Saint John XXIII

Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli was born on November 25, 1881, in Sotto il Monte, near Bergamo, Italy, the fourth of thirteen children of a family of sharecroppers. Ordained in 1904, he served as secretary to his bishop and, in World War I, as a medical orderly and chaplain. He later spent many years as a papal diplomat in Bulgaria, Turkey and Greece, where he helped Jewish refugees during World War II, and then as nuncio in France. In 1953 he became Patriarch of Venice.

Elected pope on October 28, 1958, at nearly 77, he was expected to be a caretaker, but he surprised the world by calling the Second Vatican Council, which opened on October 11, 1962, the date of his feast. His encyclical Pacem in Terris (1963) appealed for peace to all people of good will. He died on June 3, 1963, and was canonized by Pope Francis on April 27, 2014, together with John Paul II.

His body rests in Saint Peter's Basilica, and his birthplace, Sotto il Monte Giovanni XXIII, welcomes pilgrims. His memorial falls on the anniversary of the opening of the Council.

People remember his gentle humor and his "Moonlight Speech," when he asked the crowd to go home and give their children a caress from the pope.