Karol Wojtyła was born on May 18, 1920 in Wadowice, in southern Poland, where he lived until 1938, when he enrolled at the Faculty of Philosophy at Jagiellonian University and moved to Kraków. In the autumn of 1940 he worked as a laborer in stone mines and then in a chemical factory. In October 1942 he entered the clandestine seminary in Krakow and on November 1, 1946 he was ordained a priest. On July 4, 1958, Pius XII named him auxiliary bishop of Krakow. He received episcopal ordination on the following September 28th. As his episcopal motto he chose the Marian expression Totus tuus by Saint Louis Maria Grignion de Montfort. First as an assistant and then, from January 13, 1964, as Archbishop of Krakow, he participated in all sessions of the Second Vatican Council. On June 26, 1967, he was created cardinal by Paul VI. In 1978 he participated in the conclave called after Montini's death and the subsequent one after Luciani's unexpected death. On the afternoon of October 16, after eight votes, he was elected Pope. First Slavic Pontiff in history and first non-Italian after almost half a millennium, since the time of Hadrian VI (1522-1523). A polyhedral and charismatic personality, he immediately established himself due to his great communicative capacity and his pastoral style outside of the schemes. The temper and vigor of a relatively young age allowed him to undertake a very intense activity, paced above all by the multiplication of visits and trips: in total there were 104 international and 146 in Italy, with 129 countries visited on the five continents. From the beginning he worked to give a voice to the so-called Church of silence. The insistence on the themes of human rights and religious freedom thus became a constant in his teaching. So much so that today the relevant contribution of his actions to the vicissitudes that determined the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and the successive collapse of the philo-Soviet regimes is widely recognized. This context probably includes the very serious episode of the attack of which she was a victim on May 13, 1981 by the Turkish Ali Agca. Alongside the anti-communist polemic, a critical reading of capitalism also developed, subjected to critical analysis in three of its 14 encyclicals: Laborem exercans (1981), Sollicitudo rei socialis (1987) and Centesimus annus (1991). His activity in favor of peace was also assiduous, which is intertwined with the search for dialogue with the great religions — in particular with Judaism and Islam — and with the new impulse imprinted on the ecumenical path. In 1983 he promulgated the new Codex iuris canonici and then provided for the reform of the Roman Curia with the apostolic constitution Pastor Bonus of 1988. He also favored the dimension of episcopal collegiality in the government of the Church, especially through the convening of fifteen synods of bishops. Among the numbers of a very long pontificate — second in duration only to that of Pius IX (1846-1878) — can also be mentioned the frequent beatification and canonization ceremonies, during which 1,338 blesseds and 482 saints were proclaimed. Over the years, the Pontiff's attention focused mainly on the celebration of the great jubilee of the year 2000. The event took on a highly symbolic meaning within the scope of his pastoral mission and had a strong penitential importance, expressed in an emblematic way on the day of forgiveness (March 12). The end of the jubilee opened the conclusive phase of the pontificate, marked mainly by the progressive worsening of the Pope's health conditions, who after a long and distressing agony died on the night of April 2, 2005. 26 days after his death, Benedict XVI granted the dispensation of the prescribed five years of expectation allowing the cause for canonization to begin. And the same Pope proclaimed him blessed on May 1, 2011. The canonization ceremony was on April 27, 2014. SAINT JOHN PAUL II, pray for us!