Popes and Corresponding Mottos
This list, adapted from The Prophecies of St. Malachy by Peter Bander, begins its numbering two numbers ahead of the Vatican's numbering of popes (Benedict XVI is the 265th, not the 267th). The reason for this is unclear (perhaps because of the two purported "anti-popes").
The list can be divided into two groups; one of the 74 Popes and Antipopes who reigned prior to the appearance of the Prophecy in 1590, for whom the connection between the motto and the Pope is usually clear but can be seen as postdiction. The other is of the 38 Popes who have reigned since 1590, for whom the connection between the motto and the Pope is often strained or totally opaque and could be viewed as shoehorning.
Read more about this topic: Prophecy Of The Popes
Famous quotes containing the word popes:
“What is wrong with priests and popes is that instead of being apostles and saints, they are nothing but empirics who say “I know” instead of “I am learning,” and pray for credulity and inertia as wise men pray for scepticism and activity.”
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950)