St. Malachy and the End of the World

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Biography

St. Malachy (1094-1148) was Archbishop of Armagh.

He was the first Irish saint to be canonized by Pope Clement III in 1199.
The influence of St Malachy in Irish ecclesiastical affairs has been compared with that of Boniface in Germany. He reformed and reorganised the Irish Church and brought it more closely into the liturgical practices then being actively pursued in Rome as a result of the reforms begun under Pope Gregory VII, the Saintly Hildebrand; like Boniface, he was a zealous reformer and a promoter of monasticism.
St Malachy's feast is celebrated on 3 November, so it won't clash with All Souls Day. He is Patron Saint of the Archdiocese of Armagh and the Diocese of Down and Connor.

St. Malachy was renowned for his reforming zeal and his humility while serving as a bishop. It is a shame that most of us know his name only through the prophecies attributed to him 447 years after his death.

St. Malachy, pray for us who have recourse to thee!

Etymology

"Malachy" is a variant spelling of "Malachi," the last of the minor prophets in the Catholic arrangement of the Old Testament. In Hebrew, it means "my messenger."

The last verses of the Book of Malachi prefigure the ministry of John the Baptist:

23 Now I am sending to you
Elijah the prophet,
Before the day of the LORD comes,
the great and terrible day;

24 He will turn the heart of fathers to their sons,
and the heart of sons to their fathers,
Lest I come and strike
the land with utter destruction.

Papal Prophecies

"St. Malachy Last Pope Prophecy: What Theologians Think About 12th-Century Prediction."
In the extreme persecution of the Holy Roman Church, there will sit ... Peter the Roman, who will pasture his sheep in many tribulations: and when these things are finished, the city of seven hills will be destroyed, and the terrible judge will judge his people. The End.
First of all, there is no original manuscript of the prediction. Malachy's vision was allegedly discovered and published by Benedictine Arnold de Wyon in 1590. Prior to that date, there is no mention or record of it, Weiss told The Huffington Post.
Reputable church historians and clerics have considered it a forgery since the 18th century.
"Between the summer of 1590 and the fall of 1592, there were four popes [elected during] a period of rapid turnover," Weiss said during a phone conversation with HuffPost on Wednesday. "It was also a point at which there was intense rivalry between France and Spain to control the papacy for their own political reasons."
The prophecies surfaced after the first of the newly elected popes died. "It is widely thought, also given who the author was and his relationship, [that the prophecies] were published to establish the case for election of one particular cardinal," he added.
Jimmy Akin, "How Reliable Is the St. Malachy Prophecy?"
The "prophecy" for this papal election is: "Peter the Roman, who will nourish the sheep in many tribulations; when they are finished, the city of seven hills will be destroyed, and the dreadful judge will judge his people. The end."
"A significant mark against [the manuscript's] authenticity is the fact that it was not published until 1595, though St. Malachy died in 1148. There is no record of the prophecy existing in the intervening 447 years. Allegedly, this was because the prophecy lay, forgotten, in a Roman archive, and it was not rediscovered until 1590."
The "prophecies" are moderately accurate in describing the popes elected up until 1590; they can be made to "fit" the popes elected since then only by the most violent distortions of the meaning of words and the facts offered in evidence.

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