Francis and the Last Pope Prophecies of St. Malachy

In 1139 St. Malachy set out from Ireland on a harrowing pilgrimage to Rome, upon sighting the Eternal City he fell to the ground and began murmuring Latin verses, each signifying the future destiny of the popes. His words were suppressed for over three hundred years by the Roman Catholic Church, yet to this day 90 percent of the saint’s prophecies have come true unfolding in chronological sequence in 111 Medieval Latin mottoes, and a final coda, that together hide clues identifying the succession of 112 Pontiffs up to Judgment Day.

Pope Francis is the “Last Pope.”

John Hogue, noted Nostradamus and prophecy expert and author of the first major work on St. Malachy’s prophecies “The Last Pope: The Decline and Fall of the Church of Rome” (1998), distills this fascinating subject down to the essentials in a quick, yet comprehensive, read focusing primarily on the last 36 pontiffs on the list. These are the men who would be Vicars of Christ foretold after St. Malachy’s papal prophecies were rediscovered and published in the mid-1590s.

Up to that point all the preceding 76 mottoes had an unheard of 100 percent accuracy, leading Hogue to suggest these were not written by St. Malachy but recorded by someone from the 1590s hiding behind a saintly pseudonym. Hogue explains that all credibility for any list of fake prophecies plummets because forecasts published “after” the event are always perfect while those awaiting fulfillment in the future have an accuracy average often far below mere chance.

Though no longer 100 percent on the mark, the 36 mottoes foretelling the fates of pontiffs after the mid-1590s leading up to the current reign of Pope Francis remain remarkably accurate. They are 80-to-90 percent and become clearer as the list counts down to the final pontiffs overseeing the Holy Roman Catholic Church in the turbulent to potentially apocalyptic twentieth and twenty-first centuries.

John Hogue presents a fascinating account of the fates of these popes. His masterly work uncovers the truth about St. Malachy’s prophecies and reveals their significance as a chronicle of the papal progression, which Vatican policy-makers have found too threatening to acknowledge.