Mieczyslaw malinski biography template
•
John Paul II - Pre-Pontificate Years (1920-1978)
The Early Years in Wadowice
Karol (Charles) Jósef Wojtyła was born in Wadowice (Kraków), Poland on May 18, 1920. His father was also Karol (1879-1941), a lieutenant in the Polish army and son of Maciej and Anna Wojtyła of Lipnik. His mother was Emilia (1884-1929), daughter of Feliks and Anna Kaczorowska of Kraków. He also had an older brother Edmund, born on August 27, 1906, who would go on to become a doctor in Bielsko, and a sister, Olga, who died before he was born.
Karol was baptized on June 20, 1920 by Fr. Franciszek Zak, a chaplain in the Polish Army. In 1926 he began his elementary schooling, in the midst of which at age 9 his mother died (April 13, 1929), the first of several such crosses he would experience as a child and young man. From 1930 to 1938 he studied at the State Secondary School "Marcin Wadowita" (today called "Emil Zegadlowicz"). Important events of this period include the death of his brother on December 5, 1932, his first theatrical performances, the reception of the Sacrament of Confirmation in May 1938, and he and his father's move to an apartment in Kraków (summer of 1938).
Young Karol Impresses the Archbishop of Krakow
In Pope John Paul II: The Life of Karol Wojtyła, his friend Fr. Mi
•
Jan Guides a Young Karol in the Rosary |
VENERABLE JAN TYRANOWSKI (1900-470) was a Catholic layman, student of Discalced Carmelite spirituality, and central figure in the spiritual formation of the young Karol Wojtyla, who became (St.)Pope John Paul II. He was the youth leader and student mentor of Karol Wojtyla's university parish, St. Stanislaus Kostka, in the 1940s. He trained as an accountant, but.supported himself and his mother by working as a tailor.
He was a man with an extraordinary prayer life, devoting four hours every morning to meditation as well as other prayer periods through the day. Karol began attending weekly meetings which Jan entitled the Living Rosary. At these gatherings he introduced his new band of disciples to a brand of religion that was deeply mystical, and encouraged them to apply it to every area of their lives. He called them to a strict discipline and recommended that they keep a diary with a view to bringing God directly into every moment of their day.
Karol, initially, found the man almost unbearably intense, but gradually came to see something of profound import in Jan. Later in life Karol Wojtyla stated that "What he tried t
•
NEWS: September 5, 2006 Atila Sinke Guimarães
|