by Anura Guruge, Mark Trauernicht and Leopold Fitzclarence
1/ 649: End of Jerusalem-born, Greek, Theodore I’s (#73) 6.4 year reign.
2/ 964: The end of John ‘Octavian’ XII’s (#131) troubled, supposedly amoral, 8.4 year reign, at the age of 26 or 27, which concluded the sordid 60 year Saeculum obscurum (the dark age of the papacy, a.k.a. pornocracy), when the pope, probably the youngest to elected, died, supposedly in the bed of a married women — the pope said to have been attacked by an enraged husband.
Supposed image of John XII though he only lived to be 26 or 27
3/ 1572: Start of Gregory XIII’s (#227) 12.9 year reign. q.v. May 12.
4/ 1919: Benedict XV’s (#259) In Hac Tanta encyclical to the German archbishops at the conclusion of World War I to in effect lay the ground work for a new future.
5/ 1971: Paul VI’s (#263) Octogesima adveniens Apostolic Letter, a day ahead of the 80th eightieth anniversary of Leo XIII’s (#257) influential Rerum Novarum encyclical (on the rights of the working class) — Paul VI’s message focusing on democracy.
Paul VI with Nixon, at the Vatican, in 1970
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