One for the diary…
‘Judgement Day’ may actually be upon us pretty soon, if a secret 900-year-old Vatican book of prophecies is to be believed.
A chilling ancient text that has been discovered in the archives of the Vatican reportedly predicts the year the so-called ‘Day of Judgement’ will take place.
The book, titled ‘Prophecy of the Popes’, was written by the Irish bishop, Saint Malachy, in the 12th century and appears to make some outlandish theories concerning the sequence of every pope from Celestine II in 1143 up until our current pontiff, Pope Francis.
The book appears to end with Pope Francis (Vatican Media via Vatican Pool/Getty Images)
The prophecy, uncovered years later in 1590, details 112 short Latin identifying descriptions of each Pope.
Eerily, it also pencils in a rough date for when Jesus is expected to rise again and come to Earth to determine who will go to heaven and who will be damned to the fiery depths of hell.
Some Christians consider the day, also sometimes referred to as Final Judgement or Doomsday, to be the end of the world as we know it, as every human being will stand before God to learn their fate.
According to the Saint, it’s due to take place in just two years’ time, 2027, though he did not give us a rough date to work with.
Still, the last passage of his book ominously reads: “In the final persecution of the Holy Roman Church there will reign Peter the Roman, who will feed his flock amid many tribulations, after which the seven-hilled city will be destroyed and the dreadful Judge will judge the people. The End,” reports the Daily Star.
Some have interpreted the passage to mean someone called Peter will take the reigns from Pope Francis, 88, who is currently in an on-going health battle after suffering ‘acute respiratory failures.’
Pope Benedict XVI was also amongst the list of predictions (Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images)
Saint Malachy supposedly wrote the book after he claimed to have had a vision when on a trip to Rome in 1139.
And some of his prognostications have gone on to seemingly come true in the past, for instance his description of Pope John XXII (1316 to 1334).
The seer wrote ‘de sutore ossed’, translating to ‘from the bony shoemaker’, as per Catholic.com, which appeared to align with John XXII who was not only the son of a shoemaker but whose family name was ‘Ossa’, meaning bone.
Another passage, ‘lilium et rosa’ appeared to match with Pope Urban VIII (1623 to 1644) whose family coat of arms was covered with lilies and roses.
Another scarily accurate pope prediction came under ‘De labore Solis,’ which means eclipse of the sun.
Pope John Paul II, who took on the religious title from 1978 to 2005, was born during a solar eclipse in the 1920s.
He also reportedly predicted the 111th pope ‘Gloria Olivae’, meaning ‘Glory to the olive.’
Well, it just so happens the Order of Saint Benedicts also go by the name Olivetans, leading the Catholic church to infer Malachy’s prediction came true once again between 2005 and 2013 when Pope Benedict XVI took over.
However, some scholars have disputed the origins of the Saint’s texts, largely because many of the descriptions ‘become vague’ from the 16th century onwards and up until the book was ‘discovered’ in the Roman Archives.
The Catholic church does note there have been some hits in the modern era too but that there have been ‘many more misses.’
Modern scholars say that the book is simply forgery created for partisan political reasons.
I guess we’ll find out…
