Feast day: December 19

Bl. Urban V

Pope · 1310–1370

Patron of —

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.

Urban V was a French Benedictine monk who became, in 1362, one of the popes of the Avignon period — the long stretch of the fourteenth century when the popes, for political reasons, resided not in Rome but at Avignon in southern France. He stands out among them as a man of genuine holiness, reforming zeal, and learning.

Born Guillaume de Grimoard about 1310, he had been a monk and abbot, deeply devoted to the Rule of St. Benedict — so much so that, even as pope, he continued to wear the simple black habit of his order. Elected unexpectedly while serving as a papal envoy, he brought to the office an austere personal life and a passion for reform.

He worked to reform the clergy and curb the worldliness of the papal court, was a great patron of learning who founded and supported universities and aided poor students by the thousands, and laboured for peace among the warring Christian princes. His most cherished aim was to end the scandal of the papacy's exile and return it to Rome.

In 1367 he did return to Rome, to general rejoicing — but unrest in Italy and pressure from the French led him, against the pleading of holy advisers, to go back to Avignon in 1370, where he died soon after. Beatified for his evident holiness, he is remembered as the best of the Avignon popes.

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.

Image: Sailko (Public domain), via Wikimedia Commons.

Source: newadvent.org/cathen/15214a.htm