When white smoke rose over the Sistine Chapel in October 1978, the announcement left the Roman crowd puzzled: the new pope's name was nearly unpronounceable in Italian. Karol Wojtyła of Kraków was the first non-Italian pope in 455 years — and, for Poles living under communism, an earthquake.
Eight months later he stood in Warsaw's Victory Square before hundreds of thousands of people and prayed: 'Let your Spirit descend and renew the face of the earth. Of this earth.' Everyone understood exactly which earth he meant. Many historians date the beginning of the end of communism to that sermon.
Actor, Worker, Priest
Karol Wojtyła was born in Wadowice, near Kraków, in 1920. By the age of twenty he had lost his mother, his brother, and his father. Under the Nazi occupation he worked in a limestone quarry and a chemical plant while performing in a clandestine theatre — acting in whispered plays for which discovery could have meant deportation.
In 1942 he entered Kraków's secret underground seminary, and was ordained in 1946. Long before Rome, he was known as a hiking, kayaking, skiing priest whose students simply called him 'Wujek' — Uncle.
From Kraków to Rome
As archbishop of Kraków from 1964 and cardinal from 1967, Wojtyła became a subtle but relentless opponent of the regime — famously battling for years to build a church in Nowa Huta, the steel town designed to be a model socialist city without God.
On 16 October 1978 the cardinals elected him pope. He took the name John Paul II and opened his pontificate with words that became his signature: 'Be not afraid!'
Nine Days That Shook Communism
In June 1979 he returned to Poland as pope — a visit the regime could not refuse. Over nine days, millions saw him in person; for the first time in decades, Poles could count themselves and see they were not alone. Fourteen months later, Solidarity was born, its leaders openly inspired by him.
He survived an assassination attempt in St Peter's Square in 1981 — and later visited his shooter in prison to forgive him. He became the most-travelled pope in history, visiting 129 countries before his death on 2 April 2005. He was declared a saint in 2014.
Be not afraid!
Curious Facts
- He was the first non-Italian pope in 455 years and, at 58, the youngest of the twentieth century.
- As a boy in Wadowice he played football as a goalkeeper — often for the local Jewish team.
- He visited 129 countries, including Brazil several times — more than all previous popes combined.
- After he casually reminisced about the kremówka cream cakes of Wadowice, the pastry became a national phenomenon.
- His 1979 sermon in Warsaw — 'renew the face of this earth' — is credited by historians as a spark for the Solidarity movement.
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