It would seem that he has been a part of the fabric of our culture for a very
long time, but not many are aware of who he actually was and what his
prophecies really predict for mankind.
Firstly; Michel de Nostredame was a very real person, born on December the 14th,
1503, in Provence, France.
He was born a Jew into a very simple family but the family converted to the
Christian faith when he was aged nine. Although brought into Christianity, he
never forgot his religious roots and these must be borne in mind when analysing
any of his prophecies.
Nostradamus was seen to have a great intellect at an early age, his grandfather
taught him the basics of Latin, Greek, Hebrew, Mathematics and Astrology; he
was, as his education progressed, a firm believer that the Earth was round and
circled the sun a full century before Galileo was persecuted for the same
beliefs.
With such an amazing intellect, it was not surprising that he studied
medicine at Montpellier and had obtained a bachelor's degree by the age of 22
and was, soon after, granted a licence to practice.
The plague was widespread throughout France during the 16th Century and
Nostradamus set off to help the sick and dying the best he could.
By all accounts he was a marvellous physician, concocting numerous potions and
remedies.
He returned to Montpellier where he taught and later gained his doctorate.
Having replied to a letter he received from Cesar Scaliger, a renowned
philosopher of the time, he was invited to stay at his home in Agen; an
offer which he did not refuse.
Nostradamus appears to have quite enjoyed the lifestyle he had entered,
married, gained a son and daughter and his medical practice became famous
and profitable.
Then tragedy struck.
His family were killed, despite his best endeavours, when the plague hit Agen
and this had a disastrous effect upon his reputation. He quarrelled with
Scaliger and an unfortunate remark he made to a workman about a bronze statue
of the Virgin Mary; "You are casting devils", a comment apparently about the
poor workmanship, came back to haunt him.
Despite his explanations, he was accused of heresy and the Inquisitors demanded
that he appear before them.
Having no desire to suffer the possible consequences, he did what any sane man
would and upped roots, steering well clear of the church authorities as he
moved around.
By 1554, Nostradamus had settled in Marseilles where his medical skills were
once again put to good use, and later moved to Salon.
He married again, this time to a rich widow, and settled down to a quiet
existence.
Since 1550, Nostrodamus had been producing Almanacs which proved popular and it
would appear that his interest in the occult and prophecy had been rapidly
growing since that time.
He stopped practising medicine and concentrated on his prophecies, drawing
heavily from De Mysteriis Egyptorum, published in 1547, and he quotes
it line for line in some of his own prophecies.
By 1555 he had published his first book of prophecies, incomplete, containing
only the first three centuries and part of the fourth, but the prophecies
became widely known and popular.
So popular in fact that, in 1556, Queen Catherine de' Merci requested that
Nostradamus attend her Court and provided horses for his journey so that he
could attend with due haste.
Whilst Queen Catherine seems to have been impressed by his predictions it
would appear that King Henri II was less so.
He remained however, drawing up horoscopes for both Queen Catherine and those
who came seeking advice, until he was warned that the Justices of Paris were
looking into his practices whereupon he returned swiftly to Salon.
Nostrodamus then became a bit of a recluse, probably because of his, widely
known, prophecy ( 1.35 ) which had predicted the King's death, preferring to
hide away rather than draw more attention upon himself from the authorities.
In 1564 however, Queen Catherine, by then Queen Regent, undertook a tour of
France and visited Nostradamus at Salon awarding him the title Physician in
Ordinary.
Nostradamus had however suffered illness for a number of years and gout and
dropsy were beginning to take their toll.
Having made his will in June 1566, he called for the local priest on the 1st of
July to administer the last rites and announced he would not be alive in the
morning.
He was found dead, as predicted, and was buried upright in a wall in the Church
of the Cordeliers at Salon where a marble plaque was erected in his memory.
His grave was torn open during the revolution but he was reburied in Salon,
at the Church of St. Laurent, where his grave can be found today.
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