portraitsofsaints: Happy Feast Day Pope St. John XXIII1881-1963Feast Day: October 11Patronage: Papal
portraitsofsaints: Happy Feast Day Pope St. John XXIII1881-1963Feast Day: October 11Patronage: Papal Delegates, Patriachary of Venice, Second Vatican CouncilCanonized 2014Pope John XXIII, affectionally called “The Good Pope”, was born to a large poor sharecropping family. He graduated from college with a doctorate in theology and was ordained a priest in 1904. In 1914 he was drafted into the Italian army and served as a chaplain and stretcher-bearer. Throughout his career, he worked in many church programs including the Society for the Propagation of the Faith, saved thousands of Jews during WWII, was named “Righteous Gentile”, nuncio in France, and Apostolic delegate to Bulgaria, Greece, and Turkey. In 1958 he was unexpectedly elected Pope and in 1962, he called an ecumenical council (Vatican II). He died of stomach cancer in 1963.{website} -- source link