Description
EVEN MORE BEAUTIFUL IN PERSON:)
Pope Saint John Paul II was Pope from 1978 to 2005. He is
called by some Catholics Saint John Paul the Great.Karol J. Wojtyla, known as John Paul II since
his October 1978 election to the papacy, was born in Wadowice, a small city 50
kilometres from Cracow, on May 18, 1920.
In 1942, aware of his call to the priesthood,
he began courses in the clandestine seminary of Cracow, run by Cardinal Adam
Stefan Sapieha, archbishop of Cracow.
Soon after, Cardinal Sapieha sent him to Rome
where he worked under the guidance of the French Dominican, Garrigou-Lagrange.
He finished his doctorate in theology in 1948 with a thesis on the topic of
faith in the works of St. John of the Cross.
In 1948 he returned to Poland and was vicar of
various parishes in Cracow as well as chaplain for the university students
until 1951, when he took up again his studies on philosophy and theology.
On July 4, 1958, he was appointed Auxiliary
Bishop of Cracow by Pope Pius XII, and was consecrated September 28, 1958, in
Wawel Cathedral, Cracow, by Archbishop Baziak.
The prayers that essentially compose the Rosary are arranged in sets of ten Hail Marys with each set preceded by one Lord's Prayer and followed by one Glory Be. During recitation of each set, known as a decade, thought is given to one of the Mysteries of the Rosary, which recall events in the lives of Jesus and Mary. Normally, five decades are recited in a session. Other prayers are sometimes added after each decade (in particular, the Fátima Prayer) and before (in particular, the Apostles' Creed), and after (in particular, the Hail, Holy Queen) the five decades taken as a whole. The rosary as a material object is an aid towards saying these prayers in the proper sequence.
