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.

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. 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 exorcisms. The Final Conclave (1978) was a warning against Soviet espionage in the Vatican.

Biography

Early life, education and ordination

Martin was born in Ballylongford, County Kerry, Ireland, to a middle-class family 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.

Martin attended Belvedere College in Dublin, then studied philosophy for three years at University College Dublin. On 6 September 1939, he became a novice with the Society of Jesus. Martin taught for three years, spending four years at Milltown Park, Dublin, and was ordained in August 1954.

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. 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. He undertook additional study in rational psychology, experimental psychology, physics, and anthropology.

Work

Martin participated in the research on the Dead Sea Scrolls and published 24 articles on Semitic palaeography. He did archaeological research and worked extensively on the Byblos syllabary in Byblos, in Tyre, and in the Sinai Peninsula. Martin assisted in his first exorcism while working in Egypt for archaeological research. In 1958, he published a work in two volumes, The Scribal Character of the Dead Sea Scrolls.

Martin's years in Rome coincided with the beginning of the Second Vatican Council (1962–1965), 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.

In Rome, Martin became a professor at the Pontifical Biblical Institute, where he taught Aramaic, Hebrew, palaeography, and Sacred Scripture. He also taught theology, part-time, at Loyola University Chicago's John Felice Rome Center. Martin worked as a translator for the Eastern Orthodox Churches and Ancient Oriental Churches Division of the Secretariat for Promoting Christian Unity under Bea. Martin became acquainted with Jewish leaders, such as Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, in 1961 and 1962. Martin accompanied Pope Paul VI on a trip to Jordan in January 1964. He resigned his position at the Pontifical Institute in June 1964.

In 1964, Martin requested a release from his vows and from the Jesuit Order. He received a provisional release in May 1965 and a dispensation from his vows of poverty and obedience on 30 June 1965 (cf. qualified exclaustration). Even if dispensed from his religious vow of chastity, Martin remained under the obligation of chastity if still an ordained secular priest. Martin maintained that he remained a priest, saying that he had received a dispensation from Paul VI to that effect.

Martin moved to New York City in 1966, working as a dishwasher, a waiter, and taxi driver, while continuing to write. He co-founded an antiques firm and was active in communications and media for the rest of his life.

Communications and media

In 1967, Martin received his first Guggenheim Fellowship. In 1970, he published the book The Encounter: Religion in Crisis, winning the Choice Book Award of the American Library Association. He then published Three Popes and the Cardinal: The Church of Pius, John and Paul in its Encounter with Human History (1972) and Jesus Now (1973). In 1970, Martin became a naturalized U.S. citizen.

In 1969, Martin received a second Guggenheim Fellowship, allowing him to write his first of four bestsellers, Hostage to the Devil: The Possession and Exorcism of Five Living Americans (1976). In the book, Martin calls himself an exorcist, claiming he assisted in several exorcisms. According to McManus Darraugh, William Peter Blatty "wrote a tirade against Malachi, saying his 1976 book was a fantasy, and he was just trying to cash in." Darraugh also said that Martin became "an iconic person in the paranormal world."

Martin served as religious editor for the National Review from 1972 to 1978. He was interviewed twice by William F. Buckley, Jr. for Firing Line on PBS. He was an editor for the Encyclopædia Britannica.

Martin published several works of fiction and non-fiction in the following years:

Hostage to the Devil: The Possession and Exorcism of Five Living Americans (1976)

The Final Conclave (1978)

King of Kings: a Novel of the Life of David (1980)

Vatican: A Novel (1986)

His other works included:

The Pilgrim (1964)

The Encounter (1970)

The Decline and Fall of the Roman Church (1981)

The New Castle: Reaching for the Ultimate (1982)

Rich Church, Poor Church: The Catholic Church and its Money (1984)

There is Still Love: Five Parables of God's Love That Will Change Your Life (1984)