Pope John Paul I

About Pope John Paul I

Albino Luciani was born in 1912 in a poor village in the Venetian Alps. His father was a migrant labourer and a socialist; his mother a practising Catholic. As bishop of Vittorio Veneto and later patriarch of Venice, he became known for selling diocesan valuables to fund social works and for writing open letters to fictional characters — from Pinocchio to Dickens — to explain the gospel in a way anyone could follow.

Elected in August 1978, he was the first pope to take a double name, joining his two predecessors. He refused the coronation and traded the papal throne for conversation: at audiences he called children up beside him and spoke without a script. The press christened him the smiling pope.

He died 33 days later, found in the morning still holding his papers. He was beatified in 2022. His feast is 26 August.

He is remembered as the pope who spoke from the heart and fitted into a single month. A message from John Paul I is sent to those who love a simple, direct faith, for birthdays and family occasions.

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