Who he was
Ordained in 1920, he spent three decades in the Vatican Secretariat of State, where during the Second World War he helped refugees and Jews and oversaw the Vatican Information Office. In 1954 he became Archbishop of Milan. He was elected in 1963, after the death of St John XXIII.
What he is remembered for
He guided the Second Vatican Council through its last three sessions to its close in 1965, and began the practice of papal journeys abroad, starting with the Holy Land, where he met the Ecumenical Patriarch Athenagoras. He wrote Ecclesiam suam, Populorum progressio on the development of peoples and Humanae vitae (1968) on the regulation of births, and began the World Day of Peace. Pope Francis beatified him in 2014 and canonised him on 14 October 2018.
He is honoured by the Church as Saint. Read his page in the dictionary of saints.
Sources
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