Saint John Paul II

Born in Wadowice, Poland, Karol Jozef Wojtyla lost his mother, father, and older brother before his 21st birthday. His promising academic career at Krakow’s Jagiellonian University was cut short by the outbreak of World War II. While working in a quarry and a chemical factory, he enrolled in an “underground” seminary in Kraków. Ordained in 1946, he was immediately sent to Rome where he earned a doctorate in theology.

Communist officials allowed Wojtyla to be appointed auxiliary bishop of Kraków in 1958, considering him to be a harmless intellectual, but this unassuming bishop would surprise them and the entire world with his courage and conviction. 

Bishop Wojtyla attended all four sessions of Vatican II and contributed especially to its Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World. Appointed as archbishop of Kraków in 1964, he was named a cardinal three years later.

Elected pope in October 1978, he took the name of his short-lived, immediate predecessor. Pope John Paul II was the first non-Italian pope in 455 years. 

In 1979, Pope John Paul II visited his homeland and was greeted by massive crowds of people demanding to worship God. In Krakow, the people interrupted him, and began to sing out, “We want God!” These crowds later contributed to the Solidarity movement that overturned the Communist government of Poland, and set the stage for the collapse of the Berlin Wall and then the fall of the Soviet Union.

In 1983, Saint John Paul II modeled forgiveness to the faithful when he met with Mehmet Ali Agca, the man who had attempted to assassinate him two years earlier. Saint John Paul II asked people to “pray for my brother ... whom I have sincerely forgiven.”

Saint Pope John Paul II lived and taught the message of Divine Mercy. He believed Divine Mercy is the answer to the world’s problems and the message of the third millennium. He beatified and canonized Sister Maria Faustina Kowalska in Rome. On that same day, he surprised the entire world by establishing Divine Mercy Sunday (the feast day associated with the message) as a feast day for the entire Church, which falls on the Second Sunday of Easter season. On that day, John Paul II declared, "This is the happiest day of my life."