Today December 19

Today is the feast of Blessed Urban V (1310 - 1370), pope. He was a Frenchman through and through, a Benedictine and a nobleman, a student and then a professor at the Universities of Paris and Avignon -- quiet a resume, even for those days. But the crowning achievement of his pontificate was bringing the papacy back to Rome from its long exile in Avignon. Too bad he hadn't the courage to keep it there. He was disappointed that he wasn't able to crush brigandage in Rome (or even make a dent in it), nor to quell the revolt of Perugia and disappointed that France was at war with England, the French court was revolting, and his health was failing. (In these days, he would no doubt cite only the "health reasons" for leaving.) All of Rome, including the great Petrarch, tried to persuade him to stay, and even the great St. Bridget of Sweden rode in to town on her white mule to plead with him -- all to no avail. He left on September 5 in 1370 and by December 19th he was dead. Petrarch said, "Urban would have been reckoned among the most glorious of men if he had caused his dying bed to be laid before the altar of St. Peter's and had there fallen asleep with a good conscience, calling God and the world to witness that if ever the pope had left this spot it was not his fault but that of the originators of so shameful a flight." Whoa. Powerful words. They remind me of the immortal line in "Jerry Maguire" when the Renee Zellweger character says, "I love him for the man he almost is." Well, we love Urban for the saint he almost is. Blessed Urban, pray for us.