Strangest Mysteries of the World and Beyond !

Nostradamus and his predictions

Nostradamus and his predictions

  

Nostradamus was a French seer living in the 16th century. His predictions of the future are some of the most famous in history, and continue to enjoy widespread popularity to the current day. With the exception of Biblical prophets, his visions are by far the most well-known of the many seers who have existed over the past few centuries.

Nostradamus was born Michel de Nostredame at the dawn of the 16th century, to a notary and grain dealer. In his early adult years, Nostradamus practiced as an apothecary. He attended medical school for a period, but was expelled when his past as an apothecary was discovered. The next few years of his life were spent battling the plague in France and Italy.

 (Nostradamus’s student days came to a sudden end when a virulent plague broke out devastating most of southern France, causing the Faculte’ de Me’decin to close, along with all other schools in Montpellier.  “The black plague,” was so devastating was that burials could not keep pace with the deaths. Doctors treating patients attempted to protect themselves with special oils, garlic, cotton gloves and goggles, this was to no avail.

The plague was the first of three similar battles Nostradamus was to wage and be victorious, ability to accomplish this is shrouded in mystery. Like a fearless angel of mercy, Nostradamus went travelled to the countryside, he travelled the roads of southern France, Narbonne, Bordeaux, Carcassonne, Nimes and Toulouse. Where he went people recovered, everyone came to know him as the man who could cure the plague, a task thought to be impossible. Everyone who heard of the miracle worker, Michel de Nostradame, sought his services, he worked ceaselessly, the plague lasted four years, thus Nostradamus became a legend in his own time.

Due to the closure of the university Nostradamus had no formal diploma at this time, the required time for the course that was interrupted two years into his study, was meant to be six years. He was allowed to take his final examination due to his spectacular field work during the four years of the plague. The examinations were oral and public, presented rapid fire by the faculty and representative of the Church, it was a long and arduous process which he excelled in. From this Nostradamus was formally invested with the four cornered hat, the ermine trimmed rob, the golden girdle and ring of the brotherhood of Hippocrates.)

As a physician he came to specialize in the Plague, on which he was recognized as one of the foremost experts: in his 'Traité des fardemens', though, he frankly admits that none of his cures actually had much effect on the disease - not even the bleeding that some commentators insist that he never used.

He was also famed as a mathematician and astrologer. On his semi-retirement in around 1550 he turned to writing. Apart from a highly popular cookbook (actually, a 'Treatise on Cosmetics and Conserves') and a number of academic works, his main fields were astrology (with which, as a contemporary doctor, he was of course already fully conversant) and prophecy. This brought him into great public prominence, and he became particularly influential at the French court. He also invested heavily in local public works - notably the irrigation of the vast Plaine de la Crau just to the west of his adopted home-town of Salon-de-Provence, a scheme whose results (like his house in the town) can still be seen today. Twice married, he had two children by his first wife Henriette d'Encausse (all three died) and six by his second.

In his late forties, Michel de Nostredame changed his name to the Latin Nostradamus, and began publishing tracts. He began writing yearly almanacs, which contained among them thousands of prophecies. These almanacs began to do quite well commercially, and their success prompted many distinguished people to request individual astrological consultations from Nostradamus.