Pope John Paul II

Born in Wadowice, Poland, the man who would become Pope John Paul 2nd was christened Karol Józef Wojtyla decided to become a priest during World War 2, having now become the last living member of his immediate family.

He was ordained as a priest in 1946 and became Poland's youngest bishop in 1958.

By the time he became pope in 1978, Karol was a cardinal.

1978 was an extraordinary year for the Catholic Church as that year, the church had 3 popes (JP2 included). Why were there 3 popes?

Well, there were 2 popes that died within the same year. Pope Pius IX died after being pope for 31 years which resulted in the election of a new pope who was originally baptised Albino Luciani but he went with the name John Paul but he too died. The name John Paul came from Pope John XXIII and Pope Paul VI. When Karol Wojtyla chose the name John Paul as well but had II (Roman numeral for 2nd) added as he was the second pope with the John Paul name. Pope John Paul II was the first Polish and Slavic pope in history and for the first time since Dutch born Pope Adrian VI, a non Italian pope.

As pope, Pope John Paul II played an influential role in the collapse of communism in Europe. He created World Youth Day which celebrated young people of the church. He travelled to many places like the United States, the United Kingdom, Poland and Ireland. He gave Renaissance painter Fra Angelico the title of Blessed and canonised many saints like Andrew Kim Taegon, a Korean born Catholic priest and Edith Stein, a Jew who converted to Catholism and ended up dying in a World War 2 concentration camp. Pope John Paul 2nd was so popular that his birthplace became a tourist attraction and many baby boys born during his papacy were baptised John Paul. In short, Pope John Paul 2nd had a very active life and he even survived an attempt on his life.

Sadly, Pope John Paul 2nd died on 2nd April 2005. His funeral was the largest state funeral at the time, surpassing that of Josip Broz Tito in 1980. Nelson Mandela's memorial service in 2013 eventually surpassed that in size 8 years later. He became a saint because of 2 miracles. The first being the (non- medical) recovery of a French Nun who had Parkinson's Disease and the healing of a Costa Rican woman who had a brain aneurysm. He had to have 2 miracles to be canonised as a saint and now that he had them, the Church was able to canonize him by Pope Francis in 2014.