Following the death of Pope Francis, there has been a surge in internet searches for Nostradamus, the 16th-century French astrologer. It's not the first time his prophecies have been the subject of interest during major world events. Why does this prophet continue to attract so much attention?
Michel de Nostredame, known as Nostradamus, was a French physician who treated plague sufferers.
He practiced astrology as an amateur and wrote a book Prophecies (The Prophecies), which was published in 1555.
It contains 942 enigmatic quatrains (four lines), which he claimed foretold the future, many of them catastrophic events.
One of the poems, often described as vague and out of context, has been interpreted as referring to the "death of a very old pontiff," which some social media posts and online texts have linked to the death of Pope Francis.
However, dozens of popes have passed away since 1555, so it is not clear why this would apply to Pope Francis.
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Astrology, a pseudoscience that claims that the stars can influence events in people's lives, experienced a boom in popularity in the 16th century.
Facilities were opening everywhere where astrologers offered advice on everything from career and love to health.
One of them was Nostradamus, who ran a popular astrological center and interpreted the horoscopes of the rich and powerful.
However, he never completed formal training in astrology, which was an academic discipline at the time, and some contemporaries considered him a charlatan.
Despite this, his short and enigmatic poems became extremely popular among the people and were bestsellers.
For most Europeans, the 16th century was an extremely difficult period – wars, food shortages and famine, and the plague ravaged the cities.
In such chaos, Nostradamus' prophecies offered both warnings and a strange sense of comfort.
“The collective anxiety was very deep,” says Michelle Pfeffer, a historian of science and religion at the University of Oxford, England.
"In times of great uncertainty like that period, people search for answers, for guidance, and for reassurance that there is a higher plan."
Just as there are people today who rely on horoscopes, in Nostradamus' time his followers used his work to try to find meaning in a world full of turmoil, but also a sense that change was on the horizon.
Hundreds of years later, his supporters claimed that he predicted many major historical events, including both world wars, the dropping of nuclear bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the rise of Hitler, and the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, although he did not name these events.
“Nostradamus’ prophecies are written in extremely vague terms that can fit any circumstance,” says Joel Rollo-Koster, a professor of medieval history at the University of Rhode Island, in the United States (USA).
"What is indefinite, ambiguous, and unclear can be interpreted in one's own way by everyone."
Despite this, his name and prophecies have survived in the collective imagination.
Thanks to the "timeless" nature of his prophecies, as only a small number contain specific dates, books interpreting Nostradamus' work have sold in huge circulations.
There are more than 100 different titles in English alone.
More recent editions, which connect Nostradamus's prophecies to world events, helped solidify his place in the public consciousness during the 20th century.
After the terrorist attacks on the US on September 11, 2001, books about Nostradamus were among the best-sellers, as many of his followers claimed that he had predicted these events.
The American newspaper The New York Times reported at the time on an email that circulated after the attack.
The email combined parts of various verses from Nostradamus' works and words he did not write at all to create a dramatic text, which suggested that he had predicted what would happen.
The lyrics included the following words: "Fire is approaching the great new city/There will be great destruction in the city of York."
Other events that Nostradamus' supporters claimed he predicted included the landing of the American Apollo 11 spacecraft on the moon, the disaster of the American space shuttle Challenger, and even the death of Queen Elizabeth II.
Today, most people probably don't look for the original texts, but rather come across Nostradamus' name in texts on the internet or memes on social media.
Other prophecies about popes have resurfaced online.
A prophecy about the popes, attributed to Saint Malachy, is interpreted by some to indicate that Pope Francis could be the last Roman Catholic leader.
However, experts question the authenticity of this text and believe it was created for political purposes.
"Prophecies are intriguing and fascinating, and some people tend to believe in things that are outside the bounds of conventional thinking. It's part of our nature," says Joseph Jusinski, a professor of political science at the University of Miami, in the US.
"Sometimes entertainment leads people to certain beliefs, and sometimes they simply adopt ideas that are pleasant or comforting."
In times of uncertainty, it's no surprise that Nostradamus and other prophecies remain widely popular, experts say.
“In difficult times, astrology and fortune-telling that attempts to predict future events or reveal hidden knowledge are extremely appealing to people,” says Michelle Feffer.
"People don't always deal well with uncertainty, and astrologers and fortune tellers have always been valued because they could help people make difficult decisions, but also comfort them, indicating that it was all part of a greater plan."
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