Pope Paul VI (Latin: Paulus PP. VI; Italian: Paolo VI), born Giovanni Battista Enrico Antonio Maria Montini, was an Italian priest of the Roman Catholic Church and the 263rd Pope from 1963 until his death in 1978. Paul was a spiritual leader and the head of the church bureaucracy. Pope Benedict XVI declared in 2012 that Paul had lived “a life of heroic virtue.” Two years later he was beatified by Pope Francis. He was canonized by the same pope in October 2018.