...AND TRUE TALES FROM THE VATICAN

PAUL VI

Born Brescia, Italy. Served 15 years and 47 days. Aged 65 at start of papacy in 1963. He was the first pope to travel outside Italy since 1809, the first to fly on a plane and the first to visit the USA and Australia. He also did away with the papal tiara, insisting that the pope is not a monarch.

JOHN PAUL I

Born Veneto, Italy. Served 33 days. Aged 65 at start of papacy in 1978. He died from a heart attack and his reign was among the shortest in papal history. Conspiracy theories soon sprang up about his death, including one that he had uncovered corruption in the Vatican.

JOHN PAUL II

Born Wadowice, Poland. Served 26 years and 169 days. Aged 58 at start of papacy in 1978. The first Polish pope travelled more than all previous ones combined. He survived an assassination attempt in 1981 to become the second longest-serving pope after Pius IX, whose 31-year term ended in 1878.

BENEDICT XVI

Born Bavaria, Germany. Served 7 years and 316 days. Aged 78 at start of papacy in 2005. He brought back traditional red papal shoes, before becoming the first pope to resign from the papacy for more than 600 years, when he retired to live in a former convent in the Vatican.

FRANCIS I

Born Buenos Aires, Argentina. Served since 13 March 2013. Aged 76 at start of papacy. He was the first Jesuit pope, the first from the Americas and the Southern Hemisphere, the first to use a Fiat 500L as a Popemobile – and the first to have an Instagram account.