Identity card belonging to 'murdered' Pope John Paul I sells on eBay for almost £5,000

An identity card belonging to Pope John Paul I, who died mysteriously after just 33 days in the Vatican, has been sold on eBay for almost £5,000.

Known as the 'Smiling Pope', he was elected in August 1978 but died dramatically amid rumours that he had been murdered by his enemies.

The Italian identity card, which had been thought lost, was put up for sale by a priest in the late Pontiff's native city of Venice and bids quickly flooded into the auction website.

Eventually it was sold for 5,200 Euros, £4,636.

A description below the card read: 'An exceptional sale for charity - this rare identity document that belonged to the Patriarch of Venice, Albino Luciani, later Pope John Paul I.

'It is being offered for sale by a priest close to him with the only aim being to raise funds for charity.'

 

The card, issued by Venice council, gives the Pope's then profession as 'Patriarch', the traditional name given to the Archbishop of Venice.

It lists him as celibate and having brown eyes and grey hair.

Pope John Paul I was Archbishop of Venice and a Cardinal known for his humanitarian work.

He was said to have been deeply shocked when he discovered the extent to which Freemasons had worked their way into the Vatican.

At the time of his death he was about to name senior figures within the Vatican who were involved with a masonic lodge known as P2, as well as corruption within the Vatican Bank.

 

Rumours had been circulating for months that the bank's then head, Archbishop Paul Marcinkus, was in league with a corrupt financier who had been laundering Mafia funds through him.

Archbishop Marcinkus, who was from Chicago, looked more like a gangster than a man of the church and many suspected him and the Vatican's then Secretary of State Jean Marie Villot of being behind the Pope's death.

Both men are now dead.

The Vatican never held an autopsy on Pope John Paul I who they said had died from a heart attack - but even the circumstances of his body being found were controversial.

At first the Vatican said he had been discovered by his secretary Bishop John Magee although it was actually a nun called Sister Vicenza who had made the grim find.

However the Vatican thought it 'improper' to have the Pope found by a woman and said it was Bishop Magee. 

Years later the Bishop admitted it was Sister Vincenza who was first on the scene.

She later took a vow of silence and has never spoken about the circumstances of Pope John Paul I's death. 

Her whereabouts are not known.

A Vatican spokesman said today they had no comment on Pope John Paul's identity card being up for sale on eBay.

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