His mother died of kidney failure and congenital heart disease in 1929. On hearing about her death, he composed himself and said, "It was God's will." After Emilia's death, his father, an intensely religious man who did most of the housework, brought up Karol so that he could study. His youth was marked by intensive contacts with the then-thriving Jewish community of Wadowice.

His brother Edmund, also known as Mundek, died of scarlet fever contracted from a patient at the age of 26 in 1932. His only other sibling, a sister, died in infancy before Karol was born.

In the summer of 1938, Karol Wojtyla and his father left Wadowice and moved to Kraków where Lolek enrolled at the Jagiellonian University in the autumn (fall) semester. In his freshman year, Lolek studied Philology, Polish language and literature, introductory Russian, and Old Church Slavonic. He also took private lessons in French. He worked as a volunteer librarian and did compulsory military training in the Academic Legion. At the end of the 1938-39 academic year, he played Sagittarius in a fantasy-fable, The Moonlight Cavalier, produced by an experimental theatre troupe.

In his youth he was an athlete, actor, and playwright, and learned as many as eleven languages.

In September 1939, Germany invaded Poland, and the country was subsequently occupied by German and Soviet forces. At the outbreak of War, Karol and his father fled eastwards from Kraków with thousands of other Poles. They sometimes found themselves in ditches, taking cover from strafing Luftwaffe aircraft. After walking 120 miles, they learned of the Russian invasion of Poland and were obliged to return to Kraków. In November, 184 academics of the Jagiellonian University were arrested and the university suppressed. All able-bodied males had to have a job. In the first year of the war Karol worked as a messenger for a restaurant. This light work enabled him to continue his education and theatrical career and in acts of cultural resistance. He also intensified his study of French. From the autumn of 1940 Karol worked for almost four years as a manual labourer in a limestone quarry, and was well paid. His father died in 1941. In 1942, he entered the underground seminary run by Cardinal Sapieha, the archbishop of Kraków. B'nai B'rith and other authorities have testified that he helped Jews find refuge from the Nazis. On 29 February 1944, Karol was walking home from work at the quarry when he was knocked down by a German truck, was unconscious and spent two weeks in hospital. He suffered severe concussion, numerous cuts and a shoulder injury. In August 1944, the Warsaw uprising began, and the Gestapo swept the city of Kraków on 6 August, "Black Sunday", rounding up young men to avoid a similar uprising there. Wojtyla escaped by hiding behind a door as the Gestapo searched the house he lived in, and escaped to the Archbishop's residence, where he stayed until after the war. On the night of 17 January 1945, the Germans quit the city. The seminarians reclaimed the old seminary, which was in ruins.

After the Russian liberation of Poland in early 1945, Wojtyla returned to study openly at University and after graduating with distinction, he was ordained a priest on 1 November 1946.

Wojtyla rose through the ranks of Catholic clergy to become Archbishop of Krakow on 30 December 1963. He became a cardinal on 26 June 1967.

The inauguration of his ministry as Pope John Paul II took place on 21 October 1978. He was elected, reportedly, after the eighth ballot.

In stark contrast to his predecessor, Pope John Paul, who died after only 33 days in office, Pope John Paul II, in spite of various medical problems, was one of longest reigning Popes in history. Only two other popes - three including St Peter - have reigned longer than Wojtyla.

Because of Pope John Paul II's longevity, John Paul himself had appointed 115 of the 118 cardinals that voted to elect his successor, Joseph Ratzinger, who took the name Pope Benedict XVI.

In fact, Pope John Paul II actually outlived many of the cardinals he created. In total he had created 231 (+ 1 in pectore) cardinals.

More significant is the extraordinary number of saints that Pope John Paul II created. The Vatican estimate that 285 saints had been proclaimed by all of John Paul II's 263 predecessors combined, whereas he, by himself, since becoming Pope proclaimed 482 saints and set in motion another 1,338 people by beatifying them.

Pope John Paul II was the subject of a failed assassination attempt when on 13 May 1981 he was shot and seriously wounded by a Mehmet al-Agca, a Turkish fanatic, in St Peter's Square.

The Pope said of his attacker:

"In the context of Christmas and the Holy Year of Redemption, I was able to meet with the person that you all know by name, Ali Agca, who in the year 1981 on 13 May made an attempt on my life.

"But Providence took things in its own hands, in what I would call an extraordinary way, so that today I was able to meet my assailant and repeat to him the pardon I gave him immediately."

He is famous for having travelled widely, visiting over 100 countries, and trying to be close to the people. On the other hand he has pursued a 'conservative' agenda in his speeches about divorce, abortion, and homosexual unions. Many eminent theologians have had their license to teach withdrawn, after publishing 'unacceptable views' on subjects like papal infallibility and contraception.

Under Pope John Paul II's leadership the Catholic Church has taken a more active role in world affairs. In 1990 he established diplomatic relations for the first time with the Soviet Union, and in 1993 he recognized the State of Israel.

An interesting quote from Pope John Paul II is:

"Science can purify religion from error and superstition. Religion can purify science from idolatry and false absolutes." (1987)