Saint Pope John Paul II, The Shepherd Who Opened Doors to Christ

Saint John Paul II

Before the world knew him as John Paul II, he was Karol Józef Wojtyła, a boy born in Wadowice, Poland, on May 18, 1920. His early life carried deep losses. His mother, Emilia, died in 1929. His older brother, Edmund, a physician, died in 1932. His father died in 1941. By the age of twenty, Karol had lost all three. The future pope’s experience of suffering began long before his ministry became known throughout the world.

In 1938, Karol entered the Jagiellonian University in Kraków. He loved literature and theater, but the German occupation of Poland interrupted his studies. After the Nazis closed the university, he worked in a stone quarry and then a chemical factory to support himself and avoid deportation to Germany. Amid the occupation, he also helped sustain an underground theater. In 1942, he began preparing for the priesthood in Kraków’s clandestine seminary under Archbishop Adam Stefan Sapieha.

Karol was ordained a priest on November 1, 1946. Further studies took him to Rome, where he completed doctoral work on faith in the writings of Saint John of the Cross. Returning to Poland, he served in parishes, ministered to university students, and later taught moral theology and ethics. His ministry extended into mountain hikes and outings with young people, where conversations about faith, love, and marriage helped shape his understanding of their lives.

He became an auxiliary bishop of Kraków in 1958, its archbishop in 1964, and a cardinal in 1967. At the Second Vatican Council, he contributed to the Church’s reflection on the human person and religious freedom. In communist Poland, he worked to defend the Church’s freedom to worship and serve. The priest who had studied secretly during one oppressive regime now carried responsibility for his people under another.

On October 16, 1978, the cardinals elected him pope. Taking the name John Paul II, he became the first non Italian pope in more than four centuries. At the Mass inaugurating his pontificate on October 22, he offered an appeal that would become closely associated with his life. “Do not be afraid. Open wide the doors for Christ.” He invited people and nations to welcome Christ into their lives, cultures, and societies.

His ministry carried that invitation across the world through 104 international apostolic journeys. He established World Youth Day, gathering young people around prayer and faith. His teaching defended human dignity, the rights of workers, the value of human life, and the responsibilities of love. In his
homeland, his words and example strengthened the Solidarity movement and contributed to the resistance that helped bring communist rule to an end.

Saint Theresa and Saint John Paul II

On May 13, 1981, Mehmet Ali Ağca shot and seriously wounded him in Saint Peter’s Square. John Paul II survived surgery and a long recovery. He forgave his attacker and, on December 27, 1983, visited him in Rome’s Rebibbia prison. Afterward, he explained that he had personally repeated his forgiveness. The pope’s preaching about mercy had taken a visible and deeply personal form.

Throughout his ministry, John Paul II expressed a profound devotion to Mary through his motto, Totus tuus, meaning “Totally yours.” In later years, Parkinson’s disease increasingly limited his movement and speech. The pope who had addressed immense crowds continued serving as his physical strength declined. His public suffering became part of his witness to the dignity of people living with illness and disability, and to the Christian hope that suffering can be united with Christ.

John Paul II died on April 2, 2005, on the vigil of Divine Mercy Sunday. Pope Benedict XVI beatified him on May 1, 2011, and Pope Francis canonized him on April 27, 2014. His feast day is October 22. At his canonization, Francis remembered him as the pope of the family and a witness to God’s mercy. His life had carried him from a grieving household in Poland to the service of the universal Church, continually inviting others to place their hope in Christ.

For devotional images click here: Saint John Paul II and Saint Theresa and Saint John Paul II