John Paul I

Albino Luciani, later Pope John Paul I, was born on 17 October 1912 in the mountain village of Forno di Canale (now Canale d'Agordo) in the province of Belluno, in the Veneto region of northern Italy. His father, Giovanni Luciani, worked as a bricklayer and held socialist views; his mother, Bortola Tancon, was a devout Catholic. Raised in modest circumstances in the Dolomites, he entered seminary and was ordained a priest of the Diocese of Belluno on 7 July 1935. He served as a curate, then taught dogmatic theology and held posts as vice-rector and later rector of the Belluno seminary. In 1947 he received a doctorate in sacred theology from the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, with a dissertation on the origin of the human soul in the thought of Antonio Rosmini.

Pope John XXIII appointed him Bishop of Vittorio Veneto in December 1958. Luciani took part in all four sessions of the Second Vatican Council and applied its reforms in his diocese with a strongly pastoral and catechetical emphasis. In December 1969 Pope Paul VI named him Patriarch of Venice; he was created a cardinal in March 1973. In Venice he became known for personal simplicity, parish visitations, concern for workers and the poor, and a distinctive preaching and writing style, including the popular volume Illustrissimi (1976), a series of imaginary letters addressed to figures ranging from Jesus and Pinocchio to Mark Twain and Charles Dickens.

After the death of Paul VI, the August 1978 conclave elected Luciani pope on 26 August 1978. He took the unprecedented double name John Paul I in honor of his two immediate predecessors and was the first pope born in the twentieth century. He declined a traditional papal coronation in favor of a simpler inauguration Mass and was quickly nicknamed "the Smiling Pope" for his warmth, humility, and accessible manner. His brief pontificate stressed evangelization, collegiality, and a more pastoral exercise of the papal office. He died suddenly in the Apostolic Palace in the early hours of 28 September 1978; the Holy See attributed the death to a myocardial infarction. He had reigned for thirty-three days, one of the shortest pontificates in history. His unexpected death generated numerous conspiracy theories, none of which has been substantiated by serious historical research.

John Paul I was beatified by Pope Francis on 4 September 2022 in Saint Peter's Square. His liturgical memorial is kept on 26 August, the anniversary of his election. He is buried in the Vatican Grottoes beneath Saint Peter's Basilica.