Nostradamus

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Nostradamus

In the 16th century, a French doctor and prophet, Michel de Nostradame, was born. He gained his fame when his predictions of the death of King Henry II of France came true. Nostradamus, as he is also known, wrote a ten volume book, The Centuries, filled with prophecies. He became a man that people from all over the world came to see to seek his counsel. Nostradamus had a life filled with many twists and turns and has made many prophecies that have come true during the twentieth century.
His grandfathers were the first people to notice his display of talent for prophecy when Nostradamus was very young. His grandfathers taught him a wide range of subjects: classical literature, history, medicine, astrology, and herbal folk medicine. At the age of fourteen, he went to study in the city of Avignon. In 1522, at the age of nineteen, he enrolled in the University of Montpellier as a medical student. After only three years, he passed the oral and written examinations for his degree (Hogue 12-5).
With his medicine license in his hand, Nostradamus went to practice in the countryside, far away from his professors. During the 1500’s, Southern France suffered from a chronic form of the bubonic plague. Nostradamus started going to plague-stricken households to try to help the sick. He followed the plague through Southern France and he never left a town until everyone sick was well (Hogue 15).
Nostradamus was also a master astrologer who studied the movements of the stars and planets in relation to each other. He believed his gift of sight had “divine intervention.” He was sought out by wealthy citizens to tell them their horoscopes “and by their wives for his advice on cosmetics.” (Hogue 15). He wrote a book on the doctors and pharmacists he met throughout his travels in Southern Europe. He would stay with some of them during the day helping them heal the sick. By night, he became their pupil.
In 1529, Nostradamus returned to Montpellier for his doctorate degree. After this he decided to set up a more permanent practice in 1534 in Toulouse. He then decided to move to the town of Agen. He soon became the town of Agen’s most eligible bachelor. In Agen, he married and had two children, a boy and a girl. It was ...

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...re money without having any gold and silver to back it up. Some feel that this has been fulfilled and possibly will be fulfilled again in the future. (Hogue 149.)
November 22, 1963. The assassination of John Fitzgerald Kennedy (JFK) in Dallas, Texas. Nostradamus not only saw the death of a man who could have been America’s greatest leader, but he also saw events and people that no one today is certain of, the killers. He gives hints that JFK was to be a great president. One quatrain describes Kennedy as a two term president.
Nostradamus led a very interesting life. I personally believe that he was a wonderful man and could really see into the future. Read his quatrains and you too will be convinced that this man predicted even some of the events that have occurred in mine and your lifetimes, during the 20th century.

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Works Cited

Hogue, John. Nostradamus and the Millennium. New York: Doubleday and Company,
Inc., 1987.

Roberts, Henry C. The Complete Prophecies of Nostradamus. New York: Nostradamus,
Inc., 1979.

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