Feast day: December 19
Bl. Urban V
A learned and austere Benedictine monk elected pope during the exile of the papacy at Avignon, who reformed the curia, aided scholars and the poor, and briefly brought the popes back to Rome.
He was the only Avignon pope to be beatified — a monk who stayed a monk on the papal throne, eating simply and pouring the Church's wealth into schools and the poor.
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