* May 18, 1920 Wadowice, Poland
† 2 April 2005 Rome, Italy
Pontificate: 1978-2005
Meaning of the name John: God is merciful (Heb.); Paul: a small figure (Latin); Karol: strong, masculine, single (German); Joseph: God added, expanded (Heb.)
The patron saint of Slovak mountain rescuersKarol Józef Wojtyła was born in Wadowice (Poland) on May 18, 1920 as the second son of Karol Wojtyła and Emilie, born Kaczorowska. He received the sacrament of baptism on June 20 in the parish church in Wadowice.
The joy and peace of childhood were very soon shaken by the premature departure of a mother who died when Karol was nine years old. Three years later (1932), his older brother Edmund also died, and in 1941, at the age of twenty-one, Karol lost his father.
He was raised in a healthy patriotic and religious atmosphere. From his father, a deeply Christian man, he learned compassion and love for his neighbors, whom he nourished through persevering prayer and the sacramental life.
The features of the spirituality to which he remained faithful until death were sincere devotion to the Holy Spirit and love for the Virgin Mary. His relationship with the Mother of God was especially deep and alive. He experienced it with the tenderness of a child entrusted to his mother's arms, and at the same time with the masculinity of a knight always ready to listen with his Lady's command: "Do whatever he tells you!" The total devotion to Mary, expressed as a bishop by the motto "Totus tuus" the mystery of looking at the world through the eyes of the Mother of God.
The personality of young Charles also matured in connection with the richness of his intellectual, moral and spiritual gifts and also in connection with the events of the time that marked the history of his homeland and Europe.
During his high school studies, he was aroused in his enthusiasm for theater and poetry, which he developed through the activities of the theater circle at the Faculty of Philology of the Jagiellonian University, where he enrolled in the academic year 1938.
During the Nazi occupation of Poland, he secretly continued his studies and at the same time worked for four years (October 1940 - August 1944) as a worker in the Solvay factory. He was thus able to personally and closely experience the social problems associated with working conditions and gain valuable experience, which he later used in his social studies, first as the Archbishop of Krakow, and then as the High Priest.
In those years, the desire for the priesthood matured in him, and so from 1942 he began to attend secret lectures on theology in a large seminary in Krakow. One layman, Mr. Jan Tyranovsky, a true apostle of the youth, helped him a lot in distinguishing his profession. Even then, young Charles had a clear awareness of the universal vocation of all Christians to holiness and of the irreplaceable role of the laity in the mission of the Church.
He received the ordination of the priesthood on November 1, 1946. The next day, in the suggestive atmosphere of the crypt of St. Leonard in Wawel Cathedral, celebrated the primary Holy Mass.
He was later sent to Rome to complete his theological education. He became a student of the Faculty of Theology at the Pontifical Dominican University Angelicum. Here he drew hard from the source of sound Christian doctrine and also experienced his first encounter with the liveliness and wealth of the universal Church in a certain privileged situation offered by life behind the "Iron Curtain." This period includes Karol Wojtyła's encounter with Father Pio of Pietrelčina.
In June 1948, he defended his doctoral dissertation and returned to Cracow to begin his pastoral work as a chaplain. In his priestly ministry, he gave himself with enthusiasm and generosity. After becoming an associate professor, he began teaching at the Faculty of Theology of the Jagiellonian University and, after its abolition, at the Faculty of Priestly Seminary in Cracow and at the Catholic University of Lublin.
The years he spent among the young enabled him to know in depth the restlessness of their hearts, and as a priest he became for them not only a teacher but also a spiritual guide and friend.
At the age of 38, he was appointed auxiliary bishop of the Krakow diocese. He received the episcopal ordination on September 28, 1958 from Archbishop Eugeniusz Baziak. In 1964 he was appointed Archbishop of Krakow and Paul VI. he was created cardinal on June 26, 1967.