St. Pope John Paul II

Feast Day: October 22

John Paul II was born as Karol Jozef Wojtyla in Poland. He became the first non-Italian pope in over 450 years. He traveled more than any other pope before him.

An athlete, actor and playwright in his youth, Karol Wojtyla was ordained a priest in 1946. John Paul II became Pope on 16 October 1978.

He was pope for 27 years, making him the second longest serving pope. On the day that he officially became Pope, he spoke to people in Italian, English, German, French, Spanish, Czech and Portuguese.

In 1984 John Paul II started World Youth Day which was first held in Rome and attended by about 300,000 people. He is also remembered for canonizing almost 500 people to be saints and being "The Pope of the Family."