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The fourth of fourteen children born to a family of sharecroppers who lived in a village in Lombardy.
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At the age of 23 he was ordained into Priesthood, later served as the secretary to the bishop of Bergamo.
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Served as hospital orderly. With the entry of Italy into World War I in 1915 he was recalled to military service as a chaplain.
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On leaving the service in 1918 he was appointed spiritual director of the seminary, but found time to open a hostel for students in Bergamo.
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In 1921 he was called to Rome to reorganize the Society for the Propagation of the Faith
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Transferred in 1934 to Turkey and Greece as apostolic delegate, he set up an office in Istanbul for locating prisoners of war.
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Transferred to Istanbul, from where, during the war years, he helped Jews in Hungary and other countries to get false certificates enabling them to escape the Holocaust.
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Pope Pius XII elevates him to the rank of cardinal and names him patriarch of Venice.
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Elected pope after many ballots, a compromise candidate.
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Calls the Second Vatican Council to modernise the Church. This was the turning point of the Church.
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In 1962 John XXIII called the Second Vatican Council, which lasted until 1965. It was to be one of the most significant councils in the history of the Catholic Church, and its influence extended across the whole Christian faith
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Dies after a battle with stomach cancer.
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John XXIII is affectionately remembered as ‘the good pope’ and was beatified on 3 September 2000.
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He was canonised by Pope Francis on 27th April 2014 and his feast day is celebrated on June 3. John XXIII was not just a leader to the Roman Catholic Church – he is recognised as a ‘renewer of the church’ by both the Anglican and Lutheran churches.
