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A popular (alleged!) eleventh-century prophecy lists 112 future popes . . . and Francis was the 112th.
You may have heard of St. Malachy, but perhaps not for his holy life. He is a real saint, born in Armagh, Ireland, in 1094, and became the bishop there in 1032. He restored discipline to the Church in Armagh, and he died in 1148 in the arms of his fellow saint, the great Bernard of Clairvaux, a Doctor of the Church.
On the other hand, you probably have heard of the papal prophecies attributed to Malachy—a list of 112 Roman pontiffs (and anti-popes), identified by a brief epithet alluding to his name, family, place of origin or service, coat of arms, or some more nebulous identification. Proponents argue that the list dates to St. Malachy’s time, though the list was discovered—or published—only in the late 1500s, with no mention in the interim, including from sources one would expect to reference it—e.g., biographers of the saint.
Because of support in some Catholic circles, though, and the countdown to the “final pope” on the list over the last century—along with the Church’s prophesied “final persecution” (including the destruction of Rome)—the list has garnered media coverage during papal interregnums, including here at Catholic Answers when Pope Benedict XVI resigned in February 2013.
After all, of the 112 popes listed in Malachy’s prophecy, Pope Francis is . . . you guessed it: the 112th.
And so, if the reported private revelations were true, we would be on the doorstep of the Second Coming, given the recent death of Pope Francis. Although we must always be ready for the Lord’s return—or to face him sooner than that, when we die—the end does not appear to be imminent, at least based on the credibility of the prophecies attributed to St. Malachy.
Dubious Historical Foundations
St. Bernard, who wrote Malachy’s biography, makes no mention of the prophecies, and the related document was discovered only years later, allegedly after being locked in the Vatican archives for centuries. However, as Jimmy Akin explains,The list of predicted popes appears to draw on a work of Italian historian Onofrio Panvinio, which is cited in M.J. O’Brien’s Historical and Critical Account of the So-called Prophecy of St. Malachy Regarding the Succession of Popes. O’Brien opposes the historicity of the reported prophecies. Panvinio was a respected historian in his day, and not an advocate of the prophecies.
At the same time, Panvinio, also known as Onuphrius Panvinius, did author—or at least contribute to—Accuratæ Effigies Pontificum Maximorum, which appears to be the source of the purported prophetic list, as this workcontains “portraits and short biographies of popes starting from Urban VI in 1378 and ending with Gregory XIII in 1572.” This work itself appears to draw on a history of the popes for which Panvinio definitely authored an updated version, as that book, Platina’s Lives of the Popes (De Vitis Pontificum), includes their respective papal coat of arms, an element noted in the list of pontiffs attributed to St. Malachy.
Missing the Mark on Papal Prognostications
Not surprisingly, whereas the papal “prophecies” are on the mark until 1590, the opposite is true afterward, as Tim Staples reports:In contrast to Marian apparitions like Fatima, Lourdes, and Guadalupe, the Church has never approved the alleged prophecies attributed to St. Malachy. Defenders might respond that the Church never approves reported apparitions until they are completed and can be more closely analyzed. But that would be a rather convenient—and ill-founded—counterargument, as we’d have to wait until after the last pope and thus for our Lord’s Second Coming and the Last Judgment (CCC 1038-1041) to get a definitive ruling on the matter.
Instead, given both its dubious historical origins and predictions since 1590, “the consensus among modern scholars is that it is a sixteenth-century forgery created for partisan political reasons.”
Still, the alleged prophecies have remained popular, in part because of support in some Catholic circles over the centuries. The Catholic Encyclopedia, published in the early 1900s, is normally a reliable source on matters related to the Faith. But in its “Prophecies” article, the priest author doesn’t help the cause in speculating that there could be unnamed popes between numbers 111 and 112:
Or not, given the list’s historical and predictive deficiencies.
Trusting in Jesus Instead
When asked for a sign from the Pharisees, Jesus says,Jesus’ paschal mystery—his death, resurrection, and ascension into heaven (and his related sending of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost)—remains the fundamental historical sign on which the truth of the Faith rests. And the Church’s sustenance through two thousand years is further evidence of the truth of that divine sign, which Jesus has otherwise affirmed (see CCC 156).
In the meantime, as I write elsewhere, “we all need to be vigilant, because none of us knows the hour or day when Jesus will call us via death to our own particular judgment (see Matt. 24:42-51, CCC 1021-22).”
St. Malachy's Prophecy and Pope Francis
A popular prophecy, allegedly from the eleventh century, lists 112 future popes . . . and Francis was the 112th. What happens next?