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<img height='250' src='http://vaticanstamps.org/VPS/images/296/1531.jpg'> 
Pope John XXIII: 
50th Anniversary of Death 
Scott 1531 (2013)</center>
 
Pope John XXIII died on 3 June 1963. Beatified in 2000 (by Pope John Paul II) and canonized in 2014 (coincidentally, along with John Paul II) by Pope Francis, Pope Saint John XXIII has been extensively covered in Daily Emails and in Vatican Notes. Today we present a brief history of this 20th century pope on the anniversary of his death.
 
Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli was born 25 November, 1881, the eldest son and third child in a family of 14 children. The Roncalli family were sharecroppers in Sotto il Monte, Bergamo, a part of Lombardy. Historian J.N.D. Kelly describes the family as "frugal peasant farmers".
 
Roncalli took vows as a Franciscan in 1897, completed a doctorate in canon law, and was ordained a priest in 1904. He initially served as secretary to the Bishop of Bergamo and lectured in the diocesan seminary. During the First World War, Roncalli was conscripted into the Italian Army and served as a stretcher-bearer and chaplain and served as spiritual director for the seminary after the war.
 
Pope Benedict XV appointed Roncalli as secretary of the Italian Society for the Propagation of the Faith in 1921. During this time, Roncalli published a biography of Saint Charles Borromeo (1558-1584), whom he greatly admired. His research was conducted primarily at the Biblioteca Ambrosiana in Milan, which was headed by Achille Ratti, the future Pope Pius XI (who reigned as pope from 1922 to 1939).
 
Beginning in 1925, Roncalli embarked upon service in the Hoy See’s diplomatic corps, serving in Bulgaria, Turkey, and Greece. After World War II, he was stationed in France serving as a titular bishop. In 1953 Roncalli was created Cardinal-Priest and Patriarch of Venice. At age 77, he was elected pope on 28 October 1958 taking the name John XXIII after the death of Pope Pius XII on 9 October. The papal name "John" is the most common taken by popes over the centuries, but it had not been used since it was taken by Antipope John XXIII in 1410, more than 500 years earlier.
 
Unlike most saints, whose feast days commonly fall on their dates of death, the Feast of Saint Pope John XXIII falls on October 11. This is the date of the opening of the Second Vatican Council in 1962, the event called by Pope John XXIII during his pontificate and concluded following his death during the reign of Pope Paul VI.
 
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<img height='350' src='http://vaticanstamps.org/VPS/images/296/1531M.jpg'> 
Pope John XXIII: 
50th Anniversary of Death 
Minisheet (Scott 1531M, 2013)</center>
 
REFERENCES: 
<li>J.N.D. Kelly, Oxford Dictionary of Popes 
<li>UFN, June 12, 2013, <a href='https://vaticanstamps.org/UFN/images/2013-2-09-1.jpg'>50th Anniversary of the Death of John XXIII</a> 
<li>Vatican Philatelic Society website, www.vaticanstamps.org, Stamp Database Search

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