Lignum Vitae

Lignum Vitae, Arnold Wion's 1595 history of the Benedictine order published in Venice, is the primary text containing the first printed appearance of the Prophecy of the Popes, a list of cryptic papal mottos attributed there to Saint Malachy, a twelfth century Irish bishop who lived more than four centuries before Wion's own publication. Its authority is that of the earliest known print source for the prophecy's actual text. Its limit is precisely that four century gap: no manuscript trace of the prophecy exists between Malachy's own lifetime and Wion's book, which is the central reason most historians treat the attribution to Malachy as a later invention rather than genuine. Cite it for the prophecy's documented textual origin.