1000-year-old prophecy had terrifying warning for humanity and predicted next pope as Pope Francis is laid to rest

Pope Francis has been laid to rest and the Catholic church is in an official state of mourning.

Today (27 April) is day two of the 'Novemdiales', the official nine day period of mourning, which started yesterday with the late pope's funeral.

Pope Francis had signalled before his death that he wished to break from tradition and have a more humble funeral than most popes, being laid to rest in a more simple coffin and being the first pope for a long time to be buried outside the Vatican.

What follows the period of mourning is the conclave, where cardinals will cast their vote for who the next pope will be.

Much rests on their decision, the direction Pope Francis took the Catholic church in and the impact he had on a religion that over a billion people around the world are part of indicates that it does matter who gets the top job.

The job of picking a new pope will come soon, it'll be up to the conclave to choose (Dan Kitwood/Getty Images)

However, an old prophecy claims that very bad things could be coming as, according to it, we've reached the end.

This is the Prophecy of the Popes, which was 'found' by a monk named Arnold Wyon, who claimed that it had been written by an Irish fellow called Saint Malachy.

The prophecy claims to list a total of 112 popes through cryptic sentences, which allude to their identity.

Oddly enough, the Prophecy of the Popes is pretty dang accurate right up until the moment it was discovered, after which it becomes horribly inaccurate.

It's almost as if it was written much later than the guy who found it claimed it had been.

Anyhow, we've rather reached the end of the list as Pope Francis would have been entry 112, and there are no more entries after that, though the entry that's meant to be for him talks about someone called 'Peter the Roman', which doesn't make much sense because he took the name 'Francis' and was called Jorge Mario Bergoglio before that and was born in Argentina, not Rome.

The prophecy has been discounted by experts, so there's likely not much to worry about (Public Domain)

As for what it says, the prophecy claims: "Peter the Roman, who will pasture his sheep in many tribulations, and when these things are finished, the city of seven hills will be destroyed, and the dreadful judge will judge his people. The End."

That all sounds like a rather dire warning as it seems to suggest that Rome will be destroyed.

Then again, Pope Francis doesn't sound like this 'Peter the Roman' fellow and experts have rubbished the Prophecy of the Popes.

According to Global News, papal historian Anura Guruge said 'more than likely, the entire thing is a forgery', while religious expert Josh Canning said it would be 'really reaching' to connect the cryptic sentences to popes with any authority.

He said that most Catholic experts 'see it as kind of a hoax', and suggested that the man who found the Prophecy of the Popes likely made it up in a failed attempt to get a friend of his elected pope.