Saint John XXIII

Pope, Bailiff of the Order of Malta.

Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli was born in the village of Sotto il Monte in the province of Bergamo in Italy on 25 November 1881.
At the age of eleven he entered the diocesan (minor) seminary and then completed his studies at the Pontifical Roman Seminary.
In 1904 he was ordained priest and became secretary to the Bishop of Bergamo.
In 1915 he was drafted as a sergeant in the Italian military medical corps and became a chaplain to the wounded.
In 1921 he entered the service of the Apostolic See as President of the Central Council for Italy of the Pontifical Society for the Propagation of the Faith.
In 1925 Pius XI made him Bishop and Apostolic Visitor and then Apostolic Delegate to Bulgaria. His Episcopal motto: Obedientia et Pax.
In 1935 he became Apostolic Delegate to Turkey and Greece.
In 1944 he was named Apostolic Nuncio to France.
In 1953 he was created Cardinal and became Patriarch of Venice.
In 1956 he was invested as Bailiff in the Order of St John of Jerusalem, of Rhodes and of Malta.
At the death of Pius XII he was elected Pope on 28 October 1958.
His was an authentic image of the "Good Shepherd": meek and gentle, enterprising and courageous, simple and active.
During his pontificate he convened the roman Synod, set up the Commission to revise the Code of Canon Law.
On 24 June 1961 on the Solemnity of St. John the Baptist, the patronal feast of our Order, he approved with the Apostolic Bull Exigit Apostolicum Officium the revised Rule of the Order of Malta, known commonly as the Constitution.
In 1962 he summoned and opened the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council.
He died in Rome on the evening of 3 June 1963.

Prayer:

Almighty, ever-living God, who in Pope Saint John have given a living example of Christ, the Good Shepherd, to shine throughout the earth, grant us, we pray, that, through his intercession, we may joyfully pour out an abundance of Christian charity. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

Bl. Pope John XXIII - Bailiff Order of Malta
Pope John XXIII was canonised on 27th April 2014

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