St Malachy’s prophecies

Even though Ireland may have been known as the Land of Saints and Scholars in the early years, there was no formal way of declaring a person a saint, so holy men and women such as Patrick,

Brigid and Colmcille were acclaimed saints by the people.
Around the year 1000, the Church instituted a process of canonisation with the result that until recent years there were only three Irish people officially canonised. St Feargal of Saltsburg, canonised by Pope Gregory IX in 1233; St Laurence O’Toole by Pope John XIX in 1227 and, the very first, St Malachy, who was canonised by Pope Clement III in 1199.
Malachy was born in Armagh and in time he became Abbott of Bangor, then Bishop of Connor and later Archbishop of Armagh. He curbed the power of the monasteries, some of which at that time had lay abbots, and he established a uniform structure to the Church in Ireland. He travelled to Rome on two occasions.
On his first journey he visited St Bernard at Clairvaux. He was so impressed that he brought back a group of monks with him and they founded the great abbey at Mellifont in 1142. Before the end of the century, monks from Mellifont had built 23 other Cistercian houses throughout the country.
On his second journey to Rome, he died at Clairvaux. Following this, St Bernard wrote Vita Malachaie, in which he praised Mulcahy’s holiness and declared him a saint.
Nowadays, he is probably more remembered for his prophecies than for his piety. On one of his journeys to Rome, Malachy had a vision in which he saw the succession of popes forecast into the future. If Malachy’s prophecies are to be believed, the present pope is the second-last one on his list. Each prophecy is a simple description and as with any prophecy, it is possible to argue the interpretation in many ways.
His description of the present pontificate was Gloria Olivae, which translates from the Latin as Glory of the Olives. Since the present pope is a native of Bavaria and that is not an area noted for olive growing, then many will dismiss it. Others will argue that he took the name Benedict, that the Benedictine Order has a branch named the Olivetians and thus the Pope is giving glory to the Olive.
The stories go that Malachy wrote his prophecies in Rome and they were then locked away by order of the Pope. There they remained until they were found again in 1590. Up to that point their descriptions of the popes were quite accurate but since then they are open to interpretation. It has been suggested that the prophecies were an invention. They were found at the time of a Papal Conclave and there have been suggestions that they were invented by a cardinal to help him be elected pope.
By way of consolation, the prophecies do not say that the present pontiff is the second-last, just that he is the second last on the list. The last pope is to be Petrus Romanus, Peter the Roman, who will feed the sheep through many tribulations.
St Malachy, the first Irishman to be officially canonised and who is said to have foretold the list of the popes, died in Clairvaux in France on November 2, 1148 – 861 years ago this week.