Papa Giovanni Paolo II

Karol Józef Wojtyła was born in Wadowice, Poland, on 18 May 1920. In 1938 he enrolled at the Jagiellonian University in Kraków; during the war he studied in the clandestine seminary and was ordained a priest in Kraków on 1 November 1946. In Rome he earned a doctorate in theology in 1948, with a thesis on faith in Saint John of the Cross. Back in Poland he served as an assistant parish priest, chaplain to university students and then professor of moral theology and ethics in Kraków and Lublin. On 4 July 1958 Pius XII appointed him Auxiliary Bishop of Kraków and Titular Bishop of Ombi; he was ordained bishop on 28 September 1958 in Wawel Cathedral. On 13 January 1964 Paul VI appointed him Archbishop of Kraków and on 26 June 1967 created him a cardinal, with the title of San Cesareo in Palatio. He took part in the Second Vatican Council. Elected Pope on 16 October 1978, he began his Petrine ministry on 22 October. On 13 May 1981 he was seriously wounded in an assassination attempt in St Peter's Square. During his pontificate he made 104 apostolic journeys, promulgated the Catechism of the Catholic Church and the Latin and Eastern Codes of Canon Law, proclaimed the Great Jubilee of 2000 and instituted World Youth Day. He died in the Apostolic Palace on 2 April 2005. Benedict XVI beatified him on 1 May 2011; Pope Francis canonized him on 27 April 2014.