Vatican Splendors and many other richly adorned possessions and religious items used by previous popes in the past. "'This is just a taste of all the wealth of art and its beauty the Vatican owns,' said Monsignor Roberto Zagnoli, one of three curators of the Vatican Museums." The most unusual papal artifact there is the bronze sculpture of John Paul II's hands. It is special because it is the only item people are allowed to touch. The papal display is completed with many portraits and busts of the popes as well as a chronological presentation of all the bishops of Rome beginning
Prophecy of the Popes Prophecy of the Popes The Prophecy of the Popes () is a series of 112 short, cryptic phrases in Latin which purport to predict the Roman Catholic popes (along with a few antipopes), beginning with Pope Celestine II. The alleged prophecies were first published by Benedictine monk Arnold Wion in 1595. Wion attributes the prophecies to Saint Malachy, a 12th-century Archbishop of Armagh, Ireland. Given the very accurate description of popes up to around 1590 and lack of accuracy for the popes that follow, historians generally conclude that the alleged prophecies are a fabrication written shortly before they were published.