SG. Pope Paul VI

The pilgrim pope He was one of the most traveled popes in history and the first to visit five continents
Born	September 26, 1897, Concesio, Italy
Birth name	Giovanni Battista Enrico Antonio Maria Montini
Died	August 6, 1978
Papacy began	21 June 1963
Papacy ended	6 August 1978
Predecessor	John XXIII
Successor	John Paul I
Motto	Cum Ipso in monte (With Him on the mount)

Giovanni Battista Enrico Antonio Maria Montini was born on September 26, 1897 at Concesio (Lombardy) of a wealthy family of the upper class. His father was a non-practicing lawyer turned editor and a courageous promoter of social action. Giovanni was a frail but intelligent child who received his early education from the Jesuits near his home in Brescia. Even after entering the seminary (1916) he was allowed to live at home because of his health. After his ordination in 1920 he was sent to Rome to study at the Gregorian University and the University of Rome Besides teaching at the Accademia dei Nobili Ecclesiastici he was named chaplain to the Federation of Italian Catholic University Students (FUCI), an assignment that was to have a decisive effect on his relations with the founders of the post-war Christian Democratic Party. In 1937 he was named substitute for ordinary affairs under Cardinal Pacelli, the secretary of state, and he accompanied him to Budapest (1938) for the International Eucharistic Congress. On Pacelli's election as Pius XII in 1939, Montini was reconfirmed in his position under the new secretary of state, Cardinal Luigi Maglione. When the latter died in 1944, Montini continued to discharge his office directly under the pope. During World War II he was responsible for organizing the extensive relief work and the care of political refugees. Appointed Archbishop of Milan by Pope Pius XII in 1954.Elevated to cardinal in 1958 by Pope John XXIII. Indeed, Pope John XXIII, who had placed Archbishop Montini at the top of his first batch of cardinals, referred to his eventual successor as a "Hamlet" of "to be or not to be" fame. On the death of Pope John XXIII, Montini was elected June 21, 1963 to succeed him. 262nd  Supreme Pontiff of the Roman Catholic Church. In his first message to the world, he committed himself to a continuation of the work begun by John XXIII. Throughout his pontificate the tension between papal primacy and the collegiality of the episcopacy was a source of conflict. On September 14, 1965 he announced the establishment of the Synod of Bishops called for by the Council fathers, but some issues that seemed suitable for discussion by the synod were reserved to himself. Celibacy, removed from the debate of the fourth session of the Council, was made the subject of an encyclical, June 24, 1967); the regulation of birth was treated in Humanae vitae July 24, 1968), his last encyclical. The controversies over these two pronouncements tended to overshadow the last years of his pontificate. Pope Paul had an unaccountably poor press and his public image suffered by comparison with his outgoing and jovial predecessor. Those who knew him best, however, describe him as a brilliant man, deeply spiritual, humble, reserved and gentle, a man of "infinite courtesy." He was one of the most traveled popes in history and the first to visit five continents. His remarkable corpus of thought must be searched out in his many addresses and letters as well as in his major pronouncements. His successful conclusion of Vatican II has left its mark on the history of the Church, but history will also record his rigorous reform of the Roman curia, his well-received address to the UN in 1965, his encyclical Populorum progressio (1967), his second great social letter Octogesima adveniens (1971)—the first to show an awareness of many problems that have only recently been brought to light—and his apostolic exhortation Evangelii nuntiandi, his last major pronouncement which also touched on the central question of the just conception of liberation and salvation. His Holiness Pope Paul VI died on 6 August 1978 at Castelgandolfo, in the 16th year of his pontificate, at the age of 80 years. He asked that his funeral be simple with no catafalque and no monument over his grave. He was buried on 12 August in the Grottoes of the Patriarchal Vatican Basilica. The diocesan process for his canonization was initiated on 11 May 1993 by Bl. Pope John Paul II