continues to wear the iron crucifix around his neck that he wore as Archbishop of Buenos Aires.

Not for him the safety of a bullet-proof “Popemobile”. He prefers to travel in an open Jeep where he can reach out and touch those that he wishes. And he has already shown that he is capable of walking out spontaneously and embracing the crowd, much to the dismay of his security staff.

Clearly, Francis will prove to be a shepherd whose ministry is modelled on that of the disciple Peter, the original Pope. As will soon be obvious to all, this new Pope will truly live up to the name of “Peter of Rome” (Petrus Romanus).

Those who have been following the entries in this Blog will know that events in the world today are rapidly moving towards the climax predicted by the prophets.

And now, with the appearance on the world stage of the last Pope, the last piece of this prophetic puzzle is finally in place. It is now evident that the generation that is alive on earth today will be the one that will experience for themselves the Four Horseman of the Apocalypse.

And Francis, the Good Shepherd of Rome, will be the man who will see the emergence of the Anti-Christ, and at the end of many tribulations, will be fated to sacrifice his life as a victim of this Satanic Man.

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This entry was posted on Thursday, March 21st, 2013 at 2:19 pm and is filed under Articles. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Comments and pings are closed.