Pope John Paul II, by his own name Karol Wojtyla, was undoubtedly the most popular pope of the 20th century. He also visited Olomouc during his numerous foreign trips. In May 1995, he proclaimed Blessed John Sarkander and Blessed Zdislava as saints. He visited the cathedral and the pilgrimage church on St. Kopecek, which he elevated to the Basilica Minor.
Wojtyla was born in the town of Wadowice near Krakow in 1920. He studied at the Jagiellonian University in Krakow. During the war he worked as a labourer in a stone quarry to avoid forced labour in Germany. In 1946 he was ordained a priest and went to Rome to study. He became a cardinal at the age of 47, making him the youngest member of the College of Cardinals. His election as Pope in 1978 was a great surprise to the world. After 455 years during which only Italians had been elected to lead the Catholic Church, a Polish cardinal was elected, the first pope of Slavic origin, and from a country in the totalitarian Eastern Bloc.
Pope John Paul II was famous for his efforts to bring the Christian churches closer together ecumenically. John Paul II was a great traveller. He visited more than a hundred countries on every continent. During his travels he paid special attention to sick people and young people. In 1990 he visited Czechoslovakia for the first time after the fall of the totalitarian regime. During this trip he visited Prague, the Moravian Velehrad and Bratislava. John Paul II’s pontificate lasted nearly 30 years. The Pope died in Rome on 2 April 2005.
John Paul II in Olomouc
John Paul II visited the Czech Republic again in May 1995. After his visit to Prague, he went on to Olomouc, where canonization celebrations were held on the occasion of the canonization of Blessed John Sarkander, patron saint of Moravia and martyred priest, and Blessed Zdislava of Lemberg. After the open-air Mass in Olomouc-Neředín, he visited St. Wenceslas Cathedral and then headed to Svatý Kopeček near Olomouc, where a meeting with young people took place in front of the Church of the Visitation of the Virgin Mary.
