Malachi Martin
Malachi Brendan Martin (23 July 1921 – 27 July 1999), also known under the pseudonym of Michael Serafian, was an Irish-born American Traditionalist Catholic priest, biblical archaeologist, exorcist, palaeographer, professor, and writer on the Catholic Church.
Not to be confused with Malachi Martin (murderer) or Malachi Martin (politician).
The Reverend
Malachi Brendan Martin
23 July 1921
Ballylongford, County Kerry, Ireland
27 July 1999 (aged 78)
New York, New York, U.S.
Michael Serafian
F. X. Martin (brother)
Ordained as a Jesuit, Martin became Professor of Palaeography at the Pontifical Biblical Institute in Rome. From 1958, he served as secretary to Cardinal Augustin Bea during preparations for the Second Vatican Council. Disillusioned by the council, Martin asked to be released from certain aspects of his Jesuit vows in 1964 and moved to New York City.
Martin's 17 novels and non-fiction books were frequently critical of the Catholic hierarchy, who he believed had failed to act on what he called "the Third Prophecy" revealed by the Virgin Mary at Fátima.[1] His works included The Scribal Character of the Dead Sea Scrolls (1958) and Hostage to the Devil (1976), which dealt with Satanism, demonic possession, and exorcism. The Final Conclave (1978) was a warning against Soviet espionage in the Vatican.
Biography[edit]
Early life, education and ordination[edit]
Martin was born in Ballylongford, County Kerry, Ireland, to a middle-class family[2] in which the children were raised speaking Irish at the dinner table. His parents, Conor and Katherine Fitzmaurice Martin, had five sons and five daughters. Four of the five sons became priests, including his younger brother, Francis Xavier Martin.[3]
Martin attended Belvedere College in Dublin, then studied philosophy for three years at University College Dublin.[4] On 6 September 1939, he became a novice with the Society of Jesus.[5] Martin taught for three years, spending four years at Milltown Park, Dublin, and was ordained in August 1954.[6]
Upon completion of his degree course in Dublin, Martin was sent to the Catholic University of Louvain in Belgium, where he took a doctorate in archaeology, Oriental history, and Semitic languages.[4] He started postgraduate studies at both the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and at the University of Oxford. Martin specialized in intertestamentary studies, Jesus in Jewish and Islamic sources, Ancient Hebrew and Arabic manuscripts.[4] He undertook additional study in rational psychology, experimental psychology, physics, and anthropology.[1]
Work[edit]
Martin participated in the research on the Dead Sea Scrolls and published 24 articles on Semitic palaeography.[7][8] He did archaeological research and worked extensively on the Byblos syllabary in Byblos,[9] in Tyre, and in the Sinai Peninsula. Martin assisted in his first exorcism while working in Egypt for archaeological research.[10] In 1958, he published a work in two volumes, The Scribal Character of the Dead Sea Scrolls.[11]
In 1958, Martin was assigned to serve as a private secretary to Cardinal Augustin Bea, working with him in the Vatican until 1964. Martin's years in Rome coincided with the beginning of the Second Vatican Council (1962–65), which was to transform the Catholic Church in a way that the initially liberal Martin began to find distressing. He became friends with Monsignor George Gilmary Higgins and Father John Courtney Murray.[2]
Work[edit]
Writings[edit]
In 1964, under the pseudonym of "Michael Serafian", Martin wrote The Pilgrim: Pope Paul VI, the Council, & the Church in a Time of Decision. The book contained Martin's views on the Jewish question in Europe and on the Second Vatican Council. Martin's fictional works purported to give detailed insider accounts of Church history during the reigns of Popes Pius XII, John XXIII, Paul VI (The Pilgrim, Three Popes and the Cardinal, Vatican: A Novel[15]), John Paul I (The Final Conclave[15]) and John Paul II (The Keys of This Blood, Windswept House).
Martin's non-fictional writings cover a range of Catholic topics, such as demonic possessions, exorcisms, Satanism, liberation theology, the Second Vatican Council (The Pilgrim), the Tridentine liturgy, Catholic dogma, Catholic modernism (Three Popes and the Cardinal; The Jesuits), the financial history of the Church (Rich Church, Poor Church; The Decline and Fall of the Roman Church), the New World Order and the geopolitical importance of the Pope (The Keys of This Blood).