John Paul I, the pope who died a month after his election in 1978, predicted his sudden demise and guessed a Polish cardinal named Karol Wojtyla would succeed him.
According to his personal secretary, Monsignor John Magee, the Italian pontiff knew that he was too weak and ill to last long in the job and said as much three days after his election.
The pope was shown an air ticket to Mexico, where an important religious meeting was to be held a few months later. There were high hopes that the new head of the Catholic Church would attend. "The pope told me to give that ticket to his successor.
Basically, he predicted his own death," Msgr Magee said in an interview published on Wednesday in Italian weekly Gente.
"John Paul I said to me: 'I'll never leave Rome. I'll be going soon'," he added.
Doubts and rumours have periodically surfaced over the sudden, 'mysterious' death of the Italian pope, known to his compatriots as 'Papa Luciani' .
The Vatican has always said he died of a heart attack.
Msgr Magee said he was convinced the pope's death was a 'natural' one, and confirmed that he had complained of chest pains during dinner, later asking a nun to prepare him the usual medicine he took at such times. He was found dead in his bed the next morning. It was September 29, 1978, some 34 days after his election. Luciani's election as pope apparently came as a complete shock to him.
Msgr Magee said the new John Paul I frequently spoke of his incredulity at having been chosen by his fellow cardinals and saw himself as deeply unworthy. "He used to say:'Why me, when there were so many other better candidates, like that cardinal who was sitting facing me, the one that Paul VI had chosen as his successor?'".
It was later discovered that during the conclave of August 1978, Cardinal Karol Wojtyla, the future John Paul II, was sitting opposite Luciani. Although he only reigned for just over a month, John Paul I made a deeply positive impression on Italians, who
quickly dubbed him the 'smiling pope'.
Procedures have begun to have him beatified and eventually canonised.
