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 Pope John Paul II: 80th Birthday Scott 1153 (2000) May 18, 1920, marks the birth date for Karol Wojtyla, the future Pope John Paul II. The stamp shown above, issued during his pontificate in 2000, honored his 80th birthday. Born in the town of Wadowice, southwest of Krakow in present-day Poland, Karol was the son of a retired and pensioned army lieutenant. His mother died when he was almost nine years old. In 1938, his father moved to Krakow (the royal city of Poland) where Karol entered the Jagiellonian University as a student in Polish language and literature. He was skilled in drama and poetry. Karol also worked as a laborer in a limestone quarry. At the outbreak of World War II, he and his father fled eastward, but then returned to Krakow. His father died in 1942. Following his recovery from a near-fatal accident in the quarry (he was hit by a truck), Karol felt called to the priesthood and began studies in secret. After the war, the university reopened and Wojtyla graduated with distinction in theology. He was ordained priest on 1 November 1946 and went on to earn a doctorate at the Angelicum in Rome in 1948. After serving in various academic positions, Pope Paul VI appointed Wojtyla as Archbishop of Krakow in 1963, and in 1967 he was made a cardinal. During these years, he served as a pectus during the Second Vatican Council. Cardinal Wojtyla was elected pope at age 58 in the second Conclave of 1978 (the Year of Three Popes) and took the name John Paul II. He served as pope from 16 October 1978 until his death on 2 April 2005. Some distinctions tied to his reign: he served the third-longest papacy (after Saint Peter and Pope Pius IX), he was the first non-Italian pope in 455 years (since the papacy Hadrian VI from 1522-1523), and he was the first pope from Poland.  Centenary of Birth of Saint John Paul II Scott 1749 (2020) In addition to the stamp at the top of the article, Vatican City commemorated the centenary of the birth of Saint Pope John Paul II in 2020 with the issuance of a minisheet containing six stamps, denominated at €1.15, and six labels (two copies each of three labels). The labels pictured baby Karol with his mother, Father Karol Wojtyla with Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski (shown above), and Pope John Paul II in Saint Peter's Square. As a historical note, Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski was Archbishop of Warsaw and Archbishop of Gniezno from 1948 to 1981 and was designated the "Primate of Poland". He strongly influenced Karol Wojtyla, and is generally considered a savior of the Catholic Church in Poland as a result of his stands against Nazism and Communism. He was beatified in 2021. REFERENCES:  Centenary of Birth of Saint John Paul II Minisheet, Scott 1749M (2020) |
