All language subtitles for oracles.and.prophets.s01e01.1080p.web.h264-cbfm_track3_[eng]

(mysterious music)

- [Narrator]
Throughout the ages,

there have been
whispers of those

who see beyond the veil of time,

visions of doom,

warnings from the unknown,
and messages from the divine.

In 16th century France,

astrologer Nostradamus
pens cryptic verses

in a book that will
haunt generations.

In the shadowy forests
of Central Europe,

a castle attracts visitors
drawn to its dark history,

and for one, a night
spent within its walls

conjures up hellish
visions of the future.

In medieval Italy,

a holy man's incurable wounds

are blamed on heavenly visions,

but are merely a
precursor to prophecies

of a darker future
for Christianity.

What lies behind these visions?

Is there a rational answer,

or have spiritual forces
beyond our understanding

given these people
the gift of prophecy?

(enchanting music)

(enchanting music continues)

(soft music)

September 11th, 2001,

hijacked planes crash into
New York City's Twin Towers,

sending them collapsing.

Chaos unfolds, lives are lost,

and the world is
forever changed.

People are desperate
for answers,

and some people find those
answers in the writings

of the 16th century
French mystic Nostradamus.

- Nostradamus has fascinated
people for centuries,

and in our own time, he is
seen as having prophesied

the Great Fire of
London in 1666,

the rise of Napoleon Bonaparte,

the Second World War, even
the assassination of JFK,

and, coming right up to
the present day, 9/11.

All of this prophesied
by Nostradamus,

- He's almost become a
shorthand for fortune-telling

in general.

- People are always looking
for the ways in which

they can come into catastrophe,

and when you have someone
who is using divination

to predict catastrophe,

people have a tendency
to pay attention.

- Is there something
in his writings

that is really true, that
really does see into the future?

- [Narrator] It has been said

Nostradamus is the most
quoted Frenchman in history,

but where did he come from,

how much of his cryptic
prophecies come to pass,

and how much is merely legend?

- Nostradamus, or
Michel de Nostredame,

was born in 1503 in
Saint-Remy-de-Provence.

He was the son of
Reyniere de Saint-Remy

and her husband,
Jaume de Nostredame,

a grain dealer and
part-time notary.

- [Narrator] While Nostradamus
family has Jewish roots,

his grandfather, Guy Gassonet,

converts the family
to Catholicism.

This mix of Jewish and
Catholic traditions

becomes central to
Nostradamus's worldview.

- As a child,

Nostradamus shows an unusually
high level of intelligence.

He begins to learn
Latin, Greek and Hebrew,

and it's believed

that his grandfather taught
the young Nostradamus

much of the kind
of Jewish mysticism

that we find in the
Kabbalah in astrology.

- When Nostradamus
is a young man,

he goes to the
University of Montpellier

to study to become a physician,

but he becomes very frustrated

with the academic lecture-heavy
approach of the university,

because he really wants a more
hands-on form of training.

- [Narrator] Undeterred,

Nostradamus spends
most of the 1520s

traveling across
Southern France,

continuing his medical
studies on his own.

By the end of the decade,

he returns to Montpellier
to earn his medical degree.

- He's coming into a world

which is in the throes
of a health crisis.

Since the Black Death
in the 14th century,

Europe has experienced wave
after wave of epidemics.

In fact, in Provence,
in the south of France,

there were a staggering
43 years of epidemics

between 1451 and 1550.

- [Narrator] While most
run from the plague,

Nostradamus rushes
toward infected areas

in order to practice
his trade as a healer.

- Nostradamus becomes
a plague doctor,

and he's going to be
very busy at this time

across Provence,
in Southern France,

and Northern Italy

where he travels around trying
to heal people of the plague.

Now, to paint a picture,
nobody can stop it.

Nobody knows how to stop it,

and it lays waste:
villages, towns, cities.

This seems like a
judgment from God.

It is something out of control.

- Nostradamus attributes
phenomena like the plague

to a combination of religious
events and outcomes,

astrological placements, and
cutting-edge medical knowledge.

One of his ideas

is that it's the position
of planetary bodies

in the sky

that create the
conditions for pestilence

to drop from the air
into the atmosphere

that human beings are breathing.

- [Narrator] The people
of Southern France

see Nostradamus as
a dedicated healer,

but when tragedy
strikes close to home,

his search for answers
awakens the unusual talents

the world will remember him for.

- By a cruel twist of fate,

the plague takes his own
wife and two children,

and this really knocks him back.

It makes him reconsider
the path to true knowledge,

and he starts to go down
a more mystical route.

He's departing, if you want,
from conventional science

into something much broader,

much more esoteric, even
dabbling with the occult.

- [Narrator] As Nostradamus
embraces mystical traditions,

he seemingly awakens
a remarkable gift,

and his first known prophecy
is about to come true.

- One of the legends
told about Nostradamus

is that he comes upon this
group of Franciscan friars,

and after studying them, he
points to one of their number,

a man named Felice Peretti,

and he tells the man that he
will become the future Pope.

Of course, in 1585,

Felice Peretti did indeed
become Pope Sixtus V,

fulfilling that prophecy.

- Is this unusual? Yes.

And we don't have a lot
of Franciscan popes,

but you do have
to wonder as well

whether there was current
knowledge at the time

that he would've been one
of the likely successors

because of his influence.

- [Narrator] After
decades of travel,

Nostradamus moves back
to Salon-de-Provence.

It is during this
period of stability

that Nostradamus
cements his legacy

as one of history's
greatest seers.

- In his mid-40s, he's still
a practicing physician,

but he does have
these other interests

that he's devoting
time and energy to.

In particular, he's
interested in astrology

and in practices
of prognostication.

- In European
history at that time,

the astrological stuff is not
seen as fringy as it is now.

People knew, for example,

that the heavenly
bodies affected tides,

and they naturally thought,
well, there's some sort of force

that connects them to things
that happen on the Earth,

and maybe the same
way it affects a tide,
it can affect us.

- [Narrator] By the
early 16th century,

astrology was widely
practiced throughout Europe.

By now, a common practice
taught in universities,

blending ancient traditions
with new observational methods,

tracking the various planets

and other celestial
bodies in the skies above.

- Astrologers, such as
Nostradamus at the time,

would've been using technology
such as an astrolabe,

which would enable them to
calculate the precise positions

of a planet at any given time.

- [Narrator] The astrolabe
is a handheld model

of the sky itself.

Users point its rotating arm
towards a celestial body,

such as the sun or another star,

to measure its altitude
above the horizon.

Then, by referencing the map
on the instrument's face,

this measurement could
reveal the day, time,

and direction of their
specific coordinates.

But Nostradamus is not only
using the position of the stars

to make his predictions,

his practice of hydromancy
induces visions of the future.

- One of the methods
that Nostradamus

used to see the future

was something that
we call scrying.

One form in that, for example,

is looking into crystal balls,

but what Nostradamus did is

he would look into
a bowl of water,

and by concentrating
deeply on this object,

he would begin to
see pictures, visions

of what was going to
happen in the future.

And this was an
immensely popular form,

essentially, of fortune-telling.

(mysterious music)

- [Narrator] In 1555,

Nostradamus publishes
"Les Propheties,"

or "The Prophecies,"

a collection of his major
long-term predictions.

Worried about potential
religious persecution,

he uses quatrains.

A quatrain is a short,
condensed form of poetry.

He also mixes in other
languages like Greek, Italian,

and Provencal, a dialect
from Southern France,

to obscure their meanings.

- We're at the very beginning

of what will be the witchcraft
trials of the next century,

but at this time there
is a kind of sweet spot

where somebody like
Nostradamus can operate

without fear of
being burnt to death.

(mysterious music)

- [Narrator] By the mid 1550s,

Nostradamus' reputation
has grown so much

that he's invited to the
French royal court in 1556

by the queen mother of
France, Catherine de' Medici.

- Catherine de' Medici

is one of the most
fascinating characters

of 16th-century France.

She was a Medici,

so she's a member of the most
powerful family in Europe.

At the time, the Medici
owned the great banks

based in Florence.

She married Henry II and they
had several children together.

- She hears about Nostradamus,
what's not to like?

Catherine de' Medici
wants to know the future,

so she invites
Nostradamus to court.

- Nowadays, many
people might think

that it's odd or quirky
that Catherine de' Medici

would have hired an astrologer,

but actually this is a
fairly common practice

among political leaders
at this moment in time.

- Catherine de' Medici
invites Nostradamus

to provide a horoscope
for her three children,

and he makes a
chilling prediction:

that all three will
ascend the throne.

This means that at least
two of them would die.

- This is a prediction
with a sting in its tail.

- Ultimately, this
would come to pass.

- [Narrator] But Nostradamus's
most chilling prediction

revolves around Catherine's
husband, Henry II.

- So Henry II
frequently would ask

for predictions from astrologers

about upcoming battles
and tournaments,

but usually his courtiers
would only share with him

favorable things.

However, several
astrologers warned him

on the eve of his 40th birthday

about the possibility
of a head injury.

Concerned, Catherine de' Medici

sent a message to Nostradamus
to ask if this was true,

and he confirmed the warning.

Alarmed, she made it her
mission to keep Henry safe,

and she managed to
do so until 1559.

When Henry II is
hosting a tournament

to celebrate a new
peace treaty with Spain,

he's tragically killed in
a freak accident jousting.

- A lance went through his eye,

and Nostradamus
predicted more or less

something similar to that.

- [Narrator] In the
wake of the tragedy,

members of the court
immediately claim

that Nostradamus predicted
the event in his 1559 almanac,

citing the verse, "The
great one to be no more."

Later, people also link the
king's death to quatrain 1.35

from "Les Propheties."

This quatrain will become

one of Nostradamus'
most famous prophecies:

The young lion will
overcome the older one

in a field of combat
in a single fight.

He will pierce his eyes
in their golden cage.

Two wounds in one, then
he dies a cruel death.

- What actually happens is

that a younger knight
called Montgomery,

whose sigil is a lion, kills
the king of France Henry,

whose sigil also features
a lion, in a joust.

It's an accident
during the joust

where basically the
lance hits the helmet

and a shaft of wood,
a splinter of wood,

goes through the visor
and into the king's head,

and he languishes for a
while before dying in agony.

All of this appears to make
the prediction of Nostradamus

come true.

- A lot of the horoscopes
are written in such a way

that they suggest things
that feel kind of concrete,

but there's always
a vagueness to it.

And when we kind of
read a horoscope,

we have something called
confirmation bias,

which means if we
believe that's true,

we wanna look for the
evidence that supports it

and we negate the
evidence that doesn't.

And so we start to kind
of see a message in there

that's more personal
what's really delivered.

And 10 people can look at
the same horoscope and say,

"That's me."

- [Narrator] Regardless of the
clarity of the predictions,

or the possibility
of coincidence,

after the death of Henry II,

Nostradamus' reputation as a
seer of the future only grows

and so does his
power within France.

- In the wake of this tragedy,

she puts a lot of
confidence in him.

She needs somebody
to lean on right now,

he's that person.

- Nostradamus is so
important to Catherine

that one Spanish
diplomat reports

that she actually places
him in the same category

as the gospel writers.

- I mean, at these
times in Europe,

the rulers were waging
war all the time.

There was all sorts of
political machinations going on

of different people trying to
accomplish different things.

And so if there's an individual

who can somehow
interpret the stars

and give you information
about something

that's a week away or a
month away or a year away,

nobody wanted to be
without that voice.

- [Narrator] While
his fame grows,

his life is coming
to its natural end.

- Nostradamus passes
away on July 2nd

on the Feast of the
Visitation of Notre-Dame,

Notre-Dame, his namesake,

which has led some
people to suggest

that even in his death

there is some sort of
connection to the divine,

some sort of meaning

that we can try to ascertain.

- [Narrator] Nostradamus
his laid to rest,

at his request,
at Saint-Laurent,

a 13th-century church
in Salon-de-Provence

in the south of France,

but even in his death,

his legacy as a prophet of
doom only begins to grow.

- Why?

Because it is a
century of conflict, of
darkness, of horror.

There are wars, there
are revolutions.

The king of England is beheaded.

There's the great
Plague of London,

the Great Fire of London.

There's the Thirty Years' War.

And through all of this,
people turn to Nostradamus

to see what's going
to happen next.

(mysterious music)

- [Narrator] And one of
the most harrowing events

linked to Nostradamus's
predictions

was the Great Fire
of London in 1666.

- Fire sweeps through London

and nearly destroys
the entire city.

And after the blaze, people
turn to Nostradamus for answers

and they find them.

- [Narrator] The
blood of the just

will commit a fault at London,

burnt through lightning
of twenty threes the six,

the ancient lady will
fall from her high place,

several of the same
sect will be killed.

- He makes a reference
to the ancient lady

who will fall from
her high place,

and that's certainly how it
felt to the people of London,

that their city,
their sacred city,

had been consumed in flames.

- [Narrator] Well over 200 years

after the prophet
of doom's death,

he's still widely
read in Europe,

especially in his native France,

but it is the events of
the French Revolution

that will take his
reputation to new heights,

and not just because
of his predictions.

- In 1789, the French Revolution
explodes onto the scene,

and once again,

Nostradamus' predictions
are at the forefront.

By this point in time,

his quatrains have
ingratiated themselves

into French culture.

Both sides in the revolution
point to Nostradamus

for predictions, for solace,
for answers to what's going on.

- [Narrator] But not everyone
in Revolutionary France

celebrates Nostradamus.

- The French Revolution
becomes much more radical

than it had been before.

Groups like the Jacobins begin
to dismantle what they see

as the vestiges of old France,

and Nostradamus becomes
one of their targets.

- A group of revolutionary
soldiers deliberately went,

unearthed his bones,
scattered them,

and desecrated his space

as a sign that they
rejected his authority.

- And then what happens?

Well, the story runs is that
they are all dead the next day.

Now whether or not this
story is true or not,

it kind of feeds
into a growing myth

that surrounds Nostradamus,

that he is this
magician, this prophesier

operating from the grave,

that he has magical powers,
that he can inflict curses,

and it really does kind
of build up his profile

as this rather
supernatural figure.

- [Narrator] As the French
Revolution comes to an end,

another of Nostradamus'
great predictions

seemingly comes to pass.

- In 1799, Napoleon
made his way to Paris,

and it's at this point that
he ends the Revolution.

The French were very aware

of the prognostications
of Nostradamus,

believed that this event was
predicted in quatrain 1.60.

- [Narrator] Near Italy,
an emperor shall be born

who shall cost the
empire a pretty pence.

- Now, people have looked

at the birth of Napoleon
Bonaparte in Corsica,

and his subsequent rise to
becoming emperor of France.

And then of course,

the fact he expanded
the empire massively,

but then it collapsed
in on itself

with terrible consequences.

They've looked at
that as being proof

that Nostradamus predicted
the rise and fall of Napoleon.

- [Narrator] And Napoleon
will not be the last dictator

that people claim Nostradamus
predicts will rise.

- In the 1930s, as Hitler and
the Nazi party rise to power,

many people point
to quatrain 2.24

as evidence that Nostradamus
had predicted it all along.

- [Narrator] Beasts wild with
hunger shall swim the rivers.

Most of the hosts shall
move against Ister.

He'll have the great
one dragged in iron cage

when the child the
German Rhine surveys.

- It should be noted that
Ister is spelt Hister

in the early modern French,

which most scholars believe
refers to the Danube River.

Now, Hitler was born in a
town called Braunau am Inn,

which was on the river Inn, a
tributary of the Danube River.

So this little known quatrain,

which nobody was
talking about before,

now will forever be
associated with Hitler.

- [Narrator] While
Nostradamus' predictions

about the rise of
Hitler are startling,

what is equally horrifying

is how the Nazis would
weaponize the seer's predictions

during the war.

- The Minister of
Propaganda, Joseph Goebbels,

alights on Nostradamus
and his writings

as a way to prove that the
Third Reich will succeed.

- In March of 1940,

Joseph Goebbels
commissions a pamphlet

which predicts the fall of
France and Great Britain.

He has 83,000 copies of
this pamphlet printed.

This is Nostradamus
as a weapon of war.

(Adolf speaking in German)

- [Narrator] But propaganda
can only go so far.

And by 1945, the Nazis are
the ones facing an apocalypse.

When Berlin is finally
taken by the Allies,

they will find an
old weathered copy

of Nostradamus's prophecies

among the books in
Hitler's library.

As the world enters the
unease of the Cold War era,

Nostradamus's great work
continues to ring true

to many readers
across the planet.

- People are still finding
supposed revelations

coming out of
Nostradamus's work.

For example, quatrain
1.26 is interpreted

by many in the 1960s

as having predicted the
assassinations of JFK and RFK.

- [Narrator] And
as the 20th century

turns to the 21st century,

Nostradamus's work will
find a brand new import

with the people

as the events of September
11th, 2001 shock the planet.

But to those who
read Nostradamus,

the events of this
harrowing day was foretold

in the 16th century.

At 45 degrees,
the sky will burn.

Fire to approach
the great new city.

In an instant, a great
scattered flame will leap up.

- The fact that a 16th century
astrologer's predictions

are still being used to
explain modern-day events

shows that he's still regarded

as someone who had special
access to knowledge,

whether it's spiritual
in nature or other.

- [Narrator] For centuries,

people looked to
Nostradamus's words,

seeking answers, guidance, or
even warnings of the future.

But was he truly a prophet

or simply a master
of poetic ambiguity?

- You can understand how
cynics, how skeptics say

we are trying to basically
straight jacket the facts

into this very flowery,
weird language.

But of course, it gives
Nostradamus enormous wiggle room

in our time for all sorts of
things to be attributed to him.

- Nostradamus predicts the
end of the world in 3797,

and while some of his
predictions have come true,

others haven't.

So it bears asking,

what makes this one the one
that we should take seriously?

- [Narrator] While
Nostradamus uses the heavens

to chart humanity's
path forward,

others are plagued by
predictions of the future

from the darkest depths of hell.

(ominous music)

It is the Second World War.

The Nazis have taken control

of what is now the
nation of Czechia,

but buried deep in the
primordial forests,

they'll establish a secret base
in a place most foreboding:

Houska Castle,

the fortress with a reputation
so malicious and sinister,

many believe it lies
over the gateway to hell.

- Houska Castle is a
forbidding gothic castle

seemingly in the
middle of nowhere,

and one theory is that
it wasn't so much built

to repel invaders, an
enemy from without,

but to deal with an
enemy from within,

that there's something
inside the castle

that had to be contained.

So the question is,

why were the Nazis so
interested in this castle?

(foreboding music)

- [Narrator] The
early gothic castle

likely dates back to the
reign of King Wenceslaus I

in the first in the
first half of the 1200s.

Legend has it that before
Houska Castle is built,

there is a bottomless pit

that locals believe may
be a gateway to hell.

Supposedly home to evil
creatures and winged demons,

the sights dark happenings

may even predate the local
rise of Christianity.

- You have this legend of
pre-Christian human sacrifices.

On top of that, in
the Christian period,

you have the idea of the
castle and a gateway to hell.

You've then got
occultist stories

and romantic writers
from the 19th century

seeing scary visions,

all the way through
to the Nazis.

So this is a castle
that has been caked

in layers and layers
of fear and legend,

making it a very
foreboding place indeed.

- The more people
start to believe this,

the more I think we all start
to feel it's something real.

- [Narrator] One of the
most terrifying legends

surrounding the site

dates back to before these
stone walls were built.

- The local baron gets
fed up of the villagers

incessantly going on about
devils and demons in this pit.

- According to the legend,

many prisoners carrying
a death sentence

were offered a pardon

if they were willing to be
lowered down into the hole.

But many refused

because they were afraid
of what was down there.

- [Narrator] But some prisoners
do agree to the terms,

and as the first volunteer
is lowered into the pit,

a sense of intense
dread grips them.

Within seconds,

terrified screams echo
from the darkness below.

- After a while, he's
then hauled back up again,

and everybody is
horrified at the site,

because this young criminal's
hair has turned snow white.

He has become an
old man in terror.

(eerie music)

- [Narrator] The legends
surrounding Houska Castle

seem to be straight from
a hellish nightmare.

- There are reports of
half-human half-animal creatures

crawling out of it.

There are reports
of black-winged
demon-like creatures.

This is a site that fills
the people who go to it

with intense dread.

- There has been a history
of terrible things happening.

I think that creates an energy

that pulls negativity
towards it.

- [Narrator] According
to local tradition,

authorities decided
to build Houska Castle

to trap whatever evil resides
in the pit within its walls.

- Locals believe that the
evil emanating from this pit

could only be defeated
by the grace of God.

So according to the story,

King Wenceslaus I
built Houska Castle

directly over top of this pit

and put the chapel of the
castle right over the pit.

The chapel itself was dedicated
to the Archangel Michael,

who, of course, is famous
for leading God's armies

against Lucifer and
his fallen angels.

- [Narrator] But
there are other scenes

written on the walls
of Houska Castle

that baffle experts
to their true meaning.

- There are these images

depicting these
centaur-like creatures,

half-human half-horse,

that are aiming bows
and arrows at humans.

- [Narrator] The
centaur creature

holds the bow in his left hand,

a trusted sign of the time
of its connection to Satan.

- In Christian folklore,

there is something
about favoring the left

as opposed to the right

that carries some
signification of evil.

This belief is carried
in the language

that we continue to use today.

The word sinister derives
from the Latin word

for on the left.

- [Narrator] Houska Castle's
already alarming reputation

grows when in the 17th century

an infamous mercenary
takes up residence.

- Oronto was a Swedish mercenary

during the Thirty Years' War.

He engaged in black
magic practices

in a way which was selfish

and about personal
aggrandizement.

- [Narrator] By all accounts,

Oronto is in search
of immortality,

and he will do whatever it
takes to acquire this power,

be it blood magic
or human sacrifice.

But what draws Oronto
to Houska Castle

for his demonic works?

- There's like this layered
history of a lot of negativity,

a lot of folklore,
a lot of stories

around terrible things
that have happened.

I think that people approach
the place like that.

You go and you actually try
to activate its negativity.

(eerie music)

- This Swedish mercenary,
who's journeyed from afar,

is attracted to this castle,

and he believes
that it's a place

where he can conduct
alchemical experiments

to find the secret
of eternal life,

shows that the reputation of
this castle was well-known.

- [Narrator] But
Oronto's reign of terror

will be short-lived.

- There's a notable
irony in this story,

because in his search
for immortality

and in the hatred and antagonism

that he had generated
amongst the locals,

he's shot and killed
by one of them.

So the irony there being
his search for immortality

leads very swiftly to his death.

(mysterious music)

- [Narrator] As the
centuries progress,

Houska Castle falls
into disrepair

and dark clouds swirl
about the castle

and its demonic reputation.

Then in 1836, the
foreboding castle plays host

to a young poet,

an evening that cements
its infamous reputation.

- In the early 19th century,

there is this Czech
poet named Macha,

and he is part of this
burgeoning literary movement

in Europe known as Romanticism.

This is a cultural movement

that is associated
with a desire to return

to kinds of natural settings
that have been untainted

by the taming hand
of industrialization

and the spreading of cities

into countryside
and wild spaces.

- They're kind of
trying to reach back

into what they imagine
the past was like.

So they play with what
perceive to be ancient beliefs

and old mythologies,

and they look for
magical spaces.

And somewhere like
Houska Castle,

with its gothic appearance,

is something that
appeals enormously.

- So Macha stays
at Houska Castle,

and while he's there,

he has a vision, a
kind of dream vision.

- [Narrator] Macha
expresses these visions

in a letter to a friend,
English poet Edward Hindle.

Within the pages of his letter,

he describes a dream, or
rather, a hellish vision

that he had while he slept

within the walls
of Houska Castle.

- He reports as having
traveled forward in time:

he finds himself in this
thoroughly mechanized,

industrialized city.

It's dirty, it's noisy,

and for him, it's an
absolute dystopian nightmare.

It's a vision of hell.

(mysterious music)

- [Narrator] Regardless of the
veracity of Macha's visions,

the young poet dies shortly
after his visit to the castle.

This only builds on the
castle's already vile reputation

with the locals,

but the infamy of Houska
Castle continues to grow

in the 20th century.

- According to legend,
Heinrich Himmler,

who did indeed have an
obsession with the occult,

went to Houska Castle

and used it as a place
to conduct dark rituals

for his inner SS circle.

- Locals report hearing
strange sounds and seeing

lights.

- [Narrator] Rumors swirl

that several high
ranking Nazi officials

are conducting dark rituals,

allegedly attempting to harness
the powers of hell itself.

- When they left, they
destroyed all evidence

of whatever it is
that occurred there.

So it remains one
of these mysteries.

- [Narrator] Houska
Castle stands to this day

as a baffling enigma

that both tantalizes and
terrorizes potential visitors,

a hotspot for tourists
visiting Czechia

looking to experience
its dark energies.

While Houska Castle
inspires the terror of hell,

there are places where the
divine hands of the heavens

touch humanity in
miraculous ways.

In the heart of Italy,
nearly eight centuries ago,

an extraordinary event unfolds

that continues to captivate
believers and skeptics alike,

the stigmata of Saint
Francis of Assisi,

a miraculous occurrence

that inspires awe, devotion,
and ongoing debate.

- In 1224 on Mount Verna,

Francis of Assisi is praying

when he sees visions of angels

bearing the scars, the
stigmata of Christ appear.

And after this vision, he
sees on himself the stigmata,

the signs of Jesus Christ,
on his own hands and feet.

- Francis might have
been the first recorded

example of the stigmata.

This is a novel phenomenon.

We don't have any examples
earlier than that.

- The stigmata of Saint Francis

is one of the most powerful
images in Christian iconography.

- To Saint Francis
and his followers,

this is a clear sign that
he has been selected by God

to save the Church
from corruption.

- [Narrator] Francis of Assisi,

likely born in 1181 to a
wealthy merchant family,

grows up in a world shaped
by war, famine, and poverty.

- Much of what we know
about Francis' early life

come from biographies
written by his followers,

which follow a
hagiographic tradition.

Francis is described
in these biographies

as a fun-loving
man in his youth,

someone who liked to
sing, liked to dance,

someone who you could
almost associate

with the troubadour tradition.

The troubadour tradition

was essentially a form of
traveling entertainment.

Troubadour were story-tellers,

they were musicians,

and they performed at
courts across Europe.

- [Narrator] But
a chance encounter

with a man suffering
from leprosy

will forever change
Francis's life.

- Now, traditionally, people
would stay away from lepers

for fear of catching leprosy,

and that was Francis's
initial instinct.

But something in him
changed, shifted,

and he approached the leper.

- He seemed to be overcome
with an inner passion,

and he went over to the
man and he embraced him.

This shocking incident is
a turning point for Francis

because it sets him on the
path towards a spiritual life.

- [Narrator] In his
testament, Francis writes,

"When I was in sin,

the sight of lepers
nauseated me beyond measure.

But then God himself led
me into their company,

and I had pity on them.

When I had once become
acquainted with them,

what had previously nauseated me

became a source of physical
consolation for me.

After that, I did not wait
long before leaving the world."

- He is seeing someone
who is opposite himself.

So he comes from
great privilege,

and he's engaging with
someone who doesn't have that.

He comes from security,

and he's engaging with
someone who doesn't have that.

- In the aftermath
of that moment,

God speaks to him and asks
him to rebuild his church.

Francis's life takes
on a whole new mission.

- [Narrator] Soon after his
experience with the leper,

Francis dresses
in humble clothes

and attempts to give
his family fortune

to the Church and the poor.

This turn to piety troubled
his wealthy father.

- While his father might
think it's madness,

what's happened is that he's
in the process of developing

a model of a new
Christian life for himself

that emphasized the
imitation of Christ himself.

Christ was a poor man,
a wandering preacher.

He said that poverty

was the natural state
of the good Christian.

- His father drags him
into the Church court

and brings him before the bishop

to complain about
what his son is doing.

Shockingly, before the bishop,

Francis strips off
all of his clothes

and hands them to
his father, saying,

"Before you were
my father on earth,

henceforth our father
art in heaven."

- For people who knew Francis
before the conversion,

they're wondering,
"Has he gone truly mad

or has he really
been touched by God?"

(gentle music)

- [Narrator] Francis
dedicates his life

to serving the poor
and the Church.

His work makes him famous,

and by 1210, he gathers
enough followers

to create his own monastic
order, the Franciscans.

The Franciscans are committed
to poverty, service,

and finding God
through good works.

- The Franciscans were
neither monk nor priest.

They were something in between.

Rather than sealing
themselves off from the world

the way monks,
traditional monks would,

they lived amongst the people.

- Francis, through his
own new model of ministry,

was essentially
rejecting the opulence

of the Church at the time.

At the time in which he lived,

the Catholic Church
had reached arguably

its apogee of power.

- In the years that
follow, Francis is credited

with doing all sorts
of miraculous things.

He supposedly talks to
animals, he heals the sick.

These are all very much tropes
of the hagiographic system.

Hagiography is the
telling of saints' lives,

and Francis's life
story, his vita,

follows that same tradition
which is hundreds of years old.

- [Narrator] While the
documented miracles

and works of Saint
Francis are many,

it is the events of 1224

that will forever
mark him and his order

with the deeper mysteries
of the Christian faith.

- While on Mount Verna,

Francis sees the vision
of a six-winged seraph

carrying the crucified Jesus.

And at that moment,

he experiences such an
intense amount of pain

looking down and seeing
the wounds of Christ,

the stigmata, on his own body.

The stigmata, for Francis,
is a personal prophecy.

It's a sign for him that
he has been chosen by God

to build God's church on earth.

- [Narrator] Yet despite the
awe surrounding this event,

some doubt the authenticity
of the stigmata,

- Although there are
detractors at the time

who suggest that it was all
for publicity, in essence,

to elevate his brand new order,

or at the very least that people

are experiencing some form
of psychosomatic symptoms.

For Francis, it is a
powerful, reflective moment

of his own connection
to the divine.

- [Narrator] Whether seen as
a miraculous event or not,

the stigmata of Saint Francis

holds deep prophetic
significance.

Prophecy is also a key feature
of Saint Francis's story.

- Two years off the
receiving the stigmata,

and on his deathbed, Francis
calls around his followers

and he shares his prophecy

that the darker forces at play

would seek to divide and
trouble the Christian community.

Now, did any of these come true?

Well, in the early 16th century,

the Christian community
was bloodily divided

between Protestants
and Catholics,

and that played out in a
series of battles and wars.

So you could say yes, indeed,

his prophecies did materialize.

- Are his predictions
still influential?

For some people, yes.

They see in Francis a prophet,

a harbinger of
spiritual renewal,

and they're looking
for signs in his words

that it's time for a new age.

- There's a certain
degree of irony in this,

because Francis in his own
time was a rebel himself.

His new mendicant
order of Franciscans

was nothing that the Christian
world had ever seen before,

and he flirted right on the edge

of what might have been
considered heretical.

The fact that
Francis then becomes

still a standard
bearer of orthodoxy

is interesting to say the least.

- [Narrator] Eight
centuries later,

pilgrims still climb the
rugged path to Mount La Verna,

seeking a connection to
this extraordinary account

of when divine mystery
touched human flesh.

From the stigmata
of Saint Francis

to the cryptic
quatrains of Nostradamus

and the haunting
visions of Macha,

these historical accounts

have captivated minds
across centuries.

Whether these men
were in fact touched

by other worldly insights,

or simply channeled
the imagination into
compelling tales,

their legacies stoke
our lingering doubts

and most profound wonders

about what might exist beyond
the veil of perception.

(enchanting music)

(choir vocalizes)

(enchanting music continues)

(choir vocalizes)

(enchanting music ends)