Pope John Paul II Author: Jakub Dobisiak

WHO was he? John Paul II (Karol Wojtyła 18 May 1920 – 2 April 2005), reigned as a Pope of the Catholic Church from 1978 until his death in 2005. He was the second-longest serving Pope in history and the first non-Italian since 1523.

His biography Karol Józef Wojtyła was born in the Polish town of Wadowice and he was the youngest of three children of Karol Wojtyła and Emilia Kaczorowska. Emilia died on 13 April 1929, when Karol was eight years old, and his father died of a heart attack in 1941.

As a boy, Wojtyła was athletic, often playing football as a goalkeeper As a boy, Wojtyła was athletic, often playing football as a goalkeeper. In 1938, he and his father left Wadowice and moved to Kraków, where he started studying at Jagiellonian University. In October 1942 he started studying for the priesthood at the Archbishop's Palace in Kraków. After finishing his studies at the seminary in Kraków, Wojtyła was ordained as a priest on 1 November 1946 by the Archbishop of Kraków, Cardinal Sapieha.

At the age of 38, Wojtyła became the youngest bishop in Poland At the age of 38, Wojtyła became the youngest bishop in Poland. On 26 June 1967, PaulVI announced Archbishop Karol Wojtyła's promotion to the Sacred College of Cardinals. Wojtyła was named Cardinal-Priest of the titulus of San Cesareo in Palatio.

In August 1978, following the death of Pope Paul VI, Cardinal Wojtyła voted in the Papal conclave which elected Pope John Paul I, who at 65 was considered to be to young by papal standards. John Paul I died after only 33 days as Pope, triggering another conclave.

At the day of 16 october 1978 The second conclave of 1978 started on 14 October, ten days after the funeral. Wojtyła became the 264th Pope according to the chronological list of popes, the first non-Italian in 455 years. At only 58 years of age, he was the youngest pope since Pope Pius IX in 1846, who was 54.

As he entered St. Peter's Square to address an audience on 13 May 1981, Pope John Paul II was shot and critically wounded by Mehmet Ali Ağca, an expert Turkish gunman who was a member of the militant fascist group Grey Wolves.

Ağca was caught and restrained by a nun and other bystanders until police arrived. He was sentenced to life imprisonment. Two days after Christmas in 1983, John Paul II visited Ağca in prison. John Paul II and Ağca spoke privately for about twenty minutes. John Paul II said, "What we talked about will have to remain a secret between him and me. I spoke to him as a brother whom I have pardoned and who has my complete trust.″

On 31 March 2005 following a urinary tract infection, Pope John Paul II developed septic shock, a form of infection with a high fever and low blood pressure, but was not hospitalised. Instead, he was monitored by a team of consultants at his private residence.

On Saturday 2 April 2005, at about 15:30 John Paul II spoke his final words, "Pozwólcie mi odejść do domu Ojca", ("Let me depart to the house of the Father"), to his aides, and fell into a coma about four hours later. He died in his private apartment, at 21:37, 46 days short of his 85th birthday.

On 8 April funeral took place, it was the single largest gathering of heads of state in history, there was four kings, five queens, at least 70 presidents and prime ministers, and more than 14 leaders of other religions, four million mourners gathering in Rome and between 250,000 and 300,000 watched the event from within the Vatican walls

On 1 May 2011 John Paul II, has been beatified at a ceremony at the Vatican in front of hundreds of thousands of Catholic faithful. On 3 May 2011 Blessed Pope John Paul II was given a new resting place in the marble altar in Pier Paolo Cristofari's Chapel of St. Sebastian, which is where Pope Innocent XI was buried.

Number of apostolic trips of John Paul II

Title "the Great" After the death of the Pope began to add his new nickname, calling him John Paul the Great. This nickname appeared for the first time in a homily delivered by Cardinal Angelo Sodano during the funeral Mass in St. Peter on Sunday 3 April 2005, in the publications „Tygodnik Powszechny” aand publications of largest U.S. television station.

Some miracles of Pope John Paul 2 Rafał from Lubaczów - 16-year-old Raphael, suffering from cancer of the lymph nodes sought an audience with the John Paul II. His request was granted on 1 July 2004, the boy took part in a private audience. During that audience, he conversation with Pope. As it turned out, several months after Raphael recovered.

Francesco A native of Italy, Francesco suffered from chronic fatigue and was constantly plagued by infections. In 2002, when the boy was 9 years old, with his mother took part in the Mass celebrated by Pope John Paul II. During the visit, Pope blessed the child. After leaving the chapel, all the symptoms subsided, and Francesco said that fatigue has passed.

John Paul Lieo John Paul Lieo a boy who was born in Canada. He came into the world through the blessing that his mother was granted by Pope John Paul II. Living in Canada for years Lieo you couldn’t get pregnant. During an audience with Pope John Paul II she spoke about her problem. The Pope blessed her and assured of their prayers. He assured that soon will come to the desired offspring. And so it happened. Ms. Lieo born a son whom she named in honor of Pope John Paul.

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