Pope John XXIII had humble beginnings. He was born in northern Italy in 1881. His parents were peasant farmers. The eldest son in a family of thirteen children, he grew up tending to vineyards and cattle. Not long before his twenty-third birthday he was ordained as a Catholic priest.
After a long career in the church, he was elected pope in 1958. He was nearly 77 years old. Suddenly he was the pastor for a half-billion Roman Catholics. As pope, he made it a point to mix with everyday people, even going so far as to visit Rome’s prison. He had a warmth and genuine love of people.
Called “Papa” in Italian, he was a widely popular father figure. At heart, he was a poor farmer’s boy eager to minister to his large flock. He was also a precedent-shattering pope. Characteristically, at his vacation home away from the Vatican, he opened the villa’s private gardens to crowds of local farmers seeking an audience with him.
Learn more about the life and times of Pope John XXIII in the Jack Casserly Papers at UW’s American Heritage Center.