Wheres the Vatican's Common Sense? Prophecy of the Popes

'Prophecy of the Popes'Saint Malachy is an Irish saint who lived between 1094 and 1148 and served as the archbishop of Armagh. He is perhaps best known for supposedly penning an apocalyptic series of 112 phrases, which he claimed came to him in a vision and predicted the series of popes who would reign over the church and eventually preside over its downfall. The so-called "Prophecy of the Popes" has been pointed to by numerous doomsayers over the years in predicting catastrophe for the church.Roughly translated from its original Latin, the Prophecy reads: "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 [i.e. Rome] will be destroyed, and the terrible judge will judge his people. The End."Peter the RomanIf "Peter the Roman" is to oversee the end of times, who is Peter the Roman? According to some, he could be one of the leading candidates to become pope. Ghanaian Cardinal Peter Turkson is a member of the Catholic administrative body, the Roman Curia, and could therefore be loosely described as Peter the Roman.'Prophecy' may be forgeryAmong the many problems with the Malachy's supposed prophecy is that he may have never written it at all. According numerous sources including the New Advent's Catholic Encyclopedia, there was no mention of Malachy's writings for more than 400 years from the time it was said to have been written and 1590 when Benedictine monk Arnold de Wyon published the "Prophecy of Popes." The silence about the writings from even Malachy's closest friends has led many scholars to conclude that the writings are forgeries, likely written by Wyon himself, and the Catholic Church has never embraced the writings as official doctrine

Where did Valentines Day come from?

Who was St. Valentine? Mystery surrounds the identity of the patron saint of lovers.

Indeed, such was the confusion that the Vatican dropped St. Valentine's Day from the Catholic Church calendar of saints in the 1960s.

There were at least three men by the name Valentine in the A.D. 200s, and all died horrible deaths.

One was a priest in the Roman Empire who helped persecuted Christians during the reign of Claudius II. As he was imprisoned, he restored the sight of a blind girl, who fell in love with him. He was beheaded on Feb. 14.

Another was the pious bishop of Terni, also tortured and beheaded during Claudius II's reign.

A third Valentine secretly married couples, ignoring Claudius II's ban of marriage. When the priest of love was eventually arrested, legend has it that he fell deeply in love with his jailer's daughter.

Before his death by beating and decapitation, he signed a farewell note to her: “From your Valentine.”

Apart from legend, the first connection between romance and Feb. 14 goes back to Geoffrey Chaucer (1340?-1400), the English poet and author of The Canterbury Tales.

In his poem "Parliament of Fowls" (1382), Chaucer suggested that St. Valentine's Day was the time when birds chose their mates.

"For this was Seynt Valentyne's Day. When every foul cometh ther to choose his mate," he wrote.

Some 33 years later, Duke Charles of Orleans wrote what is considered the oldest known valentine in existence.

Imprisoned in the Tower of London after being captured by the English, in 1415 the French nobleman wrote his wife, Bonne d’Armagnac, a rhyming love letter, which is now part of the manuscript collection in the British Library in London.

The first two lines of the poem were:

"Je suis déjà d'amour tanné. Ma très douce Valentinée." (I am already sick with love, My very gentle Valentine).

It was an intense but unfortunate love: Bonne d’Armagnac may never have seen him again. She died before Charles' return to France in 1440.