Bede's Prophecy

In the early eighth century, an Anglo-Saxon monk named Bede — known to posterity as the Venerable Bede, the father of English history — composed a collection of writings that included what would become the most famous prophecy ever attached to a building. Writing from his monastery at Jarrow in the remote north of England, a man who had likely never seen Rome penned words that would echo across thirteen centuries: "Quamdiu stabit Colisaeus, stabit et Roma; quando cadet Colisaeus, cadet et Roma; quando cadet Roma, cadet et mundus." While stands the Colosseum, Rome shall stand; when falls the Colosseum, Rome shall fall; and when Rome falls, the world shall fall.