Blessed Urban V
Guillaume de Grimoard · 1362 – 1370
A Benedictine monk who briefly returned the papacy to Rome from Avignon but was forced back to France, where he died.
Guillaume was a French Benedictine scholar and canon lawyer who was not even a cardinal when elected pope in 1362. He was the most personally devout of the Avignon popes, living simply and promoting education. He founded universities at Cracow and Vienna. In 1367, he did what many thought impossible: he moved the papal court back to Rome. But political instability in Italy and pressure from the French cardinals drove him to return to Avignon in 1370. He died there later that year, reportedly saying he would have lived had he stayed in Rome. He was beatified in 1870.
Almost Home
Urban V came closer than any Avignon pope to ending the exile. He actually moved back to Rome in 1367 and stayed for three years. But Italy was too unstable, the French cardinals too insistent, and he returned to Avignon, where he died. It would take his successor Gregory XI to make the return permanent.