Each pope will often have their own "patron" saints, holy men and women they turn to in their time of need. What's interesting is how many popes have been influenced and had devotion to St. Augustine.
While we don't have precise historical record on all the popes that have sat on the Chair of St. Peter, we do have documentation that eight of the most recent popes have made the trek to Pavia, Italy, to venerate the relics of St. Augustine.
A bit of history (as much as we know it) is in order: We first return to North Africa. Born in Thagaste, in present-day Algeria, in 354, Augustine became bishop of Hippo (present day Annaba) in 395. He died there in 430 while the Vandals besieged the city. The great Church doctor was buried in his episcopal city, where his tomb quickly became a place of veneration.
From there, it is believed that some years or decades later, Augustine’s remains were transferred to Sardinia. And then, in 723, they made their way to northern Italy, where they were deposited in the Basilica of San Pietro in Ciel d’Oro.
With the exception of the right ulna, which was transferred back to Algeria in the 19th century, these relics normally rest there, in the majestic Ark of St. Augustine.
Sometimes, as in the visit this month of Pope Leo, the relics are taken out for veneration, enabling devotees to approach and kiss or touch the glass urn in which the relics rest.
These eight popes who have gone to Pavia did not grow up in the region and had to make a deliberate choice to go on pilgrimage to Pavia during their life time.
When Pope Benedict XVI visited Pavia in 2007, he summarized what was likely a motivation to all the popes who had gone to St. Augustine's tomb before him:
With this final event, my visit to Pavia acquires the form of a pilgrimage. This is the form in which I had conceived of it from the outset, desiring to come here to venerate the mortal remains of St. Augustine, to express both the homage of the whole Catholic Church to one of her greatest "fathers" and my personal devotion and gratitude to the one who played such an important part in my life as a theologian and a Pastor, but, I would say, even more as a man and a priest.
Here is a list of eight recent popes on record, according to the Order of St. Augustine, to have visited Pavia to venerarate the tomb of St. Augustine.
1Pope Benedict XV (1914–1922)
Giacomo Della Chiesa visited while Archbishop of Bologna in 1914.
2Pope Pius XI (1922–1939)
Fr. Achille Ratti visited in 1910, 12 years before he was elected pope.
3Pope Pius XII (1939–1958)
Fr. Eugenio Pacelli similarly visited before he was pope, venerating the tomb in 1913.
4Pope John XXIII (1958–1963)
Archbishop Roncalli visited multiple times before he was pope, including two months before he was elected.
5Pope Paul VI (1963–1978)
As a priest, Fr. Montini visited several times before he was elected pope.
6Pope John Paul II (1978–2005)
The first modern pope to visit as pope, St. John Paul II made a pastoral visit to Pavia in 1984.
7Pope Benedict XVI (2005–2013)
While he visited as pope, he was assisted by the future Pope Leo XIV, Fr. Robert Prevost, when he was Prior General of the Augustinian Order.
8Pope Leo XIV (2025-)
Being himself a "son of Augustine," it was not surprising when Pope Leo XIV announced his intention to visit Pavia and venerate the tomb of St. Augustine.
