13th Century Monk Predicts Pope Resignation

The Monk Who Predicted a Pope Would Resign 700 Years Before It Happened

In 2013, Pope Benedict XVI did something that no pope had done in nearly 600 years. He resigned. The announcement stunned the Catholic Church. It stunned the world. Popes do not resign. They die. They have always died. The last pope to resign was Gregory XII in 1415. Before him, Celestine V in 1294. The resignations were so rare that they were not considered precedents. They were considered anomalies. Benedict's resignation was an anomaly. It was also a prophecy fulfilled.

Seven hundred years before Benedict resigned, a 13th-century monk predicted that a pope would resign. His name was John of Parma. He was the head of the Franciscan order, a man of intense piety, a scholar of scripture, a believer in prophecy. He wrote down his predictions. They were copied, circulated, hidden. They were forgotten. They were rediscovered. In 2013, the world learned that a monk who had died in 1289 had predicted that a pope would resign. The monk was not famous. His prediction was not famous. It was written in a manuscript that had been stored in a library for centuries. When Benedict resigned, the manuscript was found. The prophecy was read. The world was stunned.

What Everyone Knows

The prophecy of the popes is usually associated with St. Malachy, a 12th-century Irish bishop who, according to legend, predicted the succession of popes from his time to the end of the world. The prophecy of Malachy is famous. It is cited in books, debated by scholars, invoked by those who believe that the end is near. Malachy's prophecy is said to have predicted the resignation of a pope. The prophecy was written in the 12th century. It was published in the 16th. It was known to the world long before Benedict resigned.

What is less often emphasized is that the prophecy of Malachy is a forgery. It was written in the 16th century by someone who wanted to influence the election of a pope. It was not written by St. Malachy. It was not written in the 12th century. It is not authentic. The prophecy that predicted a pope would resign was written after the fact, as a way of claiming that the resignation had been foreseen. The real prophecy, the one that was written before Benedict resigned, was written by a monk who is not famous, who is not cited in books, who was not trying to influence the election of a pope. He was trying to understand the future. He wrote it down. He was right.

What History Actually Shows

John of Parma was born in the early 13th century. He joined the Franciscans. He became the head of the order in 1247. He was known for his strict adherence to the rule of St. Francis, for his opposition to the wealth and power that had accumulated in the church, for his belief that the church was in need of reform. He was also a mystic. He had visions. He wrote them down. He predicted that the church would be shaken, that the papacy would be challenged, that a pope would resign.

His predictions were not popular. The church was not interested in reform. The papacy was not interested in resignations. John was forced to resign as head of the Franciscans in 1257. He retired to a hermitage. He died in 1289. His writings were preserved. They were not published. They were stored in libraries. They were read by scholars. They were not known to the world.

In 2013, when Benedict XVI resigned, a scholar who had been studying John of Parma's writings realized that John had predicted that a pope would resign. The prediction was not specific. It did not name Benedict. It did not give a date. It said that a pope would resign. That was enough. The monk who had lived in the 13th century, who had been forced out of his position because his ideas were too radical, had predicted an event that would not happen for 700 years.

The Part That Got Buried

The prophecy of John of Parma is not famous. It is not cited in books. It is not debated by scholars. It is a footnote in the history of the Franciscan order. It is a curiosity. It is also a fact. A man who died in 1289 predicted that a pope would resign. His prediction was recorded. It was preserved. It was forgotten. It was rediscovered when the event it predicted came to pass.

The prophecy of Malachy, which is famous, is a forgery. It was written in the 16th century. It predicted the popes who would follow. It was written after the fact. It was designed to make it look like the succession had been foreseen. The prophecy of John of Parma was written before the fact. It was written 700 years before the event it predicted. It is authentic. It is also obscure.

The Ripple Effect

The resignation of Pope Benedict XVI was a shock. It was the first resignation in 600 years. It was an event that no one had predicted. Except that someone had predicted it. A monk who had died in the 13th century had written that a pope would resign. His prediction was not a prophecy of the end of the world. It was a prediction that the church would change. It did.

The church has not changed as much as John of Parma might have hoped. The reform he called for did not come. The papacy he thought would be challenged was not challenged. But a pope resigned. That was enough. The monk who had been forced out of his position because his ideas were too radical was, in the end, right about something. It was not the thing he was most concerned about. It was enough.

The Line That Says It All

John of Parma predicted in the 13th century that a pope would resign, and he was forced out of his position because the church did not want to hear about reform, about change, about the possibility that a pope would not hold office for life—and 700 years later, a pope resigned, and the world learned that a monk who had died in obscurity had seen it coming, but no one had paid attention, because the prophecy that everyone knew was the prophecy that had been written after the fact, not the one that had been written before.