papal prophecies

illustrations from a manuscript copy of "vaticinia de summis pontificibus" (a series of prophecies related to specific popes), northern italy, c. 1410-15

source: Kremsmünster, Benediktinerstift, CC Cim. 6, fol. 5r, 8r, 13v, 16r

I'm honestly always thinking about how Gregory the Great was in so much pain from his chronic issues that he couldn't leave his bed, and he wrote 35 volumes about Job, who is the biblical poster child of suffering while keeping the faith.

Gregory thought the world was ending. The Lombards were attacking, the empire had long since abandoned the city of Rome, there was famine, and several plague outbreaks. The barbarians were heretics or schismatic, and all he could do was write letters across the continent asking for someone to care about order and God. He was trying to prioritize charity, along with hierarchy. He wrote a lot about miracles and saints, the ideal bishop, and so on.

But he also wrote about suffering having meaning while bedridden at the end of the world. He dedicated it to his special friend, Leander of Seville, who also was suffering chronic pain. The letters that Gregory sent to him were extremely sweet.

Anyway, as a person who also has chronic pain, this was a very unique topic to learn about.

A Papal Tiara by Francesco Bartoli

If the current Pope dies before the other living ex-Pope, does the ex-Pope just slip back into the role? Or is he sort of like the layabout roomie that comes with the apartment?

The Medici family are synonymous with the Renaissance era and wielded unparalleled power in Florence and beyond, emerging from origins as bankers to become Europe's most influential dynasty. Their patronage of the arts catalyzed a cultural renaissance, nurturing talents like Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci.

However, their rule was also marked by political intrigue and controversy, including exile and assassination attempts. Despite these challenges, their legacy endures, shaping art, politics and commerce in Renaissance Europe and beyond.

It’d be funny as hell if the Vatican used its archives, vaults and basements to preserve and display the remains of dead Popes, trapped in amber on display for the general public.

All T-posing, fucking bones and everything.

“There’s Pope Formosus. T-posing as usual.”

which president met the most popes-john paul 2?

Yes, it's Pope John Paul II.

The first incumbent President to meet a Pope was Woodrow Wilson, who met Pope Benedict XV at the Vatican in 1919, so Presidents have really only been meeting with Popes for the past 100 years. So Pope John Paul II basically reigned as Pope for a quarter of the time (26+ years) that Presidents have been meeting with them.

But despite the length of John Paul II's reign, he didn't meet with significantly more Presidents than some of the other Popes. John Paul II met with five incumbent Presidents during his reign: Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and George W. Bush (he also met future President Joe Biden when Biden was a U.S. Senator). Pope Paul VI, who was Pope from 1963-1978, met with four incumbent Presidents: John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, Richard Nixon, and Gerald Ford. John Paul II would have probably met more Presidents if not for the fact that Reagan and Clinton were both re-elected and served the full eight years in office (Bush 43 was also re-elected, but John Paul II died just a few months into his second term).

Here's a full list of which incumbent Presidents met with which Popes:

•Pope Benedict XV [1]: Woodrow Wilson (1919) •Pope John XXIII [1]: Dwight D. Eisenhower (1959) •Pope Paul VI [4]: John F. Kennedy (1963); Lyndon B. Johnson (1965 & 1967--a meeting which featured one of my favorite Presidential stories ever); Richard Nixon (1969 & 1970); Gerald Ford (1975) •Pope John Paul II [5]: Jimmy Carter (1979 & 1980); Ronald Reagan (1982, 1984, & 1987); George H.W. Bush (1989 & 1991); Bill Clinton (1993, 1994, 1995, & 1999); George W. Bush (2001, 2002, & 2004) [John Paul II also met future Presidents George H.W. Bush during Bush's Vice Presidency and Joe Biden while Biden was a Senator.] •Pope Benedict XVI [2]: George W. Bush (2007 & 2008); Barack Obama (2009) [Benedict XVI also met future President Joe Biden during his Vice Presidency.] •Pope Francis [3]: Barack Obama (2014 & 2015); Donald Trump (2017); Joe Biden (2021) [Francis also met future President Biden on three occasions during Biden's Vice Presidency.]

Interestingly, Pope Pius IX, who reigned from 1846-1878 -- long before the United States formally established permanent diplomatic relations with the Holy See -- also met four Presidents during his reign (more than any Pope other than John Paul II), but they were all either former or future Presidents. Pius IX met former Presidents Martin Van Buren and Millard Fillmore in 1855 when they visited Rome (separately) and former President Franklin Pierce when he visited Rome in November 1857. And Pius IX met future President Theodore Roosevelt in December 1869 when Roosevelt's family visited the Vatican. Theodore Roosevelt is actually the only person who served as President known to have kissed the ring of a Pope -- even though Roosevelt wasn't Catholic and was only 11 years old. Former President Ulysses S. Grant met Pope Leo XIII in 1878 when visiting the Vatican during his post-Presidential world tour.

Been reading about popes, as one does. Here's a few things I've learned:

My boy St. Anterus was only pope for 43 days before he kicked it.

The last pope to be born in Africa (St. Gelasius I) was pope way back in 492 CE.

The practice of popes not using their real names when they become pontiff originated from one pope (St. John II) who didn't want to use his birth name (Mercurius) because of its association with a "false" god. The practice wouldn't become mainstream though until Pope Gregory V in 985.

Stephen/Stephanus/Stephen II was named pope and 3 days later he died. It was so short that he didn't even officially take office and most lists don't count him.

Formosus was on trial 7 months after he died. He was being tried for perjury and allegedly ascending to the papacy illegitimately by a later pope, Stephen VI. Formosus was found guilty and sentenced to execution (despite already being dead) and they annulled all of his acts as pope. They buried him in a cheap grave, then dug his body up and threw it in a river where it later washed up on shore. This pissed off everyone else so much that they later had to rebury him with Christian rites and Stephen then got sentenced to prison where he got strangled. The whole thing was so embarrassing that later, Pope Theodore II convened another synod that annulled the synod that annulled Formosus's papacy. Even later than that, Pope John IX held two different synods, both agreeing with Theodore and annulling Stephen's trial -then went further and prohibited all future trials of corpses. AND THEN Pope Sergius III held ANOTHER Synod and overturned the rulings of both Theodore and John, reaffirmed Formosus's conviction, and had a new epitaph inscribed on the tomb of Stephen praising him for his work.

All the stuff above was so embarrassing and so many new popes kept getting elected that nobody respected the papacy for almost a century. The popes became super corrupt and got rules by a small group of aristocrats paying them off. This era becomes known as the "Pornocracy" and "Rule of the Harlots" which just sounds sick as hell (but was actually very bad for everyone).

The first pope to canonize a saint didn't take office until 985 CE (this was Pope John XV and he canonized Bishop Ulrich of Augsburg in 993).

Adrian IV is the only pope to have been English (Anglo-Saxon specifically).

Francis Bacon

Top left: Study for a Pope VI

Top right: Study for a Pope IV

Below left: Study for a Pope V

Below right: Study for a Pope III

ca. early 1960s

From Which European Country Popes Came From

THE ESTABLISHMENT OF CHATTEL SLAVERY BY THE CATHOLIC POPE NICHOLAS V 6/18/1452

Papal Bull Dum Diversas 18 June, 1452

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Pope Nicholas V issued the papal bull Dum Diversas on 18 June, 1452. It authorised Alfonso V of Portugal to reduce any “Saracens (Muslims) and pagans and any other unbelievers” to perpetual slavery.

This facilitated the Portuguese slave trade from West Africa.

The same pope wrote the bull Romanus Pontifex on January 5, 1455 to the same Alfonso. As a follow-up to the Dum diversas, it extended to the Catholic nations of Europe dominion over discovered lands during the Age of Discovery. Along with sanctifying the seizure of non-Christian lands, it encouraged the enslavement of native, non-Christian peoples in Africa and the New World.

“We weighing all and singular the premises with due meditation, and noting that since we had formerly by other letters of ours granted among other things free and ample faculty to the aforesaid King Alfonso – to invade, search out, capture, vanquish, and subdue all Saracens and pagans whatsoever, and other enemies of Christ wheresoever placed, and the kingdoms, dukedoms, principalities, dominions, possessions, and all movable and immovable goods whatsoever held and possessed by them and to reduce their persons to perpetual slavery, and to apply and appropriate to himself and his successors the kingdoms, dukedoms, counties, principalities, dominions, possessions, and goods, and to convert them to his and their use and profit – by having secured the said faculty, the said King Alfonso, or, by his authority, the aforesaid infante, justly and lawfully has acquired and possessed, and doth possess, these islands, lands, harbors, and seas, and they do of right belong and pertain to the said King Alfonso and his successors”.

In 1493 Alexander VI issued the bull Inter Caetera stating one Christian nation did not have the right to establish dominion over lands previously dominated by another Christian nation, thus establishing the Law of Nations. Together, the Dum Diversas, the Romanus Pontifex and the Inter Caetera came to serve as the basis and justification for the Doctrine of Discovery, the global slave-trade of the 15th and 16th centuries, and the Age of Imperialism.  

Dum Diversas (Latin Original).

Papal Bulls

SUGGESTED CITATION

Indigenous Values Initiative, "Dum Diversas," Doctrine of Discovery Project (23 July 2018), https://doctrineofdiscovery.org/dum-diversas/.

About the popes: Leo XIII, Pius X, Benedict XV, Pius XI, Pius XII, John XXIII, Paul VI, John Paul I, John Paul II

this may or may not inspire a pope tournament one of these days

A bit younger postcard from VATICANO / ROMA / ITALY - with 2 popes.

Greek popes from Salonica, modern-day Thessaloniki, Greece

Greek vintage postcard