compunction give up
the papacy and renounce its position and dignity, burdens, and honors,
with full freedom. I now instruct the Sacred College of cardinals to
elect and provide, according to the cannons, a shepherd for the
universal church.”

As recounted by John Sweeney in a 2012 book, “The Pope Who Quit,”
Celestine V declared himself “useless,” stepped down from the papal
throne and removed his ring, tiara and mantle, handing them to the
cardinals who had elected him; he then sat down on the floor.
He put on the dress of the simplest of friars – the gray habit of a
Celestine hermit – and secreted away from the crowd outside to return to
the mountains.

What will be next for Pope Benedict XVI? Is there a spiritual connection between the hermit pope and the scholar?

Malachy’s predictions

St. Malachy, anIrish saint and the archbishop of Armagh, who lived
from 1094 to 1l48, is attributed with a vision of the last 112 popes
from which he created a prophetic list. He named with a descriptive
epithet each pope in succession from Celestine II, who was pope from
1143-1144, to the present day.

Malachy described the last pope as “Petrus Romanus,” or “Peter the
Roman,” writing: “In the final persecution of the Holy Roman Church
there will reign Peter the Roman, who will feed his flock among many
tribulations; after which the seven-hilled city will be destroyed and
the dreadful Judge will judge the people.”

In 1880, M. J. O’Brien, a Catholic priest, published in Dublin a book
providing a “historical and critical account” of the prophecy of St.
Malachy regarding the succession of the popes.
O’Brien understood that Malachy’s prophecy was