On a day like today, Saint John Paul II, the pilgrim Pope, was born

On May 18, 1920, 104 years ago, Karol Wojtyla, who in October 1978 would become Pope Saint John Paul II, was born in the small town of Wadowice (Poland).

The future Pontiff was born in the home of Karol Wojtyla, a non-commissioned officer in the Polish army who died in 1941, and Emilia Kaczorowska, who died on April 13, 1929, when the little boy was only eight years old.

He was the youngest of three brothers. The oldest was called Edmund and died in 1932; He never met her sister Olga, since she had died before Karol was born.

His mother had a difficult pregnancy

In the book “Emilia and Karol Wojtyla. Fathers of Saint John Paul II”, author Milena Kindziuk narrates that Emilia had a complicated pregnancy and that she was depressed by the insistence of her first doctor, Jan Moskala, that she have an abortion.

However, the faith of both parents led them to make “a bold decision that, regardless of everything, their baby was going to be born.” Then they looked for another doctor, the Jewish Samuel Taub, who confirmed the complications of the pregnancy and that it could cause the death of the mother, but never suggested abortion.

According to Kindziuk, on May 18, 1920 at 5 in the afternoon, the father went with his eldest son, Edmund, 13 years old, to church to participate in the prayer of the hours; while at home Emilia stayed with the midwife.

“We know from the messages that Emilia asked the midwife to open the window: she wanted the first sound her son could hear to be a song in honor of María. In short, Emilia Wojtyla gave birth to her son, listening to the song from the Litany of Loreto,” she says.

His childhood and youth

After losing his mother, Karol received his First Communion at the age of nine and Confirmation at the age of 18. After studying at the high school in Wadowice, he enrolled in the Jagiellonian University in 1938.

In 1939 World War II broke out and Nazi Germany occupied Poland. That year the invading forces closed the university and young Karol worked between 1940 and 1944 in a quarry and then in the Solvay chemical factory to survive and avoid deportation.

In 1942 he felt the call to the priesthood and clandestinely attended the training courses at the major seminary in Krakow, directed by Archbishop Adam Stefan Sapieha.

In his book “Gift and mystery“, John Paul II himself remembers the influence of his father on his vocation, whom he described as “a deeply religious man” and whose “example was, in some way, my first seminary.”

Once the war was over, the seminary was reopened and young Karol was able to continue his training. However, the country that had been liberated from the Nazis was now part of the communist bloc of the Soviet Union.

Priesthood and bishopric

Karol Wojtyla was ordained a priest in Krakow on November 1, 1946.

“This day is indelibly etched in my memory; I received the gift of the priesthood of Christ and became a servant of the Eucharist,” the Pope stated in 1993.

The 26-year-old priest was then sent by Cardinal Sapieha to Rome, where in 1948 he obtained a doctorate in Theology with a thesis on the topic of faith in the works of Saint John of the Cross. That same year he returned to his country.

On July 4, 1958, Pope Pius XII appointed him Auxiliary Bishop of Krakow. He received episcopal consecration on September 28, 1958 in the Wawel Cathedral (Krakow), from the hands of Archbishop Eugeniusz Baziak.

Pope Saint Paul VI appointed him Archbishop of Krakow in 1964 and in June 1967 created him Cardinal.

He participated in the Second Vatican Council and collaborated in the drafting of the final text of Human dignity, the decree on religious freedom; and of The joy and hopethe Pastoral Constitution on the Church in today’s world.

Pontificate of Saint John Paul II

On September 28, 1978, Pope John Paul I died and all the Cardinals were called to Rome, including the then Archbishop of Krakow.

On October 14, ten days after the Holy Father’s funeral, the bishops met in the Sistine Chapel to begin the conclave that lasted two days. In eight ballots, Cardinal Wojtyla was elected, who took the name of John Paul II.

With his election, a tradition of four and a half centuries of Italian Pontiffs was broken.

The pontificate of Saint John Paul II lasted 26 years and five months, the third longest in history. During that time he made 104 apostolic trips around the world, for which he was called the “Pilgrim Pope.”

Among the events that occurred during his pontificate, are the attacks that he survived on May 13, 1981 and May 12, 1982. The first, committed by the Turkish Mehmet Ali Agca, strengthened his devotion to the Virgin of Fatima.

Likewise, his work to achieve the fall of communism in Europe, with the disappearance of the Soviet Union, and his defense of the unborn and the family stand out.

Pope John Paul II died on April 2, 2005. He was beatified by his successor Benedict XVI on May 1, 2011 and canonized by Pope Francis on April 27, 2014.

To learn more about Saint John Paul II, go HERE.

Originally published May 18, 2023. It has been updated for republication.