Father Canio Canistri, 68, suffered from repeated stabs to the neck and stomach this Tuesday in a Rome hospital. His attacker, 25-year-old Marco Luzi, confessed to police that he had seen the film The Da Vinci Code the night before he asked to see the priest at the church of Santa Marcella in Rome's San Saba district on the Aventine Hill.

Luzi, who stabbed three bystanders who tried to come to the priest's aid, was found to have a note in his pocket reading, "This is just the beginning, 666." This refers to the "number of the beast," found in the Book of Revelation in the Bible.

Police cornered the attacker in a nearby park. Police Officer, Luca Gori, 41, was wounded in the stomach due to a struggling arrest. "We couldn't fire our weapons," said Gori, "there were too many bystanders."

Rosemary Sotero Rivera, 37-year-old childminder, was stabbed in the shoulder while protecting the three-year-old she cares for. Antonio Farrace, 78, retired policeman and parishioner is in serious condition after trying to defend Father Canistri.

Luzi, a former medical student with a history of psychiatric problems, told police he was the antichrist, and that voices in his head told him to attack the priest. "I have carried out my mission," he said.

Investigators who searched his apartment found a print of The Last Supper by Leonardo Da Vinci, which was the basis of the film, The Da Vinci Code, in which Jesus is depicted to have married and had children with Mary Magdalene. Next to the print was a note that read, "I, the antichrist," and also one that pointed to one of the disciples and said "This is the hand in which a knife is hidden," according to the Times Online.

Investigators also found material on the apocalypse, and the phone number to the Vatican's newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano. Luzi left behind a note that read "Between my death and my return many grave events will take place, years will pass, perhaps centuries. Christianity will be reviewed in the light of the new alliance between Jesus and the Madonna."

Prior to the attacks, Father Canistri asked his parishioners to keep "vigilant" watch after several break-ins and thefts occurred in the church.

The Da Vinci Code, a film starring Tom Hanks and Sir Ian McKellen, is an adaptation of the best seller written by Dan Brown. Both the book and the film have been condemned by the Vatican.