What is the prophecy of St. Malachy?

A thousand or so years ago, there lived an Irish archbishop named Malachy. And this archbishop supposedly had a series of visions about popes—past, present and future. According to the revelations in these visions, recorded in a document that was supposedly discovered around 1590, there would be only 112 popes between Malachy’s time and the day of the final judgment. Today, some people think that the prophecy refers to our times, and that Pope Francis is that 112th pope, cryptically designated in the prophecy as “Peter the Roman.” But who was St. Malachy? Did he really have these visions and really record these prophecies? And why are some so fixated on the idea that Malachy’s prophecy, also known as the “Prophecy of the Popes,” refers to Pope Francis?  On this episode of the podcast, guest Joëlle Rollo-Koster talks about the origins and historical context of this prophecy, and whether it’s something that Catholics should take seriously. Rollo-Koster is professor of Medieval history at the University of Rhode Island, College of Arts and Sciences. She received her undergraduate degree and master’s degree in history from the University of Nice, in France, and later earned her PhD at SUNY Binghamton. She has done extensive scholarly research on the papal city of Avignon. You can learn more about this topic, and read some of Rollo-Koster’s writing, in these links. “What is the prophecy of St. Malachy?” by Joseph McHugh https://uscatholic.org/articles/201309/what-is-the-prophecy-of-st-malachy/ “What lies beneath all the criticism of Pope Francis?” by Kevin Clarke https://uscatholic.org/articles/201912/what-lies-beneath-all-the-criticism-of-pope-francis/ “10 years after Pope Francis’ election, a look back at his papacy,” by J. Peter Nixon https://uscatholic.org/articles/202303/10-years-after-pope-francis-election-a-look-back-at-his-papacy/ “Medieval Europe was far from democratic, but that didn’t mean tyrants got a free pass,” by Joëlle Rollo-Koster https://theconversation.com/medieval-europe-was-far-from-democratic-but-that-didnt-mean-tyrants-got-a-free-pass-227214 Glad You Asked is sponsored by the Claretian Missionaries. https://www.claretians.org/