Saint John Paul II was born Karol Wojtyła in 1920 in Wadowice, Poland. He lost his mother and brother as a child and his father as a young man. During the Nazi occupation he worked in a quarry and a factory while studying in a clandestine seminary, and he was ordained a priest in 1946.

After serving as archbishop and cardinal of Kraków, he was elected pope in 1978, the first non-Italian pope in 455 years. With the words Be not afraid, he travelled the world preaching the Gospel, began World Youth Day and, after being shot in 1981, visited and forgave his attacker. The Catechism of the Catholic Church was promulgated during his pontificate, and in 1984 he visited Korea and canonized the 103 Korean martyrs.

He died in 2005 and was canonized in 2014. The Church remembers him on October 22, the anniversary of his inauguration as pope.