Saint Paul VI

Pope

Feast Day

May 29

Life

1897–1978

Canonized

2018

Born

Concesio, Brescia, Italy

Saint Paul VI was born Giovanni Battista Enrico Antonio Maria Montini at Concesio, near Brescia in Lombardy, on September 26, 1897. Ordained a priest in 1920, he entered the Vatican Secretariat of State in 1922 and served there for thirty years, becoming Pro-Secretary of State for Ordinary Affairs (1953) under Pius XII. Pope Saint John XXIII appointed him Archbishop of Milan in 1954 and created him cardinal in 1958.

On June 21, 1963, the day after the death of John XXIII closed the First Session of Vatican II, Cardinal Montini was elected Pope and took the name Paul VI. He guided the Second Vatican Council through its remaining three sessions and promulgated all sixteen of its documents, including the Dogmatic Constitutions Lumen Gentium (1964) and Dei Verbum (1965), the Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et Spes (1965), and the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy Sacrosanctum Concilium (1963, ratified before his pontificate).

His pontificate carried out the post-conciliar reform of the Roman Missal (1969), the revised Liturgy of the Hours, and the new Code of Canon Law (begun under his authority, promulgated 1983). His encyclicals include Ecclesiam Suam (1964), Mysterium Fidei (1965), Populorum Progressio (1967, on integral human development), and Humanae Vitae (1968, reaffirming the Church's teaching on the transmission of human life). He was the first Pope to fly in an aircraft and to visit six continents, including the Holy Land (1964) and the United Nations (1965).

Paul VI died at Castel Gandolfo on August 6, 1978, the Feast of the Transfiguration. Pope Francis beatified him on October 19, 2014, and canonized him at Saint Peter's on October 14, 2018. The Optional Memorial is observed on May 29, the date of his priestly ordination in 1920.