Celebrating the feast day of Pope St John Paul II

The feast day of Saint John Paul II is coming up on Thursday, October 22. Having officially been made a saint two years ago, this will be the second time celebrating St John Paul’s feast day. Born Karol Józef Wojtyla on May 18, 1920, in Wadowice, Poland, he was the first non-Italian Pope in more than 400 years since the Dutch Pope Adrian VI. He would go on to be the second longest-serving Pope in modern history after Pope Pius IX, who served for nearly 32 years from 1846 to 1878.

Throughout his vocation and his papacy, he achieved a great deal; he visited more than 100 countries to spread his message of faith and peace, and he initiated World Youth Day in 1985. 

For this, along with Mother Teresa of Calcutta, he is sometimes referred to as the patron saint of the celebration. He was known as a prominent member of the Second Vatican Council and helped the Church to examine its position in the world. 

John Paul often spoke out on many human rights topics, but he is well known for using his influence to bring about political change and is credited with the fall of communism in his native Poland.

Traditionally, canonisation is a lengthy process. It requires proof that the person elected for canonisation lived and died in such a holy way that he or she is worthy to be recognised as a saint. 

St John Paul II’s cause for canonisation, however, began just one month after his death on April 2, 2005. In 2011, he was beatified by Pope Benedecit XVI and the date of his canonisation was announced two years ago by Pope Francis after the Vatican revealed that two miracles were attributed to him. 

Disease

The first miracle involved Sr Marie Simon-Pierre Normand, a dying French nun with Parkinson’s disease, the same illness that St John Paul II suffered from. After praying to John Paul during her battle with the disease, she was cured. 

The second miracle involved a 50-year-old woman, who claimed to have been cured of a brain aneurysm after a photograph of Pope John Paul II spoke to her. 

After his death, people started referring to him as John Paul the Great, only the fourth Pope ever to be labelled so and the first Pope since the first millennium.