Before he was pope, he worked in a stone quarry under Nazi occupation. By the time he died, he'd outlasted the Cold War he helped end.
Breaking a 455-year pattern
When Cardinal Karol Wojtyła of Kraków was elected in October 1978, he became the first non-Italian pope since 1523 — and, at 58, one of the youngest of the 20th century.
Shot in St. Peter's Square
On 13 May 1981, Mehmet Ali Ağca shot him four times in St. Peter's Square during a general audience. He survived after emergency surgery and later visited his would-be assassin in prison to forgive him in person.
A pope who helped end the Cold War
His 1979 return to communist Poland, and the moral support he lent to the Solidarity movement, are widely credited as a catalyst in the eventual collapse of Soviet-backed rule across Eastern Europe.
Canonized within a decade
He died on 2 April 2005 after more than 26 years as pope — the second-longest reign in history — and was canonized as a saint in 2014.
