Hundredth birthday of Saint John Paul II

Today we are celebrating the 100th anniversary of the birth of Karol Wojtyła - Saint John Paul II! 
This is an extraordinary time not only for residents of Wadowice, but also for the whole world. On May 18, 1920, just after 5p.m. was born in the Wojtyła's bedroom their youngest and long-awaited son.  At baptism, 33 days after his birth, he received the names Karol Józef. Nobody even thought that this little boy would change the face of the world that we knew. He spent the first 18 years of his life in his hometown. As he said:

'Always strongly connected with the town of my childhood and early youth, with a town that gave me a lot, a lot. I have the impression that Kraków could give more than that. The breath of the town and the breath of the earth, a certain straightforwardness in thinking and an undoubted foundation of culture'.

He always came back to Wadowice with pleasure. As a young priest, he celebrated one of his first masses in the parish church of the Offerings of the Blessed Virgin Mary (now the Basilica), where he was baptized, received the first Holy Communion, confirmation and was a minister. Later as a bishop and archbishop of Kraków he returned to the town on Skawa as a diocesan priest. As Pope John Paul II, he made a pilgrimage to Wadowice in 1979, 1991 and 1999. During the last, very moving pilgrimage, he uttered unique words:

‘... it all began in this town of Wadowice. And life began, and school began, and studies began, and theatre began, and the priesthood began'.

Today, 100 years since his birth, Wadowice is an important place on the tousit map of Europe and the world. The main purpose of the visit is the modern Family Home Museum of the Holy Father John Paul II. Its heart is the Wojtyła  apartment, where the future Pope was born. In his hometown we will find lots of places not only associated with Karol Wojtyła, but also those which remember his time! The most important of them is presented by the Karol Wojtyła Trail, which leads us along the paths of Pope John Paul II. Along the route you will find, among others family home, church and school where he passed his final exams. There is also ‘this’ confectionery on the trail, where were organized  the famous competitions in eating cream cakes, mentioned by John Paul II. Today, only the building remains of the Viennese cafe. However, the cake has still kept in the culinary tradition  and can be eaten in any cake shop in Wadowice. Every year in May and October there are organised commemorating Saint John Paul II’s events in Wadowice.