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The popes · No. 264 of 267

St John Paul II

An actor, a quarry worker, a priest in an occupied country, and a pope for twenty-six years.

Pope 1978 to 2005

Read the story 1 min read
Pope St John Paul II in white vestments and mitre, arms raised in greeting at an outdoor Mass.

Gregorini Demetrio, 1988. Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0.

Home / The popes / St John Paul II

St Peter’s Square, 16 October 1978

White smoke, and the first non-Italian pope in four and a half centuries steps onto the balcony.1

Karol Wojtyła, archbishop of Kraków, is fifty-eight years old.1

He had worked in a quarry under Nazi occupation and studied for the priesthood in secret.

01St John Paul II

Poland

When the occupying Nazi forces closed the university in 1939, he worked in a quarry and then a chemical factory to avoid deportation to Germany.1

In 1942 he began studying for the priesthood in the clandestine seminary of Kraków.1

02St John Paul II

The pilgrim of the world

As pope he made 104 international journeys and promulgated the Catechism of the Catholic Church.1

He survived an attempt on his life in St Peter’s Square in 1981, and forgave the man who shot him.1

He died on 2 April 2005 and was canonized in 2014.12

He spent his last years showing the world how a Christian suffers. It may have been his most powerful teaching.

His successor was the theologian who had stood beside him for a quarter of a century.

Notes

  1. Biography of Pope St John Paul II. Holy See, official English text. vatican.va
  2. Pope Francis, Homily for the canonization of John XXIII and John Paul II, 27 April 2014. Holy See, official English text. vatican.va

The Catholic Encyclopedia (1913) is in the public domain; we quote the New Advent edition. Texts of the Holy See are quoted briefly from vatican.va. Scripture: Douay-Rheims, Challoner revision (public domain). Photographs: Wikimedia Commons, credited under each image; full list on the photo credits page.

Lines in the narrator’s voice, without a note, are our reflection, not a historical claim. Stone & Incense restates Church teaching in plain words; our wording is not an official Church text. Report an error.