Pope John Paul I on the Journey to sainthood

The Church has recognised the miracle attributed to the Venerable Servant of God, Pope John Paul I (Albino Luciani), who was born on 17 October 1912 in the northern Italian town of Canale d’Agordo and who died on 28 September 1978 in the Apostolic Palace in the Vatican. He headed the Church from when he was elected Pope on 26 August 1978 until his death 33 days later.

At an audience for the Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, Cardinal Marcello Semeraro, Pope Francis authorized the dicastery to promulgate the Decree advancing his cause, along with the causes of seven other Servants of God including the confirmation of another miracle and the recognition of martyrdom for Argentinean priests Fr. Pietro Ortiz de Zàrate and Fr. Giovanni Antonio Solinas, killed in odium Fidei (in hatred of the faith) on 27 October 1683 in Argentina’s Valle del Zenta.

The process for the cause of his beatification reached the final stage earlier this week when the cardinals and bishops of the Congregation for the Causes of the Saints came together and gave their approval to the attribution of a miracle to the intercession of the Venerable Servant of God, John Paul I, recognizing that it could not be explained by science.