Calendar of Saints: Pope John XXIII (1)

Twice a week I post a quote from a saint from the Episcopal Calendar of Saints that week. They are to be meditative and mindful, playful and thought inducing. I hope they are helpful in your spiritual journeys.

John XXIII (Angelo Guiseppe Roncalli)
Bishop of Rome, 1963
June 4

Pope John XXIII, born Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli (25 November 1881 – 3 June 1963), was elected as the 261st Pope of the Roman Catholic Church and Sovereign of Vatican City on 28 October 1958.

He called the Second Vatican Council (1962–1965) but did not live to see it to completion, dying on 3 June 1963, two months after the completion of his final encyclical, Pacem in Terris.

Following the death of Pope Pius XII in 1958, Roncalli, then Archishop of Venice, was elected Pope, to his great surprise. After the long pontificate of Pope Pius XII, the cardinals chose a man who, it was presumed because of his advanced age, would be a short-term or "stop-gap" pope. Upon his election, Cardinal Roncalli chose John as his regnal name. This was the first time in over 500 years that this name had been chosen. John XXIII's personal warmth, good humor and kindness captured the world's affections in a way his predecessor, for all his learning, had failed to do.

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