Pope St. John XXIII

Pope Saint John XXIII (1881 – 1963)

Angelo Roncalli, destined to have one of the most important, beloved and consequential papacies in history, was born in 1881 in the Bergamo region of Lombardy.  Angelo was always proud of his humble beginnings and family heritage as “paesani” or simple people of the earth. This humility, lack of guile and devotion to family, faith and farmstead would serve him well during his long and momentous life.

Angelo followed his vocational call to the priesthood and was ordained in 1904.  Father Roncalli served in the Royal Italian Army as a stretcher bearer in World War I and witnessed firsthand the horrors of war and the wholesale destruction of human life. In 1925, against his wishes to remain a priest and seminary professor, Roncalli was consecrated bishop and appointed apostolic delegate to Turkey, where he developed close ties with the Muslim community. In his work in Bulgaria, Roncalli worked closely with the Jewish community. He was instrumental in rescuing or evacuating large numbers of Jews who would have been slaughtered in the Holocaust. His heroic work to rescue Jews during World War II, recognized by Yad Vashem and other Israeli organizations, continued with great personal risk.

In 1952, Roncalli was named Patriarch of Venice and raised to the rank of Cardinal by Pope Pius XII. In 1958, upon the death of Pope Pius XII, Roncalli traveled to Rome and the consistory…with a return train ticket to Venice. Roncalli was elected Pope and took the name of John in honor of his father. At the age of 77, it was thought he would be a harmless “transitional” pope but his vision and fire for the people of God and bringing the Church into comity with the problematic post-war world.  The conciliar goals of both “aggiornamento” (updating) and “ressourcement” (return to the sources) would change the course of history.

Aside from his revolutionary outreach to Jews, Protestants, and even Communist regimes, John convened the Second Vatican Council, which ran from 1962-1965. The work of the Council, consisting of Cardinals, Bishops, Priests and laywomen, and men from around the globe, resulted in four Constitutions, three Declarations, and nine Declarations that would reshape the Church’s mission in the modern age and be the most important religious event of the 20^th Century. Pope John XXIII did not live to see the end of the Council and the fruit of its work. He died of cancer in June 1963 and was canonized by Pope Francis in 2014. To this day, Pope Saint John is known in Italy as “Il Papa Buono,” The Good Pope.

The Saint John XXIII tile was created in 2022. Our 12" X 12" signed and numbered reproduction is created on stretch canvas and is suitable for matting and framing.