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Gloria Olivae: St. Malachy’s Propecy for the Next Pope



First heard of this from via John Hogue on Coast to Coast last week.

Malachy O Morgain (1094-1148), an Irish saint, is reputed to have prophesied about the entire future of the papacy in 1143. Looking forward from the reign of Celestine the II, who ruled during that time, Malachy predicted the next 112 popes in order. Well, when I say predicted, I mean he came up with sort of a coded phrase describing each one, which scholars then cooked up elaborate explanations to connect them to subsequent historical popes.

That’s the official story anyway. There is some debate as to the historicity of Malachy’s prophecy, and the suggestion has been made that the list was actually created by the Jesuits in the 1600’s as a forgery. Either way though, it seems this prophetic list of popes has had some impact on the study of popes, and is of especial interest right now, considering the fact that Pope John Paul II waits at death’s door.

According to Malachy’s list, after JP2, there are only to be two more popes. Actually, there is a bit of discrepancy about that. Some people say instead that there is one pope immediately predicted after JP2, and then there is the “Last Pope” who may either come sequentially after him, or there may be a series of intermediate popes.

Anyway, the code phrase identifying the next pope if “Gloria olivae,” or “The Glory of the Olives.” There are various efforts underway to try and predict who will be the next pope, based on symbolism surrounding this phrase. The only pope listed after that is “Petrus Romanus” who is supposed to be the pope during the end times, and whose reign will see the destruction of Rome and the judging of the people.

  1. How will the next Pope be chosen? (Yahoo)
  2. Analysis: Choosing the next pope (BBC)
  3. Will the next pope be black, Hispanic, American, a Jew? (Slate/MSN)
  4. Papal Election Process (Wikipedia)
  5. This site lists betting odds for who will be the next Pope
  6. Other Papal Prophecies
  7. Etemenanki also has various prophecies and things on the next pope, but you’ll have to look around for them.






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