Saint Pope John Paul II – The 264th Pope

Saint Pope John Paul II was a Polish man who held the position of Pope for 34 years, making his papacy one of the longest in modern history. In that lengthy amount of time, he was hardly one to stay still. He was said to be the most recognized person in the world and the 264th Pope.

He was, by far, the most traveled pope in the 2,000 year history of the Church. This article intends to highlight this man’s life before and during his time as leader of the Catholic Church.

Early Life.

Karol Józef Wojtyła was born the youngest of Karol Wojtyła’s and Emilia Kaczorowska’s three children. Emilia was a teacher who died when Karol was just eight years old. While his sister died prior to his birth, Karol was quite close with his brother Edmund, a physician who eventually died from scarlet fever.Karol was fond of sports, especially soccer, where he played as a goalie.

Due to the closeness to Wadowice’s Jewish groups, school soccer matches would frequently break down into Jews versus Catholics-Karol would routinely play for the Jewish side.

List of Events In The Life of Pope John Paul II (St Karol Józef Wojtyła)

Date	Age	Event	Title
18 May 1920		Born
20 Oct 1946	26.4	Ordained Deacon	Deacon of Kraków {Cracow}, Poland
1 Nov 1946	26.4	Ordained Priest	Priest of Kraków {Cracow}, Poland
4 Jul 1958	38.1	Appointed	Auxiliary Bishop of Kraków {Cracow}, Poland
4 Jul 1958	38.1	Appointed	Titular Bishop of Antigonea
31 Aug 1958	38.2	Appointed	Titular Bishop of Ombi
28 Sep 1958	38.3	Ordained Bishop	Titular Bishop of Ombi
13 Jan 1964	43.6	Appointed	Archbishop of Kraków {Cracow}, Poland
26 Jun 1967	47.1	Elevated to Cardinal
26 Jun 1967	47.1	Appointed	Cardinal-Priest of San Cesareo in Palatio
18 Feb 1968	47.7	Installed	Cardinal-Priest of San Cesareo in Palatio
16 Oct 1978	58.4	Elected	Pope (Rome, Italy)
22 Oct 1978	58.4	Installed	Pope (Rome, Italy)
2 Apr 2005	84.8	Died	Pope (Rome, Italy)
1 May 2011		Beatified
27 Apr 2014		Canonized

Higher Education.

In the middle of 1938, Karol and his father moved from Wadowice to Krakow, where he enrolled into Jagiellonian University to study language. While he engaged in compulsory military training within the Academic Legion, he refused to fire a weapon. He also participated in theater, writing several plays.

Nazi Occupation of Poland.

Karol spent 1940 through 1944 working odd jobs to avoid deportation, suffering a concussion, fractured skull, uneven shoulders and a permanent stoop in the process. His father died of heart attack in 1941, leaving him the sole surviving member of his family. Karol did not consider serving God until his father’s death.

After reaching out to the Bishop of Krakow in October of 1942, Karol studied in a secretive underground seminary while also doing his best to stop himself or anyone else from being captured by the Nazis during events like Black Sunday. After the Nazis fled the city on January 17th, 1945, Karol helped reclaim the ruined seminary and his restoration efforts earned him the commendation of “Righteous Among the Nations” for his constant efforts to help the Jewish community, including sequestering a two-year-old boy with a Gentile family.

Career With the Church.

Karol was formally ordained, after completing his studies, on November 1st, 1946. Pope Pius XII appointed him Auxiliary Bishop of Krakow on July 4th, 1958. October 1962 would see Karol influence the policy of Vatican II. January 13th, 1964 would mark the day Karol became Archbishop of Krakow. June 26th, 1967 would be the day Karol would become Cardinal of San Cesareo in Palatio.

Time as Pope.

John Paul II was against apartheid, the death penalty, homosexuality and abortion. He also favored enshrining religious rights within the EU and the theory of evolution, with the exception of the human soul-something he felt that only God could be held responsible for.

Assassination Attempts.

1. On May 13th, 1981, as the pope was entering St. Peter’s Square to speak, a Turkish gunman severely injured with a semi-automatic pistol. After surviving the attack, Pope John Paul II visited the man in prison to speak with and forgave him. It is believed this attack was engineered by the Soviet Union.
   
   
   
2. On May 12th, 1982, a Spanish Catholic priest attacked Pope John Paul II with a bayonet. Although the priest was stopped, he managed to injure the pope. The priest attacked believing Pope John Paul II was a Communist agent.
   
   
   
3. In 1995, the “Bojinka plot,” a large-scale terrorist action funded by Al-Qaeda, planned to assassinate Pope John Paul II during a visit to the Philippines for World Youth Day. The plan involved disguising a suicide bomber as a priest and getting close enough to the pope that the blast would be fatal. Despite the terrorist’s plans, a chemical fire occurred within their base of operations one week prior to the planned attack, resulting in the arrest of all the terrorists upon investigation of the fire.

Facts About Saint Pope John Paul II.

• He was born in Wadowice, Poland on the 18th of May in 1920.
  
  
• Prior to becoming pope, his name was Karol Józef Wojtyła. Wojtyła is pronounced “voy-teh-wa.”
  
  
• He died on the 2nd day of April in 2005 at the age of 84, making him one of the oldest popes to have served.
  
  
• Pope John Paul II’s final days were filled with difficulties in breathing, influenza, and then septic shock after an infection. The shock left him with a high fever and low blood pressure but he refused to be hospitalized due to perceiving his end was coming soon, he wished to die within the Vatican. His final words were uttered in his native language of Polish and expressed a desire to pass on. Hours after speaking, he became comatose and succumbed to heart failure as a result of his sepsis.
  
  
• His papacy began on the 16th of October in 1978.
  
  
• His papacy ended on the day of his death, April 2, 2005.
  
  
• His successor was Pope Benedict XVI.
  

• He was an exceptionally prolific traveler, visiting 129 different nations during his time as pope.
  
  
• He was responsible for beatifying 1,340 peoeple and canonizing 483 more. This total of 1783 people means he exceeded the efforts of other popes from five centuries prior.
  
  
• After his canonization in 2014, some Catholics have referred to him as “St. John Paul the Great.”
  
  
• He was great friends with Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama and held a degree of admiration for Buddhism.
  
  
• He was a “polyglot;” in addition to his native tongue, Pope John Paul II understood English, Esperanto, French, German, Italian, Latin, Portuguese, Serbo-Croatian, Slovak, Spanish and Ukrainian. Most of these languages were frequently used during his time as pope.
  
  
• He traditionally began his pastoral assignments by kneeling and kissing the ground.

List of Saints Canonized By Saint Pope John Paul II

Here is a list of saints canonized by Pope John Paul II. In total he canonized 482 saints during his twenty-six-year reign as Pope from 1978 to 2005:

No.	Saint	Date of Canonization	Place of Canonization
1.	Crispin of Viterbo	20 June 1982	St. Peter’s Basilica
2.	Maximilian Kolbe	10 October 1982	St. Peter’s Basilica
3.	Marguerite Bourgeoys	31 October 1982	St. Peter’s Basilica
4.	Jeanne Delanoue	31 October 1982	St. Peter’s Basilica
5.	Leopold Mandić	16 October 1983	St. Peter’s Basilica
6.	Paula Frassinetti	11 March 1984	St. Peter’s Basilica
7.	Andrew Kim Taegon,  103 Korean Martyrs	6 May 1984	Seoul, Korea
8.	Miguel Febres Cordero	21 October 1984	St. Peter’s Basilica
9.	Francis Anthony Fasani	13 April 1986	St. Peter’s Basilica
10.	Joseph Tomasi	12 October 1986	St. Peter’s Basilica
11.	Lorenzo Ruiz and 15 companions	18 October 1987	St. Peter’s Basilica
12.	Dominic Ibáñez de Erquicia	18 October 1987	St. Peter’s Basilica
13.	Jacobo Kyushei Tomonaga and 13 Companions	18 October 1987	St. Peter’s Basilica
14.	Giuseppe Moscati	25 October 1987	St. Peter’s Basilica
15.	Roque González de Santa Cruz	16 May 1988	Asunción
16.	Alfonso Rodríguez Olmedo	16 May 1988	Asunción
17.	Juan de Castillo	16 May 1988	Asunción
18.	Eustochia Smeralda Calafato	11 June 1988	Messina
19.	Andrew Dung-Lac	19 June 1988	St. Peter’s Basilica
20.	Tommaso Thien	19 June 1988	St. Peter’s Basilica
21.	Emanuele Phung (Emmanuel Le Van Phung)	19 June 1988	St. Peter’s Basilica
22.	Girolamo Hermosilla (Jerome Hermosilla)	19 June 1988	St. Peter’s Basilica
23.	Valentino Berrio Ochoa	19 June 1988	St. Peter’s Basilica
24.	Teofano Venard and 111 companions	19 June 1988	St. Peter’s Basilica
25.	Simón de Rojas	3 July 1988	St. Peter’s Basilica
26.	Rose Philippine Duchesne	3 July 1988	St. Peter’s Basilica
27.	Magdalene of Canossa	2 October 1988	St. Peter’s Basilica
28.	Maria Rosa Molas y Vallvé	11 December 1988	St. Peter’s Basilica
29.	Clelia Barbieri	9 April 1989	St. Peter’s Basilica
30.	Gaspar Bertoni	1 November 1989	St. Peter’s Basilica
31.	Richard Pampuri	1 November 1989	St. Peter’s Basilica
32.	Agnes of Bohemia	12 November 1989	St. Peter’s Basilica
33.	Albert Chmielowski	12 November 1989	St. Peter’s Basilica
34.	Mutien-Marie Wiaux	10 December 1989	St. Peter’s Basilica
35.	Marie-Marguerite d’Youville	9 December 1990	St. Peter’s Basilica
36.	Raphael Kalinowski	17 November 1991	St. Peter’s Basilica
37.	Claude de la Colombière	31 May 1992	St. Peter’s Basilica
38.	Ezequiel Moreno y Díaz	11 October 1992	Santo Domingo
39.	Claudine Thévenet	21 March 1993	St. Peter’s Basilica
40.	Teresa of Jesus of Los Andes	21 March 1993	St. Peter’s Basilica
41.	Enrique de Ossó y Cercelló	16 June 1993	Madrid
42.	Meinhard (equipollent)	8 September 1993	Riga
43.	Jan Sarkander	21 May 1995	Olomouc, Czech Republic
44.	Zdislava Berka	21 May 1995	Olomouc, Czech Republic
45.	Marko Krizevcanin	2 July 1995	Košice, Slovak Republic
46.	Stephen Pongracz	2 July 1995	Košice, Slovak Republic
47.	Melchior Grodziecki	2 July 1995	Košice, Slovak Republic
48.	Eugene de Mazenod	3 December 1995	St. Peter’s Basilica
49.	Jean-Gabriel Perboyre	2 June 1996	St. Peter’s Basilica
50.	Egidio Maria of Saint Joseph Francis Anthony Postillo	2 June 1996	St. Peter’s Basilica
51.	Juan Grande Román	2 June 1996	St. Peter’s Basilica
52.	Jadwiga of Poland	8 June 1997	Kraków
53.	John of Dukla	10 June 1997	Krosno
54.	Teresa Benedict of the Cross	11 October 1998	St. Peter’s Basilica
55.	Marcellin Joseph Benoît Champagnat	18 April 1999	St. Peter’s Basilica
56.	John Calabria	18 April 1999	St. Peter’s Basilica
57.	Agostina Livia Pietrantoni	18 April 1999	St. Peter’s Basilica
58.	Kinga (equipollent)	16 June 1999	Stary Sącz
59.	Cirilo Bertrán and 8 Companions	21 November 1999	St. Peter’s Basilica
60.	Innocencio of Mary Immaculate	21 November 1999	St. Peter’s Basilica
61.	Benedict Menni	21 November 1999	St. Peter’s Basilica
62.	Thomas of Cori	21 November 1999	St. Peter’s Basilica
63.	Mary Faustina Kowalska	30 April 2000	St. Peter’s Basilica
64.	Cristóbal Magallanes Jara and 19 other companions	21 May 2000	St. Peter’s Basilica
65.	Román Adame Rosales	21 May 2000	St. Peter’s Basilica
66.	Rodrigo Aguilar Aleman	21 May 2000	St. Peter’s Basilica
67.	Julio Álvarez Mendoza	21 May 2000	St. Peter’s Basilica
68.	Luis Bátiz Sáinz	21 May 2000	St. Peter’s Basilica
69.	Agustín Caloca Cortés	21 May 2000	St. Peter’s Basilica
70.	María Natividad Venegas de la Torre	21 May 2000	St. Peter’s Basilica
71.	José Maria de Yermo y Parres	21 May 2000	St. Peter’s Basilica
72.	Augustine Chao and 119 companions	1 October 2000	St. Peter’s Basilica
73.	Katharine Drexel	1 October 2000	St. Peter’s Basilica
74.	Josephine Bakhita	1 October 2000	St. Peter’s Basilica
75.	María Josefa Sancho de Guerra	1 October 2000	St. Peter’s Basilica
76.	Luigi Scrosoppi	10 June 2001	St. Peter’s Basilica
77.	Agostino Roscelli	10 June 2001	St. Peter’s Basilica
78.	Bernard of Corleone	10 June 2001	St. Peter’s Basilica
79.	Ignazia Verzeri	10 June 2001	St. Peter’s Basilica
80.	Rafqa Pietra Choboq Ar-Rayès	10 June 2001	St. Peter’s Basilica
81.	Joseph Marello	25 November 2001	St. Peter’s Basilica
82.	Paula Montal Fornés	25 November 2001	St. Peter’s Basilica
83.	Maria Crescentia Höss	25 November 2001	St. Peter’s Basilica
84.	Leonie Aviat	25 November 2001	St. Peter’s Basilica
85.	Alonso de Orozco Mena	19 May 2002	St. Peter’s Basilica
86.	Ignatius of Santhià	19 May 2002	St. Peter’s Basilica
87.	Humilis de Bisignano	19 May 2002	St. Peter’s Basilica
88.	Benedetta Cambiagio Frassinello	19 May 2002	St. Peter’s Basilica
89.	Paulina of the Agonizing Heart of Jesus	19 May 2002	St. Peter’s Basilica
90.	Pio of Pietrelcina	16 June 2002	St. Peter’s Basilica
91.	Peter of Saint Joseph Betancur	30 July 2002	Guatemala City
92.	Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin	31 July 2002	Mexico City
93.	Josemaría Escrivá	6 October 2002	St. Peter’s Basilica
94.	Pedro Poveda Castroverde	4 May 2003	Madrid
95.	José María Rubio y Peralta	4 May 2003	Madrid
96.	Angela of the Cross	4 May 2003	Madrid
97.	María de las Maravillas de Jesús	4 May 2003	Madrid
98.	Genoveva Torres Morales	4 May 2003	Madrid
99.	Virginia Centurione Bracelli	18 May 2003	St. Peter’s Basilica
100.	Maria De Mattias	18 May 2003	St. Peter’s Basilica
101.	Ursula Ledóchowska	18 May 2003	St. Peter’s Basilica
102.	Józef Sebastian Pelczar	18 May 2003	St. Peter’s Basilica
103.	Daniel Comboni	5 October 2003	St. Peter’s Basilica
104.	Joseph Freinademetz	5 October 2003	St. Peter’s Basilica
105.	Arnold Janssen	5 October 2003	St. Peter’s Basilica
106.	Gianna Beretta Molla	16 May 2004	St. Peter’s Basilica
107.	Luigi Orione	16 May 2004	St. Peter’s Basilica
108.	Hannibal Mary Di Francia	16 May 2004	St. Peter’s Basilica
109.	Joseph Manyanet i Vives	16 May 2004	St. Peter’s Basilica
110.	Nimatullah Kassab Al-Hardini	16 May 2004	St. Peter’s Basilica
111.	Paola Elisabetta Cerioli	16 May 2004	St. Peter’s Basilica