Novena to St. John Paul II

St. John Paul II (1920-2005), born Karol Józef Wojtyła in Wadowice, Poland, was the 264th Pope of the Catholic Church (1978-2005), the first non-Italian pope in 455 years, and one of the most consequential religious figures of the twentieth century. His pontificate of nearly twenty-seven years was the second-longest in Church history. He survived the Nazi occupation of Poland (working in a quarry and studying for the priesthood clandestinely), the Communist regime, and a 1981 assassination attempt in St. Peter's Square — surviving in part, he believed, through the intercession of Our Lady of Fatima on her feast day. His role in the peaceful end of European Communism, his nine apostolic visits to his native Poland, his catechesis on the Theology of the Body, his founding of World Youth Day (1985), and his 1,338 beatifications + 482 canonizations — more than all previous popes combined — reshaped the global Catholic Church. He was a poet, a philosopher (his pre-papal academic work on phenomenology of personhood remains influential), and a Marian — his episcopal motto was 'Totus Tuus' ('Totally Yours,' to Mary). He died on April 2, 2005, the eve of Divine Mercy Sunday — fittingly, given his deep devotion to St. Faustina and his establishment of the feast. Pope Francis canonized him on April 27, 2014, alongside Pope John XXIII, in a ceremony attended by some 800,000 people in Rome. The novena to St. John Paul II is appropriate for: any youth in spiritual struggle (he was the founder of World Youth Day), marriages and family healing (his Theology of the Body is the contemporary Catholic catechesis on marriage), vocational discernment toward priesthood or religious life, courage in suffering (his Parkinson's-marked final years are themselves a teaching on dying well), and the conversion of nations or political situations (his witness during Communist Poland is the model).