Karol J. Wojtyla, later known as John Paul II, was born in Wadowice, a small city 50 kilometres from Krakow, Poland, on May 18, 1920. He was the second of two sons born to Karol Wojtyla and Emilia Kaczorowska. He was given a nickname by his friends, "Lolek."

The Wojtylas were faithful Catholics. They rejected the growing anti-Semiticism among some Poles in that troubled time.

The young Karol had a special love for the Jewish people. It was demonstrated dramatically during his Papacy when he visited the Central Synagogue of Rome and condemned anti-Semitism "at any time and by anyone." He was fond of regularly referring to the Jewish people as "our elder brothers" and taught the whole Church to do the same.

Karol developed the skills of theatrical performance, writing poetry and public speaking at a very young age. When Cardinal Adam Sapieha, the Archbishop of Krakow visited the school of Karol and was impressed with his speaking skills asked the pastor of the parish whether young Karol had considered the priesthood.

Karol enrolled in Jagiellonian University in the fall of 1938. When the Nazi occupation forces closed the University in 1939, Karol had to work in a quarry and then in the Solvay chemical factory to earn his living and to avoid being deported to Germany.

During this time Karol Wojtyla came to know Jan Tryanowski, a young Catholic layman and youth leader at St. Stanislaus Kostka parish in the 1940s. This tailor Jan Tryanowski was a mystic, a man of deep prayer, who studied the writings of St John of the Cross and spirituality of St. Teresa of Avila with great intensity. This young layman Jan had an extraordinary impact on Karol's life. He may have also contributed to the future Pope's lifelong conviction concerning the call of the lay faithful to fully participate in the mission of the Church. His influence helped to set the future Pope on a path which not only changed him but would change the whole world through him.

In 1942, aware of his call to the priesthood, he began courses in the clandestine seminary of Krakow, run by Cardinal Adam Stefan Sapieha. After the Second World War, he continued his studies in the major seminary of Krakow, once it had re-opened, and in the faculty of theology of the Jagiellonian University, until his priestly ordination in Krakow on November 1, 1946.

Fr. Karol Wojtyla then entered into graduate studies at the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas in Rome. The influence of Jan Tryanowski was still bearing fruit in the life and thought of Fr. Karol Wojtyla. He undertook a dissertation on the topic "The Problem of Faith in the Works of St. John of the Cross." Karol gained a doctorate in theology in 1948. At that time, during his vacations, he exercised his pastoral ministry among the Polish immigrants of France, Belgium and Holland.

In 1948 he returned to Poland and was vicar of various parishes in Krakow. Later he became professor of moral philosophy and social ethics in the major seminary of Krakow and in the faculty of philosophy at the Catholic University of Lubin.

On July 4, 1958, he was appointed Auxiliary Bishop of Krakow by Pope Pius XII, and was consecrated on September 28, 1958, in Wawel Cathedral, Cracow, by Archbishop Baziak.

Pope John XXIII appointed Bishop Wojtyla to become Bishop of Krakow. However, as a result of the political unrest of Poland, he was not officially appointed until 1964 by Pope Paul VI and was formally installed on March 8, 1964. He was elevated to the office Cardinal by the same Pope Paul VI on May 29, 1967.

On October 16, 1978, the Cardinals gathered under the guidance of the Holy Spirit and chose Karol Cardinal Wojtyla as the 263rd successor to the Apostle Peter. He took the name John Paul II.

This mountain climbing Polish Pope was so filled with the love of God it was contagious. A talented and gifted "man of letters", a playwright, a philosopher, an intellectual giant, a poet, but more importantly, a genuine human being with a heart that embraced the whole world, like the Heart of the One whom he represents on earth. He truly has been the "Vicar of Christ", representing the Lord, the King of Kings, for so many millions throughout the world.

Like a lion in Peter's chair, he consistently and tirelessly lived what he boldly proclaimed with great courage. Unafraid, he traversed the globe, proclaiming freedom to the captives and truth to the victims of failed false ideologies that had ravaged the people of the twentieth century, the bloodiest in all of human history.

Communism, atheism, secularism, false humanisms... have now all been exposed in both their empty promises and the horrors that they unleashed in the wake of their false utopian claims. This Pope proclaimed that the "Redeemer of Man" (the title of his first encyclical letter), Jesus Christ, is the path to authentic personal, social and universal freedom! He authored more encyclical letters, apostolic exhortations, constitutions and letters than any Pope in the two-thousand-year history of the Christian Church.

He meticulously and brilliantly developed themes during his service to the Church and the world. Among them; "The Culture of Life", "The Civilization of Love", "The New Evangelization", "The New Springtime of world missions ", "The Universal Call to holiness"; "Christian Marriage and family life as a domestic church"; "A Spirituality of Communion"; "The Theology of the Body"; "The Common Good"; "The Unity of Life"; "The New Humanism"; "The New feminism and the Feminine Genius"; "The Two Lungs of East and West"; " Catholic Action", and a "New Advent" for all of humanity in Jesus Christ.

Pope John Paul II is remembered in history as an Apostle of life, a promoter of peace, a champion of freedom, a healer of divisions and a man of living faith due to his courageous stance, views and interventions in various problems facing the world, and through his life examples as well.

On April 2, at 9.37 p.m., the Octave of Easter and the Vigil of Divine Mercy Sunday, he died, falling to the ground as a grain of wheat in imitation of the Lord whom He loved and served so well.

During the Canonization Mass celebrated by Pope Francis and Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, Pope John Paul II was canonized alongside Pope John XXIII on April 27, 2014, Divine Mercy Sunday.

Other Saints of the Day
1. Saint Abercius Marcellus
2. Saint Alodia
3. Saint Benedict of Macerac
4. Saint Bertharius
5. Saint Philip