Karol Wojtyła (senior)
Polish soldier and tailor, father of St John Paul II
Who they were
Father of St John Paul II: a tailor, then a non-commissioned officer in the Austrian and later the Polish army, who raised his sons alone after the death of his wife Emilia Kaczorowska in 1929 and died of a heart attack in Kraków in 1941. The Polish bishops' conference approved the opening of the causes of the Wojtyła couple in October 2019; after the Holy See granted the nulla osta in 2020, Archbishop Marek Jędraszewski of Kraków promulgated the edicts for the two separate processes on 2 March of that year. The Hagiography Circle dates the opening to 7 May 2020.
The miracles
No miracle has been approved. The cause is at its first stage.
Why that counted as sanctity
Father of St John Paul II: a tailor, then a non-commissioned officer in the Austrian and later the Polish army, who raised his sons alone after the death of his wife Emilia Kaczorowska in 1929 and died of a heart attack in Kraków in 1941. The Polish bishops' conference approved the opening of the causes of the Wojtyła couple in October 2019; after the Holy See granted the nulla osta in 2020, Archbishop Marek Jędraszewski of Kraków promulgated the edicts for the two separate processes on 2 March of that year. The Hagiography Circle dates the opening to 7 May 2020.
The cause
The cause continues. No postulation address is published here yet. Favours received through this person’s intercession, and offers of help, are best sent to the religious order or congregation they belonged to, or to the diocese where the cause was opened; either will pass them to the postulation.
Connected on this site
- John Paul II Saint“Father of St John Paul II: a tailor, then a non-commissioned officer in the Austrian and later the Polish army, who raised his sons alone after the death of his wife Emilia Kaczorowska in 1929 and died of a heart attack in Kraków in 1941.” — this site's research
Checked against the sources listed on 24 September 2026. Corrections welcome.