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In 1139, an Irish archbishop knelt in Rome and saw every pope who would ever sit on the throne of Peter. He wrote the visions down as 112 short phrases, then the manuscript vanished for 450 years.
When it resurfaced, historians checked the list against history. Pope after pope matched.
The list ends with a name no pope has ever dared to take, followed by the destruction of Rome and Judgment Day.
Francis died in 2025. A new pope took his place, and the city kept standing.
But hidden inside the original Latin is a second countdown, one that points to a specific year: 2027. We trace the prophecy from a candlelit chapel to a four-hundred-year-old forgery, and ask why it keeps landing on the truth.
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Transcript Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.
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0:58 AJ Gentile? On April 21, 2025, Pope Francis died. According to one of the most famous prophecies in church history, Francis was the final pope. After him, Rome burns and Judgment Day begins. Seventeen days later, white smoke rose from the Sistine Chapel. Robert Prevost stepped onto the balcony as Leo XIV, the first American pope. Rome was fine. The prophecy failed. But did it? Because buried inside the original Latin, there's a countdown. The list doesn't end with the pope. It ends during a year. That year is 2027.
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3:09 AJ Gentile? kit. One late night in Rome in 1139, an Archbishop knelt in prayer near the tomb of St. Peter. He was a long way from home and his heart was heavy. Malachi traveled from Ireland to Rome to support the new Pope after years of chaos. Innocent II spent eight years fighting a rival for control of the Church. It began as an internal political feud, but escalated into a military campaign that drew in most of Europe. Innocent won the war, but it left a scar. He saw firsthand that the papacy could be destroyed, and the entire Church with it.
3:54 AJ Gentile? That night, Malachi prayed, not just for the Pope, for all Popes, for the Church itself. Then, God answered. Malachi felt a vibration growing in his body, like electricity, but the energy was coming from him. Then, he had a vision.
4:08 Speaker 03 It's such a good vibration. It's such a sweet sensation.
4:14 AJ Gentile? How'd we get there?
4:15 Speaker 03 Malachi back in a funky bunch.
4:17 AJ Gentile? Okay, can you not make heretical jokes during my setup?
4:19 Speaker 03 Yeah, my jokes are hysterical.
4:21 AJ Gentile? Heretical.
4:22 Speaker 03 What'd I say?
4:25 AJ Gentile? Malecki saw Pope after Pope, man after man, century after century. But not names or faces, images. A castle above a river, an eagle with open claws, a sliver of a moon. An image for every Pope who would ever live. Malecki made a list of the visions, each a short phrase in Latin. 112 popes, one after another. Then one final vision.
4:50 AJ Gentile? A city on seven hills burning. The end of the world. Judgment Day.
4:59 AJ Gentile? He gave the manuscript to Pope Innocent II as a comfort. The Pope, who almost lost the papacy, now had proof that the line of Peter runs unbroken until the end of the world. But a list that ends with the apocalypse isn't a comfort, it's a countdown. Pope Innocent knew how dangerous this was. He locked the manuscript in the Vatican archives and never spoke of it again. Nobody knew it existed. Then, in 1590, somebody found it. Hidden for 450 years, 74 popes came and went during that time. Saint Malecki was right about all of them.
5:43 AJ Gentile? In September 1590, Pope Urban VII died just 12 days after his election. So the Cardinals returned to Rome to choose a new Pope. But then a document was found that said the elections never mattered. Four and a half centuries earlier, a saint made a list. Every Pope was already predicted. A list was terrifying enough, but what really upset the Church was how the list ended. The Cardinals needed to know if the list was real, so they turned to Alfonso Chacon. He was the most respected Papal historian alive. He literally wrote a book called "The Lives of the Popes." If anyone could verify this list, it was him.
6:17 Speaker 03 "The Lives of Two Popes, Gravity, et tu, Mabatavien." I had no idea how prolific he was.
6:23 AJ Gentile? Chacon, not Quirrell.
6:24 Speaker 03 This is Papa. You're the Pope. Let's call the whole thing up.
6:29 AJ Gentile? So Chacon started checking the phrases that Malachi used to identify each pope. Each phrase is called a motto, a few words that capture the man. The first motto is "Ex Castro Tiberus," from a castle on the Tiber. The first pope on the list was Celestine II, elected in 1143. He was born in Città di Castello, castle town, on the banks of the Tiber River. Malachi was right. The second entry says "Inimicus expulcis," "The enemy driven out." That was Lucius II, a pope at war with Rome's own Senate. They stripped him of the title. When Lucius led an assault to take it back, he was stoned to death. Malachi was right again. Another is "Seus in cribro," "A pig in a sieve."
7:11 AJ Gentile? That sounds like a hard motto to pin on a priest, but Pope Urban III's family name was Crivelli, and the Italian word for sieve is "crivello." And the Crivelli family crest included a pig.
7:22 Speaker 03 See, see, this is my problem with visions. You're God, you're omnipotent. Why symbols? Just some names, dates, a spreadsheet.
7:30 AJ Gentile? Prophecy doesn't really work like a spreadsheet.
7:32 Speaker 03 That's why it took them 400 years to solve it. One tab, two columns, pope, yeah. But no, eh, you gotta be, gotta give me pig in a sleeve.
7:41 AJ Gentile? Sieve.
7:42 Speaker 03 Whatever.
7:43 AJ Gentile? He checked 74 entries. Malachi was right 74 times. This was a big deal in 1590. The Reformation was tearing Christianity in half. Protestant preachers called the pope "the Antichrist" and said the papacy was living its final days. And here was a 450-year-old prophecy promising 38 more popes to come. Malachi's document was a guarantee of survival. The same list that comforted a pope in 1139 now comforted the whole church. In 1595, Benedictine monk Arnold Vion published a full list so the world could read it. Three columns: the motto, the pope it matched, and Chacon's notes. But Chacon's notes stop at entry number 74, or in the seventh.
8:25 AJ Gentile? It was 1590, so Chacon could only solve the popes of the past. The rest of the list predicts the future.
8:30 Speaker 03 Oh dear God, this guy had the Catholic sports almanac. He could have been a fortune, but he public domained it.
8:36 AJ Gentile? You rooted for Biff, didn't you?
8:37 Speaker 03 Backbrowed, did business with terrorists, was best friends with a teen boy, and created God knows how many dangerous timelines, and Biff is the villain.
8:46 AJ Gentile? When you put it that way.
8:47 Speaker 03 Justicio pro Biff. Put that in your prophecy and snuggle it.
8:51 AJ Gentile? And at the very bottom of the list, "The Future Ends." The last entry isn't a motto, it's a full paragraph. And names the final pope, Peter the Roman, the man on the throne when Rome burns. But even though Malachi predicted 74 popes in order, there were still skeptics. So they looked into St. Malachi to see if he made any other predictions that came true. They didn't like what they found.
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10:39 AJ Gentile? In the 12th century, the Shinnah family controlled the Office of Archbishop of Arma, the highest Catholic seat in Ireland. And they ran it like a monarchy. The title passed from father to son, and most of them weren't even priests.
10:50 Speaker 03 In your office, you're in your head, don't need qualifications for and can't be fired from. So, Congress.
10:55 AJ Gentile? Armed clans defended the arrangement, and challenging it was a good way to die. Malachi challenged it.
11:02 AJ Gentile? He took the office, pushed the family out, and survived. Then he did something nobody ever does after winning a war. He walked away, back to the work he cared about. Rebuilding monasteries, reforming the clergy, tying the Irish Church closer to Rome.
11:16 Speaker 03 Tying the Irish closer to the Church? That's like trying to find a title link between fiery lamb vindaloo and diarrhea. That's like trying to find a title link between petty theft in Florida. That's like trying to find a title link between cocaine and a business idea. Yeah, bang the three for you, take your pick.
11:33 AJ Gentile? You already know why Malachy went to Rome, and you know what he did there. Here's what happened on the road. On the way south, he stopped at Clairvaux Abbey. Its abbot, Bernard, had so much influence, even popes asked him for advice. Kings read his letters, crusaders listened when he spoke. Bernard was a monk at a small monastery in France. How does that man get this kind of power? Because Saint Bernard was an early patron and leader of the Knights Templar, a good friend to have. Malachy arrived with no army, no wealth, and no political office, but Bernard treated him like an equal anyway. The men became close friends. Years later, back in Ireland, the monks asked Malachy where he would die. Malachy said Clairvaux. They asked him when he would die. Malachy said All Souls' Day, the Day of the Dead.
12:18 AJ Gentile? In 1148, Malachy headed back to Rome, but he never made it. By the time he reached Clairvaux, he was burning with fever. He died at Clairvaux on November 2nd, All Souls' Day. Just as he predicted. He was 54 years old.
12:32 Speaker 03 Again, back to the spreadsheets. He knew when he was gonna die. The guy got a fever. If I find out he substituted one of the kindergarteners the week before...
12:40 AJ Gentile? You're missing the point.
12:41 Speaker 03 Guy predicts his shoe is gonna smell at 11:40, so he steps in a horse he grumped at March and says, "See?"
12:48 AJ Gentile? Bernard wrote a biography of Saint Malachy. He said, "Call it a wish or call it a prophecy, either way, Malachy was right. That's the man behind the list, and that's why Rome believed it." When Malachy predicted something, it happened. He became the first Irish saint ever canonized by a pope. But everything Chacon verified was already history. From 1595 forward, the mottos had to predict the future. Again, people were skeptical, especially about the motto that described a bronze eagle dragging a pope away. But 200 years later, that's exactly what happened.
13:29 AJ Gentile? That bronze eagle belonged to Napoleon Bonaparte. And before the eagle was finished, the list would name two popes in a row. The first was Pius VI. His motto reads: "Peregrinos Apostolicos." "The Apostolic Traveler." During the French Revolution, troops stormed Rome and pulled Pius VI off his throne. He died in 1799, a prisoner in the south of France. The Apostolic Traveler buried far from home. The very next motto reads: "Aquila Rapax." "The Rapacious Eagle." Rapacious means greedy, aggressive, and never satisfied. But Malekki wasn't describing the new pope, Pius VII. He described "the man coming for him." Napoleon wanted the pope to crown him emperor as proof of God's will.
14:13 AJ Gentile? Pius agreed on one condition. Napoleon and his wife Josephine never had a church wedding, and the pope refused to crown a couple living in sin. So the day before his coronation, Napoleon got married in secret. Then at the ceremony, he took the crown out of the pope's hands and placed it on his own head. That wasn't enough for Napoleon, nothing ever was. He decided the pope should answer to him. Pius objected, and Napoleon was excommunicated. Napoleon sent soldiers into the papal palace in the middle of the night. They arrested the pope, dragged him out of Rome, and held him prisoner for years. And those soldiers marched under Napoleon's standard: a bronze eagle. The Rapacious Eagle took the pope, just as Malekki predicted 670 years earlier. The list continued.
14:58 AJ Gentile? "Crox de Cruce." "Cross from a cross." For Pius IX. When the Royal House of Savoy took Rome, it stripped the pope of his lands. It ended 1,000 years of papal rule over central Italy. The emblem on every Savoy banner was a white cross. Pius IX lost his kingdom to a cross.
15:17 AJ Gentile? The next motto was Luminechilo, a light in the sky, for Leo XIII. On his family crest was a comet streaking across a blue sky. Then the list turned dark. Religio di populata, religion laid waste. That was for Benedict XV. He took the throne in September 1914, just after the start of the First World War. Benedict begged Europe for peace and Europe ignored him. Catholic nations fought other Catholic nations. Churches became hospitals. Priests climbed into the trenches and died in them. By the end of the war, millions of Christians were dead. And the Russian Revolution happened at the same time. The new government seized the churches, shot the priests, and declared war on God himself.
15:58 AJ Gentile? Religion laid waste, on a scale nobody in 1595 could have imagined. But somehow Malekki did. When the list was made public, instead of dismissing or denouncing it, the church started to follow it. In the 17th and 18th centuries, popes had their own mottos stamped onto their coronation medals. The prophecy described the popes, and the popes were happy to wear the prophecy. And in 1958, one cardinal tried to step into the prophecy himself. That year, the next motto was Pastor et nauta, the shepherd and the sailor. Cardinal Francis Spellman of New York read those words and made a plan. He rented a boat, filled it with sheep, and sailed up and down the Tiber River. A shepherd and a sailor. Spellman used the motto as a campaign slogan.
16:42 Speaker 03 That is the greatest campaign stunt I have ever heard. Boat, sheep, river. Zero notes.
16:47 AJ Gentile? It didn't work. The cardinal's passed on it.
16:49 Speaker 03 Because he peaked too early. You don't do the sheep boat before the conclave. You do the sheep boat after. Amateur hour. I could have won that election.
16:57 AJ Gentile? Okay.
16:58 Speaker 03 Newman, go fetch me a pointy hat and start calling me your eminence.
17:02 AJ Gentile? A hard pass.
17:02 Speaker 03 Hard pass, your eminence.
17:05 AJ Gentile? Instead, they elected Angelo Roncali as Pope John XXIII. Roncali was the patriarch of Venice, a city built on water and filled with sailors. As pope, he called himself a shepherd and urged the church to act like one. The man who chased the prophecy lost. The man who ignored it became the shepherd and the sailor. For Paul VI, floss florum, the flower of flowers. His family's crest carried three fleurs de lis, three flowers. From the half-moon. For Pope John Paul I. Born in Belluno, the beautiful moon, he was elected just as the moon reached its last quarter. His reign lasted 33 days, one half-moon to the next. Pope after pope, the list kept hitting. By the end of the 20th century, only two mottos were left before Peter the Roman.
17:49 AJ Gentile? The next motto was "De laboris solus," the labor of the sun. Malekki was right about that one, too.
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19:13 AJ Gentile? On May 18, 1920, a partial solar eclipse crossed the southern hemisphere. That same day, Carol Letia was born in Poland. He became Pope John Paul II. John Paul led the Church for more than 26 years. He took a bullet in St. Peter's Square and survived. He outlasted communism in Eastern Europe. He traveled farther than any pope in history. He died on April 2, 2005. His funeral was six days later. And on that day, another eclipse: the labor of the sun. The last motto before Peter the Roman is Gloria Olivae: the glory of the olive. In 2005, Joseph Ratzinger was elected and chose the name Benedict. The Benedictines have an order called the Olivatans. Their symbol: an olive branch.
19:57 AJ Gentile? Malachi was right again. The list was down to one final name: Peter the Roman. After him, nothing. But in 2013, Benedict shocked the world by resigning, the first pope to ever step down in 600 years. Suddenly, a storm hit Rome and lightning struck St. Peter's dome—twice. The list was taunting them, because Benedict officially left office on February 28, the feast day of St. Romanus. The throne of Peter was empty on the Day of the Romans. Twelve days later, the Cardinals entered the conclave, and the whole world was watching for a Peter. Most people expected Cardinal Peter Turkson of Ghana to be elected. Instead, they chose a long shot: Jorge Mario Burgolia of Argentina, the first Jesuit pope,
20:42 AJ Gentile? first pope from the Americas. He chose the name Francis. So Malachi was finally wrong? Well, not so fast. Peter the Roman was right there, inside the new pope's name. Francis took his name from St. Francis of Assisi, and the father of St. Francis was called Pietro. Peter. Burgolio was the son of Italian immigrants, Roman blood on the throne of Rome. The new pope didn't need to find the name. The name found him. And when Francis stepped onto the balcony, he fulfilled the prophecy: Peter the Roman, the last pope. And after him, nothing.
21:29 AJ Gentile? La profeció le da a Peter el romano más que un mantra. Nos dice lo que sucedió durante su reino.
21:36 Speaker 04 En la última persecución de la Iglesia romana santa, allí se sentará Peter el romano, que pastoreará sus vacas en muchas tribulaciones. Cuando se terminen estas cosas, la ciudad de Siete Artesas será destruida, y el espantoso juez juzgará a su pueblo. El fin.
22:01 AJ Gentile? La ciudad de Siete Artesas es Roma. Peter guía a la iglesia a través de una última persecución, luego la ciudad se cae, luego viene el juicio. Se esperaba que la iglesia católica tuviera una opinión sobre un texto que predice su propia aniquilación. No lo hace. En 400 años, el Vaticano nunca condenó la profeció de los popeos, nunca lo respaldó, nunca lo denunció, nunca lo dictó en absoluto. Y esta es una iglesia con opiniones. Cuando salió el Código de Da Vinci, el Vaticano le dijo a los católicos que no lo leyan. Un thrillér sobre una rama de sangre ficticia fue condenado. Una profeció describiendo la destrucción de Roma y la muerte de la iglesia tuvo cuatro siglos de silencio. El silencio también es una respuesta. Y Malachi no fue el único que vio a un pobre dentro de una ciudad arruinada. En 1909, el Tercer Pope Pius se derrumbó. Volvió con una visión terrificante.
22:47 AJ Gentile? Un futuro pobre huyendo de Roma, subiendo sobre los cuerpos muertos de sus propios sacerdotes para escapar del Vaticano. Ocho años después, la Virgen María apareció a tres hijos de un shepherd en un campo fuera de Fatima, Portugal. Le mostró el infierno. Le dijo que llegaba una nueva guerra, y le dio una última visión, una que el mundo no aprendería durante décadas. El tercer secreto fue escrito en 1944 y encerrado dentro del Vaticano. Fue encerrado hasta el año 2000. La visión comienza con un ángel que sostiene una espada quemada. La espada atrapó fuego, lista para quemar el mundo. Pero las flamas se apagaron cuando tocaron la luz brillante de la mano de María. Luego el ángel señaló la tierra y gritó una palabra tres veces.
23:27 AJ Gentile? Penance, penance, penance. Then the children saw the Holy Father. He crossed the city in ruins, praying for the souls of the corpses he passed. Bishops, priests, and ordinary believers followed him up a mountain toward a large wooden cross. At the top, soldiers opened fire. The pope fell. The clergy fell. The soldiers killed the believers behind them. The vision ends with two angels gathering the blood of the martyrs and sprinkling it over the souls making their way to God. Three different centuries, three different visions. All of them saw the same thing. A pope walking through the corpses of his own church while the city falls around him.
24:04 AJ Gentile? During the reign of Francis, the prophecy seemed to be coming true. In March 2020, the pandemic closed churches around the world. One rainy day, Francis stood alone in St. Peter's Square, prayed to an empty city. No crowd, no choir. One old man in white, alone in the rain in a square built to hold hundreds of thousands. It looked like the end of the world. He wasn't exactly climbing over corpses, but there were a lot of people dying from COVID.
24:28 Speaker 03 Ah, hold on, did you say dying from or dying with?
24:31 AJ Gentile? Let's not do this again.
24:32 Speaker 03 Fine, fine, we can discuss again in two weeks after we flatten a curve.
24:38 AJ Gentile? War came back to Europe. Churches burned in Africa and Asia, and Christians died for attending them. Inside the Vatican, scandal after scandal, and people kept leaving the church. Whatever many tribulations was supposed to mean, Francis was living it. And across town, in the Basilica of St. Paul outside the walls, the countdown hangs in plain sight. Every pope has a portrait there. A ring of faces circling the church from St. Peter to today, with the current pope's portrait lit by a spotlight. They say that when the wall runs out of room for portraits, the world ends. Under Francis, the spotlight was near the end of the row. Francis led the church through 12 years of tribulation. Then on April 21st, 2025, he died. That should have triggered the apocalypse. But Rome didn't burn. Judgment Day didn't come.
25:22 AJ Gentile? Instead, a conclave gathered to choose another pope. Scholars were relieved, until they took a closer look at the original prophecy. 400 years ago, the text was published with a misprint. One small error that changed everything. The end of the world prophecy isn't counting down popes at all. It's counting down years, and the clock is still ticking.
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27:12 AJ Gentile? On May 8th, 2025, white smoke rose over the Vatican. And instead of a doomed pope stepping over bodies, a man from Chicago walked onto the balcony and waved. Cardinal Robert Prevost took the name Leo XIV, the first pope from the United States. But he wasn't called Peter, and Rome was still standing. Prophecy researchers were relieved but also confused. Why were the predictions so accurate except for the last, most important one? The answer was a misprint in the last two lines.
27:41 AJ Gentile? In the final persecution of the Holy Roman Church, there will sit Peter the Roman, who will pastor his sheep in many tribulations. But in the original Latin, that sentence is actually two. "In the final persecution of the Holy Roman Church, there will sit." Then comes a period. Peter the Roman begins on the next line. For centuries, everyone read those two lines as one sentence. That traces to 1624, when editor Thomas Messingham reprinted the prophecy and merged the two paragraphs into one. His version became the standard, and that original break was forgotten. But splitting those two sentences means any number of popes can sit during the final persecution before Peter the Roman appears. Leo didn't break the prophecy, he filled the gap. The count can also change. The original list wasn't numbered.
28:26 AJ Gentile? And it includes several antipopes. An antipope is a rival who challenged the legitimate pope. Remove those, and every later motto moves up one place. In 2021, a German historian ran the count again and removed three antipopes. Under his system, Leo XIV isn't the last pope. Two more come after him. And there's another way to change the count. When Benedict resigned in 2013, Francis was elected. But Benedict stayed in the Vatican as Pope Emeritus. For years. Some argue that Benedict's resignation was never valid under Church law. If that's true, Benedict stayed the true pope until his death in 2022, and Francis doesn't count at all. And Malachi's list still has room. Then there's 2027.
29:10 AJ Gentile? Buried in the middle of the list is a motto that reads, "Axis in meditate signe." "The axle in the middle of the sign." An axle is the center of a wheel, the point that everything turns around. The motto belonged to Pope Sixus V, who took office in 1585. Celestine II, the first pope on the list, took the throne in 1143. Then 442 years later, we get to the middle, the axle, in 1585. Count forward another 442 years. The count ends in 2027. And Sixtus carried a picture of the countdown everywhere he went. His coat of arms shows a lion with an axle laid across its middle. For 400 years, nobody thought much about it, a lion on a shield.
29:52 AJ Gentile? Then in 2025, the church elected a pope who took the name Leo. There's the lion. The prophecy pointed to Leo, and it may have pointed at him twice. Remember why Francis fit the final motto? The son of Italian immigrants, Roman blood on the throne of Rome? Now look closer at the man from Chicago. His grandfather was born in Sicily, and his name was Rigatano. When he came to America, he changed his name to Prepost. The new pope carries Italian blood and a name that isn't his. Maybe Peter the Roman isn't coming. Maybe he's already on the throne. And Francis behaved like a man who knew. On his first morning as pope, he didn't go to St. Peter's. He crossed the city to the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore and knelt inside.
30:34 AJ Gentile? That church holds the tomb of Pope Sixtus V, the axle. 12 years later, when Francis died, he skipped the Vatican crypt, where popes are buried, and chose Santa Maria Maggiore for his own grave. Peter the Roman rests under the same roof as the pope whose motto starts the countdown. Even the sky has plans for 2027. On August 2 of that year, the moon crosses the sun over the Mediterranean and holds there for six minutes. That's a long eclipse. Astronomers already call it the eclipse of the century, and its shadow runs straight across the old Roman world: Spain, North Africa, Egypt. Malachi's list once marked a pope with the labor of the sun. Now the list ends when the sun goes dark. The pieces fit.
31:17 AJ Gentile? The prophecy was never about the man, it was about the year. As I write this, we have about six months left until the year of the apocalypse. I always felt like we were in the final days, so now that they're here, go out and enjoy them. But after that, ye shall prepare to be judged.
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32:15 AJ Gentile? A medieval saint sees the future. The Vatican hides his warning. Four centuries later, the world finds it, and the greatest historian in Rome proved it never misses. The prophecy of the popes is one of the all-time greatest stories. But is it true?
32:28 Speaker 03 Yep.
32:29 AJ Gentile? Well, let's look at the public record.
32:31 Speaker 03 Oh, no.
32:31 AJ Gentile? Malachi's vision. The earliest version of that story appeared in 1871, not 1139. The origin story of the prophecy is younger than the telling.
32:40 Speaker 03 I don't like this scene. Can we go back to the lightning scene? The lightning scene was fun. This feels like school.
32:47 AJ Gentile? Bernard of Clairvaux wrote a detailed biography of Malachi. He did write that he predicted his own death, but he doesn't mention predictions about popes. In fact, nobody does. There's no mention of the prophecy for another 400 years. When Vian published the list in 1595, he didn't claim it was found in the Vatican archive. He never said where it came from, just that people wanted to see it. It is true that Vian included Chacon's comments to prove the predictions. Small problem. The only accurate predictions already happened. The early mottos fit because Chacon made them fit. After 1590, precise names and titles became vague phrases like "country animal" and "delight of the cross." These mottos are vague because Chacon ran out of history. That is, if Chacon actually had anything to do with the list at all.
33:29 AJ Gentile? Chacon was a famous scholar who specialized in manuscripts and the papacy. He was alive when the list was released. His name was on it. But he never mentioned it, not ever. Some say his silence proves he had nothing to do with it. So why didn't he refute it? Well, this is the 16th century. It's not like he could file a copyright claim. He was a serious historian and a priest. He would have distanced himself from the list, not called attention to it. But we're not at a dead end. The real author did leave clues. In 1557, the church historian Anafrio van Pino published a history of every pope. His book contained a handful of mistakes, and the prophecy repeats those same mistakes. Take the motto for John 22nd, "The Bony Shoemaker." The printed answer says his father made shoes.
34:14 AJ Gentile? His father was a banker. The shoemaker mistake comes from Pan Vino's book, and the prophecy used it. The 2027 number is easily debunked. Sixtus is supposed to be the middle of the list. He's the axle. But he's number 73. That's nowhere near the middle. So even if you believe that Sixtus is the axle, we have 20 or more popes to go. That could mean over 100 years. As for the lion, there's been 13 popes named Leo before this one. Put a lion on a list of 100 mottos, and sooner or later, you'll get a lion. Popes usually choose their second name in honor of their favorite saint or to honor someone in the Bible they admire. That's a limited selection of names. But one name they never choose is Peter. It would be an insult to take the name of the first pope, who was chosen by Jesus himself.
34:57 AJ Gentile? Remember the famous line from Matthew 16? "And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it." No pope would elevate himself to Peter. It's just not done. So don't hold your breath for a Peter the Roman. There are some eerie coincidences, though. John 23rd really was the patriarch of Venice. Paul VI really did have fleur-de-lis on his crest. My favorite are the eclipses. They really did happen on the dates of John Paul II's birth and funeral. But there's an eclipse somewhere on the earth every 18 months. The thing is, an eclipse is not visible from everywhere on earth, and the eclipses that are connected to Pope John Paul were invisible from where he was. Speaking of Pope John Paul II, the Vatican interpreted the Third Secret of Fatima
35:42 AJ Gentile? as the violence of the 20th century, and the wounded pope as John Paul II, who survived being shot in 1981. The vision is real. The children reported it, and the Vatican published a text. But it's not connected to the prophecy at all. And the two popes theory? Well, that's been rejected and debunked. Benedict was alive. He rejected it, and the theory outlived him anyway. So if the prophecy wasn't a prophecy, then what was it? Probably election Remember in 1958 Francis Spellman portrayed himself as a shepherd and a sailor to fit the prophecy? He wasn't the first to try to manipulate an election. The prophecy was probably a forgery created by Cardinal Geralamo Simoncelli during the election of 1590. The next motto on the list reads "From the Old City."
36:26 AJ Gentile? Simoncelli's hometown was "Orietto," in Latin, "The Old City." So he forges a prophecy and gets an endorsement from the world's leading papal scholar, Alfonso Chacon. Now, maybe Chacon was in on it, maybe not, that's still debated. But it doesn't matter, Simoncelli lost.
36:41 Speaker 03 He rigged the system and still lost? It sounds like Hillary-
36:44 AJ Gentile? Oh, you know the rules.
36:46 Speaker 03 Right, right, right, we don't joke about the Clinton. Sorry, I couldn't help myself, go ahead.
36:50 AJ Gentile? The prophecy of the popes has been failing for years, and every time it does, the prophecy gets an update to make it fit. The more interesting question is, why? Why are we so fascinated with the end of the world? I am, I love a disaster movie, anything post-apocalypse, I'm in. Why? What's my problem? Well, different cultures will have different reasons for the end of the world. Religious cultures will have something like a final judgment, a cleansing catastrophe, a savior returning at the climax of history. More secular cultures use the same pattern, they just change the vocabulary. Nuclear Armageddon, super plague, AI takeover, climate apocalypse-
37:23 Speaker 03 Uh, those are all possible.
37:25 AJ Gentile? Yeah, but-
37:26 Speaker 03 Except the climate thing.
37:27 AJ Gentile? Look, the climate is changing, we just-
37:28 Speaker 03 Meh, meh, you go live in a pod and eat the bugs. If you need me, I'll be in a Sizzler in Florida, eating a bone-in ribeye and ignoring Bill Gates.
37:38 AJ Gentile? But the one thing all humans have in common is that we're unique and that we know for 100% certainty that we're gonna die one day. We just don't know when or how. So even the most brave, stoic, peaceful person has this deep existential dread. We all have it, it's natural to worry. But we'd rather go out as part of some cosmic trauma, not an accident or illness or some random event. We can't control how many days we have left, but we can control what we do with those days. So treat tomorrow like it exists. Learn something, love someone, do something that matters, build something that lasts. Don't focus on your death. Just focus on doing everything you can so that when it gets here, you don't have a single regret.
38:26 AJ Gentile? Thank you so much for hanging out with me today. My name is AJ. That's Hecklefish.
38:29 Speaker 03 My motto is tomato canker kerrish. Beer the kerrkerr.
38:34 AJ Gentile? This has been the Y-Files. If you had fun or learned anything, you'd appreciate it if you could like, subscribe, comment, share. I know I'm a broken record, but that stuff really helps the channel. And like most topics we cover on the channel, today's was recommended by you, a lot of you. And thank you for this one. This was a fun one. If there's a story you'd like to hear or learn more about, go to theyfiles.com/tips, reach us on YouTube, send an email. You can find us. Send in your ideas. We're always looking for those. And if you enjoy these stories, check out my other show on the channel. It's called The Basement. It's a conversation show where I chat with the interesting people behind the episodes. Some of them you know, some you don't, but they're all people I find fascinating, and I think you will too. Experts on fun topics like the moon landing hoax, JFK conspiracy, VMT laser code, all kinds of random stuff. And if there's someone you'd like to see on the show, let us know.
39:18 AJ Gentile? We're on the hunt for good guests. Remember, the Y-Files is also a podcast. You can take us on the road. I upload at least twice a week, episodes, campfire stories, interviews. It's called the Y-Files Operation Podcast. It's available everywhere you get your podcasts. While I've got your ear, check out our 24/7 stream of the Y-Files backstage. Over there, we run episodes back to back with some fun content in between. And the live chat is more entertaining than the videos. It's a great community over there. I think you'd enjoy it. Special thanks to our patrons who make this channel possible. Every episode of the Y-Files is dedicated to my Patreon members. Couldn't do this without your support. And if you'd like to support the channel, keep us going, join this community, become a member on Patreon, for as little as $3 a month, get access to perks like seeing videos early with no commercials, exclusive merch,
40:01 AJ Gentile? and two private live streams every week, all just for you. The whole Y-Files team is on the stream, and you're welcome to turn on your camera, ask a question, talk about anything you like. Another great way to support the channel is grab something from the Y-Files store.
40:12 Speaker 03 Grab a Hecklefish, get a physical coffee mug, stick your apocalyptic mug in or whatever you're sticking here. Such a, such a, in the end of days, every, all the merch is, is limited edition, so all prices are double. Grab a hoodie, hoodie, squeeze it, I'll look how it do. Grab a squeeze it, I'll tell you, Hecklefish, that's what I, for the apocalyptic store.
40:33 AJ Gentile? But if you're gonna buy merch, make sure you become a member on YouTube. YouTube members get 10% off everything in the Y-Files store forever, and it's only $3. So if you're gonna spend $40 on visible coffee mugs, if you know, you know, or t-shirts... Become a member, it pays for itself, and then just cancel. The coupon code is there to save you money, not make me money. Besides, all that revenue goes to the team. I don't touch it.
40:54 Speaker 03 Yeah, keep that secret close to your girls, don't you?
40:56 AJ Gentile? Those are the plugs, and that's gonna do it. And my throat is sore from all the takes trying to pronounce Latin. I hope it was worth it. Until next time, be safe, be kind, and other you are appreciated.
41:25 Speaker 05 I play for Libya in Area 51. A secret code inside the Bible said I was. I love my UFOs and paranormal fun as well as music. Songs singing like I should. But then another piece of theory theory becomes the truth, my friends. And it never ends, no, it never ends.
42:03 Speaker 05 I fear the crackhead and got stuck inside mail's hole with MKUltra. I'm being only too aware. Did Stanley Kubrick fake the moon landing alone on a film set? Would the shadows be whole there? The Rockwell aliens just fought the smiling man, I'm told. And his name was Cold. And I can't believe I'm dancing with the fish. Hit the fish on Thursday nights with AJ2. And one more zombie beat all through the night. All I ever wanted was to just hear the truth.
42:47 Speaker 05 And one more zombie beat all through the night.
43:09 Speaker 05 The Mothman sightings and the solar storms still come To have got the secret city underground. Mysterious number stations, planets circle to Project Stargate and what the dark watchers found. In a simulation, don't you worry though. The black night's at a lighter tone. It's so, I can't believe I'm dancing with the fish. Head for fish on Thursday nights when they chase you. And one more time, beat on through the night. All I ever wanted was to just hear the truth.
43:53 Speaker 05 So one more time, beat on through the night. Head for fish on Thursday nights when they chase you. And one more time, beat on through the night. All I ever wanted was to just hear the truth. So one more time, beat on through the night.
44:28 Speaker 05 Girlie loves to dance. Yeah, girlie loves to dance on the dance floor. Because she is a camel and camels love to dance When the feeling is right on wasting time.
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