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Reverend Butler  - The Lives or the Fathers, Martyrs and Other Principal Saints, Vol. IV, 1864

The holy man was favoured with an eminent spirit of prophecy. He foretold to several persons, in the years 1447, 1448, and 1449, the taking of Constantinople by the Turks, which happened on the a 29th of May, in 1453, under the command of Mahomet II, when Constantine Palaeologus, the last Christian emperor, was slain, fighting tumultuously in the streets.

He also foretold that Otranto, one of the most important places and keys of the kingdom of Naples, would fall into the hands of the same infidels, three months before Achmat Bacha surprised it on the last day of August 1480, to the great consternation of Italy and all Europe.

But the servant of God promised the Christians, especially the pious John, Count of Arena, one of the generals of Ferdinand I, King of Naples, certain success the year following, when they recovered that city, and drove the infidels out of Italy, their victory being facilitated by the death of the Turkish emperor, and a civil war between the two brothers, Bajazet II and Zizimes.

The authentic depositions of many unexceptionable witnesses, given with all the formalities which both the civil and canon law require, prove these and many other illustrious predictions of the holy man, on several public and private occasions, 1 with regard to the Kings of Naples, Ferdinand I, and Alphonsus II, and Louisa of Savoy, countess, afterwards Duchess of Angouleme, mother of King Francis I, in France, and many others.

Lawrence, Bishop of Grenoble, of the most noble house of Alemans, in Dauphine, uncle to the most valiant and pious Captain De Bayard, 2 in his letter to Pope Leo X for the canonization of St. Francis, writes, "Most holy Father, he revealed to me many things which were known only to God and myself."

 

Louvre - Saint Francis of Paola Prophesying the Birth of a Son (the Future Francis I, king of France, born in 1494) to Louise of Savoy

This painting by Theodoor van Thulden is said to have occurred over a century earlier. Francis of Paola, a saint who was revered in France because he visited the country in 1482, appears at the bedside of Louise of Savoy to announce that she will give birth to the next king of France, the future Francis I. In 1515, King Louis XII died without a male heir and the throne went to Francis I, of the royal family's Valois-Angoulême branch. Louise of Savoy and her spouse, the Count of Angoulême, who is almost certainly the figure depicted to the left of the bed, decided to name the child Francis in honor of the saint.