Wikipedia: Nostradamus

Nostradamus, (1503-1556?) born Michel de Notre Dame (if I remember correctly), was one of the world's most famous prophets. He was the son of a merchant, Jewish by birth but was forced to convert to Christianity and christianize his name in order to escape persecution. Michel entered a monastic order (which?) and wrote under the name Nostradamus. He wrote a series of prophetic verses that purported to represent future events.

These verses have been interpreted differently by different annotators through the years.