2 Euro 2020. Vatican. Centenary of the birth of Saint John Paul II

Karol Jozef Wojtyla was born on may 18 1920 in Wadowice near Krakow.

May 18, 2020 marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of Pope John Paul II-Karol Jozef Wojtyla.

Poland (where Jozef grew up), which three neighboring States – Prussia, Russia and Austria – divided and occupied for more than a hundred years, gained independence after the First world war. This was an event that raised great hopes, but also required a lot of effort, because the newly organizing state was constantly feeling the pressure of both powers – Germany and Russia.

In order to protect himself from being deported to forced labor in Germany, in the fall of 1940, he began working as an employee in a career associated with a chemical labor in Solvay.

In the autumn of 1942, He made the final decision to join the Krakow Seminary, which was secretly organized by Archbishop Sapieha of Krakow in his residence. As a factory worker, he began to study theology with the help of old books, so on November 1, 1946, he was ordained a priest.

Nevertheless, he learned theology not only from books, but also through the experience of the especially difficult situation in which he and his country were placed. So for him, as a young Bishop – since 1958 an auxiliary Bishop, and since 1964 an Archbishop of Cracow – the Second Vatican Council is the school of his entire life and work. The answers worked out at the Council showed him the way to work as a Bishop and then as a Pope.