What happened on May 13, 1981?

Pope John Paul II was shot and seriously wounded by Mehmet Ali Ağca in St. Peter's Square as he entered on his popemobile, struck twice and suffering severe blood loss before emergency surgery saved his life.

Did John Paul II really forgive the man who shot him?

Yes — on December 27, 1983, he visited Ağca personally at Rome's Rebibbia prison and forgave him face to face, a meeting that became one of the most widely remembered images of his papacy.

What role did John Paul II play in the fall of communism?

His support for Poland's Solidarity trade union and his private conversations with Polish and Soviet leaders are widely credited with contributing to the peaceful collapse of Soviet-controlled governments across Eastern Europe within a decade of his papacy's start.

How long was John Paul II's papacy, and when was he canonized?

His pontificate lasted more than 26 years, the third longest in history; he was beatified in 2011 and canonized on April 27, 2014, based on two medically inexplicable healings attributed to his intercession.

Pope John Paul II

The first Slavic pope in centuries

John Paul II, born Karol Wojtyła in Wadowice, Poland, in 1920, became the first non-Italian pope in 455 years and the first ever from a Slavic country when he was elected in 1978. His pontificate would go on to last more than 26 years, the third longest in the history of the papacy — a tenure long enough to place him at the center of some of the late 20th century's most consequential political and personal events.

Photograph of Pope John Paul II, 1987, White House Photographic Collection — public domain.

Shot in broad daylight, in front of thousands

On May 13, 1981, while entering St. Peter's Square to greet crowds gathered there, John Paul II was shot and seriously wounded by Mehmet Ali Ağca. Struck twice, he suffered severe blood loss and required emergency surgery to survive. The attack, carried out in one of the most public settings imaginable, left the world uncertain for a time whether the pope would recover at all.

Forgiveness delivered in person, inside a prison cell

What followed became one of the defining images of his papacy. On December 27, 1983 — two years after the shooting — John Paul II visited Ağca directly in his cell at Rome's Rebibbia prison and forgave him face to face, a private meeting between the pope and the man who had tried to kill him. It wasn't a public statement of forgiveness issued from a distance. It was a deliberate, personal visit to the man responsible, carried out inside the very facility holding him.

A quiet influence on the collapse of Soviet power

Beyond the assassination attempt, John Paul II's papacy coincided with and helped shape one of the century's largest political transformations. A fervent anti-communist, he lent visible support to Poland's Solidarity trade union and held private conversations with both Polish and Soviet leaders that historians credit with contributing meaningfully to the peaceful end of communist rule across Eastern Europe — a process that, within roughly a decade of his first papal visit to Poland, culminated in the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Canonized on the strength of two inexplicable healings

John Paul II died in 2005, was beatified in 2011, and was canonized on April 27, 2014, based on two healings that medical experts declared scientifically inexplicable: a French nun's recovery from Parkinson's disease and a Costa Rican woman's recovery from a brain aneurysm, both attributed to prayers for his intercession after his death — closing out a life that had already survived one of the most dramatic assassination attempts of the modern papacy.