Pope Bl. Urban V

Guillaume de Grimoard was born in 1310 at Le Pont-de-Montvert in southern France. He became a Benedictine monk and wore the Benedictine habit even as pope. He was one of the leading experts in canon law, the Church's law, of his time, and taught it at Montpellier, Toulouse, Paris and Avignon.

He became an abbot and then a papal diplomat in Italy. He was on a mission to Naples in 1362 when he learned that he had been elected pope, although he was not a cardinal. At that time the popes lived in Avignon in France. He took the name Urban because, he said, all the popes who had borne the name had been saints.

Urban V wanted to bring the papacy back to Rome and to restore unity in the Church, and he did return to Rome for a time. He died in Avignon on December 19, 1370.

Pope Urban V was beatified in 1870 by Pius IX.

Beatification allows public veneration, usually in a particular region or religious family. Canonization extends it to the whole Church.