for a two week long visit in May 1959, which included a meeting with Emperor Hirohito. His visit to Ireland in June 1961 was the highlight of the Patrician Year, when the 1,500th anniversary of Saint Patrick, Ireland's patron saint, was celebrated. Agagianian received a great popular welcome there. Conservative President of Ireland Éamon de Valera was famously pictured kissing Agagianian's ring. Agagianian celebrated a pontifical high mass in Dublin's Croke Park attended by more than 90,000 people. In September 1963 he met with Madame Nhu, the Catholic first lady of South Vietnam, in Rome. On October 18, 1964, when the Uganda Martyrs were canonized by Pope Paul VI, Agagianian presided over the Holy Mass at Namugongo. In November 1964 he traveled to Bombay, India to open the 38th Eucharistic Congress. It was attended by more than 200 cardinals and bishops. Second Vatican Council Agagianian sat on the Board of Presidency of the Second Vatican Council (Vatican II), which took place from 1962 to 1965. He was appointed by Pope Paul VI as one of the four moderators who directed the course of the debates, along with Leo Joseph Suenens, Julius Döpfner, and Giacomo Lercaro. Agagianian was the only one of these four from the Curia, and represented the Eastern Catholic Churches. He had a special role in the preparation of the missionary decree Ad gentes and Gaudium et spes, the Constitution on the Church in the Modern World. Papal candidate As a cardinal, Agagianian participated in the papal conclaves of 1958 and 1963, during which he was considered to have been papabile. According to J. Peter Pham, Agagianian was considered a "serious (albeit unwilling) candidate" for the papacy in both conclaves. Contemporary news sources noted that Agagianian was the first serious non-Italian papal candidate in centuries. 1958 conclave According to Greg Tobin and Robert J. Wister, Agagianian, known to have been close to Pope Pius XII, was one of the favorites in the 1958 conclave. His candidacy was widely discussed in the press. Even before the death of Pope Pius XII, The Milwaukee Sentinel wrote that some authoritative voices of Vatican affairs believe that Agagianian was "without question the leading candidate" to succeed Pius. On October 9, the day Pope Pius died, The Sentinel wrote that he is "considered by very responsible Vatican circles as the foremost choice" to succeed Pope Pius. The Chicago Tribune noted that although Agagianian