On May 29th, the Catholic Church celebrates the feast day of Saint Paul VI, who is recognized as a great defender of life and family. He is best known for concluding the Second Vatican Council, the most important ecclesiastical event of the 20th century. However, there are other significant episodes of his pontificate that are less well-known. During his time, the media did not have the reach that it has today, and social media did not exist. Here are seven interesting facts about Saint Paul VI: 

1. He was stabbed: On November 27, 1970, at the Manila International Airport in the Philippines, the Bolivian painter Benjamin Mendoza y Amor Flores, who suffered from mental problems, stabbed Saint Paul VI twice. He was dressed as a priest and tried to kill the Pontiff with a dagger, but he failed. 

2. He was the first Pope to use an airplane: Saint Paul VI was the first Pope to board an airplane. This historic event took place on January 4, 1964, when he boarded the Alitalia DC8 bound for Jordan. 

3. He was the first Pope to visit all five continents: He did it before Saint John Paul II and was nicknamed the “pilgrim Pope”, before that epithet was given to the Polish Pontiff. Saint Paul VI was the first successor of Saint Peter to leave Italy since 1809. He made a pastoral visit to Africa (Uganda, 1969); two to the Americas, first to the United States (1965) and then to Colombia (1968). He also traveled to Australia (1970) in Oceania. In Asia, he visited the Holy Land (1964), Lebanon and India (1964), Iran, Bangladesh, Indonesia, and other nations (1970). In Europe, he visited Portugal (1967), Turkey (1967), and Switzerland (1969). 

4. He was the first Pope to visit the Holy Land since Saint Peter: In 1964, Saint Paul VI traveled to Jerusalem and met with the Orthodox Patriarch Athenagoras I, with whom he celebrated the lifting of mutual excommunications imposed after the Great Schism of the East in 1054. In 2014, Pope Francis visited the Holy Land to celebrate the 50th anniversary of this event. 

5. He was the last Pope to have a coronation ceremony: In addition to being the last Pontiff to receive the crown, he dispensed with the use of the tiara during sessions of the Second Vatican Council. He donated the tiara, a gift from his former Archdiocese of Milan, to the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C., as a sign of his appreciation for American Catholics. 

6. He was a passionate reader: Nino Lo Bello, a veteran American Vatican journalist, stated that Saint Paul VI was a passionate reader and carried up to 75 books in his travel luggage. 

7. He created Cardinals who would become future Popes: Albino Luciani in 1973, Karol Wojtyla in 1967, and Joseph Ratzinger in 1977, who would later become Pope John Paul I, Saint John Paul II, and Benedict XVI, respectively. 

This article was originally published on ACI Prensa.