On the exact day, August 28, 1978, Cardinal Albino Luciani was elected Pope and took the name Pope John Paul I.
John Paul I was head of the Catholic Church for only a very short time – just 33 days after his election he died of a heart attack.
The future pope was born on October 17, 1912 in Belluno, a city in northern Italy, to Giovanni Luciani and Bortola Tancon, according to the Vatican’s official biography.
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He was baptized on the day of his birth because there were fears he would not survive, the website said.
In 1923, Luciani entered the minor seminary. Five years later, he transferred to the Gregorian seminary in Belluno. On July 7, 1935, at the age of 22, he was ordained a priest.
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Pope John Paul XXIII appointed Luciani Bishop of Vittorio Veneto on December 15, 1958. Vittorio Veneto is located not far from Belluno.
Exactly eleven years after his appointment as bishop, Luciani was appointed “Patriarch of Venice” by Pope Paul VI.
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He was subsequently appointed cardinal on 5 March 1973 and admitted to the College of Cardinals.
On August 6, 1973, Pope Paul VI died at the age of 80, which meant that Luciani and the other voting members of the College of Cardinals had to come to the Vatican to elect his successor.
In this process, known as a conclave, the cardinals vote in a secret ballot in the Sistine Chapel of the Vatican.
After each vote, the ballot papers are burned.
If no candidate receives a majority of votes, the smoke coming out of the chimney is black.
Once a winner has been declared, a chemical is added that turns the smoke white.
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The 1978 conclave began on August 25 and ended the next day. Luciani was elected in the fourth round – a relatively quick election. Official vote totals are not published, although information occasionally leaks out.
As the Washington Post reported, the smoke from the Sistine Chapel was white for only a few seconds before turning gray and then white again, causing confusion among the assembled crowd.
“Obviously, the chemical rods burned to ensure a clear signal were anything but a triumph for Italian industry,” wrote reporter Bernard D. Nossiter.
Luciani appeared on the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica and was announced as the new Pope John Paul.
He chose the name in honor of the two previous popes, Paul VI and John XXIII.
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The brief pontificate of John Paul I was perhaps best summed up by his episcopal motto: Humilitas (Humility). He dispensed with the traditional papal tiara and coronation, insisting instead on an investiture ceremony.
Because of his photogenic smile, he was known throughout Italy as the “smiling pope”.
Only 33 days after his election, Pope John Paul I was found dead in his bed on September 29, 1978, at the age of only 65.
Doctors assumed that he had died the night before at around 11 p.m., reported the Vatican newspaper “L’Osservatore Romano”.
“This morning, September 29, 1978, at around 5:30 a.m., the Pope’s private secretary, contrary to his usual practice, did not go to see the Holy Father in the chapel of his private apartments. He went to look for him in his room and found him dead in bed with the light on, like someone engrossed in reading,” reports L’Osservatore Romano.
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“The doctor, Dr. Renato Buzzonnetti, who immediately rushed to the scene, diagnosed death, probably at around eleven o’clock yesterday evening, from acute coronary thrombosis.”
Despite this explanation, numerous conspiracy theories circulated. There were rumors that John Paul I’s death might have been a murder.
The Vatican insists that his death was a natural death.
No autopsy was performed, as is customary when a pope dies.
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His term as pope lasted 33 days, making it the shortest in the modern era. However, the title of shortest papacy goes to Pope Urban VII, who reigned for 13 days before dying on September 27, 1590, according to the Vatican website.
The funeral of Pope John Paul I took place on October 4, 1978 and he was buried in St. Peter’s Basilica.
His successor, the Polish Cardinal Karol Wojtyla, took the name Pope John Paul II in his honor.
On November 23, 2003, his canonization process was opened, according to the website of the Vatican John Paul I Foundation.
He was declared “venerable” on November 8, 2017, and beatified by Pope Francis on September 4, 2022.
In the Catholic Church, beatification is the step below canonization.
Pope John Paul I is known today as “Blessed”.
Source of the original article: On this day in history, August 26, 1978, Pope John Paul I is elected, would only serve 33 days
