Sainted popes in the modern times

Sainted Popes and the crisis of modernity and secularizing world: Through 2,000-years of Christianity, a total of 84 popes out of 266 have been named saints, a lot of them reform-minded.(Catholic World Report)  

The Church is blessed with successive pontificates covering the period between Vatican I and Vatican II, and beyond.

Pius IX, the pope who convened Vatican I in 1870 was beatified. If Blessed Pius IX was the pontiff of Vatican I, St. Paul VI was the pontiff who, 100 years later, continued and completed Vatican II. It was Paul VI who described for us the last day of Vatican I as “a dramatic page in the life of the Church.”

The longest pontificate in history, that of Pius IX, Spirit-inspired convenor of Vatican I, marked the beginning of the modern papacy and the end of secular power over the once vast Papal States. His papal reign introduced a new chapter in the life of the Catholic Church. After him came the glorious and lengthy pontificate of Leo XIII.

Then entered the 20th century, a period of one hundred years that saw the reign popes were both reform-minded and saintly, to wit:

• St. Pius X (reigned 1903-14)
• Benedict XV (1914-22)
• Pius XI (1922-39)
• Venerable Pius XII (1939-58)
• St. John XXIII (1958-63)
• St. Paul VI (1963-78)
• John Paul I (1978)
• St. John Paul II (1978-2005)

The auspicious year of 1978 saw three popes. St. Paul VI reigned until 1978, succeeded by Bl. John Paul I (1978) who reigned as Bishop of Rome only for a month. After his death, St. John Paul II was elected and began his pontificate also in 1978.

For more than 100 years, reforms and holiness permeated the papacy. The reforms of Vatican II continued with Benedict XVI (reigned 2005-2013) and Francis (2013-present) as popes of the 21st century, two of the most iconic figures of contemporary Catholicism. Both resided together in the Vatican for one decade until the retired Pope Benedict XVI’s death on 31 December 2022.

Looking back, in the first 500 years of its existence after Pentecost, Christianity has produced hundreds of thousands of martyrs, among them popes and bishops. “The word ‘martyr’ means a witness,” As Eamon Duffy, author of Saints and Sinners: A History of the Popes, writes, “and the martyr’s death is the ultimate witness to the truth.” I repeat with pride, Christianity has produced hundreds of thousands of martyrs.

Through 2,000-years of Christianity, a total of 84 popes out of 266 have been named saints, a lot of them reform-minded. They reigned to make a difference! The early pontiffs, following the courageous footsteps of the first pope, were so unwavering in their love for Jesus that a multitude of them offered their dear lives for what they believed.

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Forty-three out of fifty-two of the popes who reigned until AD 523 are declared saints and martyrs! Thirty popes from AD 523 to 1100 were added to the exclusive list. However, only three of the 66 popes stretching from 1294 to 1914, a long period of 640 years, were deemed worthy of canonization.

If we look closer, it seems there were many saintly pontiffs and martyrs when and where the Church was persecuted. In contrast, there appeared fewer holy popes and almost no martyrs during the periods in papal history when and where the Church was most powerful in temporal and secular affairs.

If truth be told, those periods in papal history when and where the Church was most powerful in temporal and secular affairs were disheartening moments when the “engine room” in the Barque of Peter got dirtier and messier. Those were the times when serious lapses and moral turpitude were made, making the Dark Ages, for instance, darker by the wrongful conduct and transgressions committed by both Catholic leaders and members.

In our time, we are privileged to observe holy popes, up close or from a distance. Saintly popes are Christ-like servant leaders to others, gone before us, all guiding stars in the Catholic firmament, contemplative “men of courage” who once journeyed with us and blazed the trail in order to show the world the beautiful face of God.

Jose Mario Bautista Maximiano is the Lead Convenor of the LOVE OUR POPE MOVEMENT (LOPM) and the author of Church Reforms: Semper Purificanda, Volume One (Claretian, 2022).