MALACHY, IMAR, Archbishop of Armagh, in Ireland, and a saint of the Roman Catholic church, is remarkable not only for his connection with a very important period of Irish church history, but also from the circumstance of his biography having been written by his distinguished contemporary, St. Bernard. Malachy was born, in the end of the 11th c., of a noble family, and having been educated by a hermit, named Imar, received orders at an early age from the hands of Celsus, archbishop of Armagh. His reputation for learning and sanctity was unexampled in that age, and Celsus had early designed Malachy as his successor in the see of Armagh; but 3Ialachy protested against it, in consequence of an abuse similar to that of lay impropriation (q.v.), by which the temporalities of the see were held by laymen, called coarbs. In the end, how: ever, he was elected, with the full rights of his see, and soon afterwards, in his capacity of primate, took measures for the reform of the many abuses which prevailed in all the churches of Ireland. He went to Rome during the pontificate of Innocent II., and having in vain sought permission to resign his see, and retire to Clairvaux, returned to Ireland invested with extraordinary powers as legate of the pope. In this capacity, he made a visitation of Ireland, and many of the controversies as to the ancient religious usages of the Irish church, which would be out of place in this publication, turn upon this period. Malachy again repaired to France in 1147, in order to meet
the pope, Eugene III., during his visit to that country; but before his arrival, the pope had returned to Rome, and Malachy, during a visit to his friend, St. Bernard, at Clairvaux, was seized with an illness which ended in his death in the year 1148. A curious " prophecy concerning the future Roman pontiffs," is extant under the name of Malachy. It designates, by a few brief phrases, the leading characteristics of each successive reign, and in some instances these descriptive characteristics have proved so curiously appropriate as to lead to some discussion. The characteristic of Pio Nono, Crux de Cruce (cross after cross), was the subject of much speculation. That the prophecy really dates from the time of Malachy, no scholar now supposes; it was unknown not only to St. Bernard, but to all others, until the 16th century. It is first noticed in the end of that century, but it may be a sufficient indication of its worth to state that neither Baronius nor any of his continuators deemed it deserving of attention.