The former secretary to a saint and the oldest member of the College of Cardinals has died aged 100. Cardinal Loris Capovilla, who served St John XXIII before and after he became pope, died in Bergamo, Milan. Cardinal Capovilla was born in Pontelongo, Italy, on October 14, 1915, and ordained a priest in 1940. The cardinal, who started out as a journalist, was an eloquent storyteller, drawing on his remarkable and vividly detailed memory. When the new Patriarch of Venice, Cardinal Angelo Roncalli, chose 37-year-old Fr Capovilla as his private secretary in 1953, a sceptical adviser told the cardinal – later Pope John XXIII – that the priest looked too sickly to bear the strain of his new job. But the cardinal outlived his employer by half a century and was a faithful custodian of his legacy, running a museum dedicated to the saint’s memory in Pope John’s native town of Sotto il Monte Giovanni XXIII near Milan. A friend and confidant, he was by the pope’s side during pivotal points in the Church’s and the world’s history: the launch of the Second Vatican Council and the start of the Cold War. After St John’s death in 1963 he served Pope Paul VI for a time before being made Archbishop of Chieti-Vasto in 1967 and papal delegate of Loreto in 1971. He became the world’s oldest cardinal in 2014 when appointed by Pope Francis.