St. Paul VI died on the feast of the Transfiguration, August 6, 1978. Shortly thereafter began a conclave to elect the next supreme pontiff of the Roman Catholic Church.
After the fourth ballot, Albino Luciani was elected pope on August 26, 1978, taking the name, Pope John Paul I.
August 26 is the annual feast of Our Lady of Częstochowa, arguably the biggest feast for Polish Catholics around the world.
What is interesting is that Pope John Paul I's immediate successor, Karol Wojtyła, would be from Poland and would adopt the same name, John Paul.
St. John Paul II commented on this series of events in a homily he gave in 1979 while visiting Jasna Gora, the shrine of Our Lady of Czestochowa.
Not only that, the day St. John Paul II was elected was the feast of St. Hedwig, a patron of Kraków, Poland, where John Paul II was archbishop.
His response to this providential series of events was simply, "The call of a son of the Polish nation to the Chair of Peter involves an evident strong connection with this holy place, with this shrine of great hope: so many times I had whispered Totus tuus in prayer before this image."
These events remind us all that God's plan is not always evident at first, but can often be seen when looking back upon them.
