The earliest known reference to them dates to 1587. Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, a contemporary biographer of Malachy who recorded the saint's alleged miracles, makes no mention of the prophecy. Several historians have concluded that the prophecy is a late 16th‑century forgery. This manuscript was then allegedly deposited in the Vatican Secret Archives, and forgotten about until its rediscovery in 1590, supposedly just in time for a papal conclave occurring at the time. While in Rome, Malachy purportedly experienced a vision of future popes, which he recorded as a sequence of cryptic phrases.
Origin theories Īccording to an account put forward in 1871 by Abbé Cucherat, Malachy was summoned to Rome in 1139 by Pope Innocent II to receive two wool palliums for the metropolitan sees of Armagh and Cashel. Wion includes both the alleged original prophecy, consisting of short, cryptic Latin phrases, as well as an interpretation applying the statements to historical popes up to Urban VII (pope for thirteen days in 1590), which Wion attributes to historian Alphonsus Ciacconius. He explained that the prophecy had not, to his knowledge, ever been printed before, but that many were eager to see it. He attributed it to Saint Malachy, the 12th‑century Archbishop of Armagh. The alleged prophecy was first published in 1595 by a Benedictine named Arnold Wion in his Lignum Vitæ, a history of the Benedictine order. Malachy died over four centuries before the prophecies first appeared.
Statue of Saint Malachy (1094–1148), to whom Wion attributes the authorship of the prophecies. The prophecy concludes with a pope identified as "Peter the Roman", whose pontificate will allegedly precede the destruction of the city of Rome. The Catholic Church has no official stance, though some Catholic theologians have dismissed it as forgery.
Given the accurate description of popes up to around 1590 and lack of accuracy for the popes that follow, historians generally conclude that the alleged prophecy is a pseudepigraphic fabrication written shortly before publication. It was first published in 1595 by Benedictine monk Arnold Wion, who attributed the prophecy to Saint Malachy, a 12th-century archbishop of Armagh. The Prophecy of the Popes ( Latin: Prophetia Sancti Malachiae Archiepiscopi, de Summis Pontificibus, "Prophecy of Saint-Archbishop Malachy, concerning the Supreme Pontiffs") is a series of 112 short, cryptic phrases in Latin which purport to predict the Catholic popes (along with a few antipopes), beginning with Celestine II. Final part of the prophecies in Lignum Vitæ (1595), p.
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