Saint of the Day

01 · Read · A life to discover

St. John XXIII

Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli served as a priest, military chaplain, and papal diplomat before becoming patriarch of Venice and then Pope John XXIII in 1958. His earlier assignments brought him into contact with Eastern Christians and with the political upheavals of twentieth-century Europe. His spiritual journals reveal a disciplined life of prayer.

Born into a large family at Sotto il Monte, Roncalli entered the Bergamo seminary as a boy. After ordination he served as a bishop's secretary and taught seminarians. During the First World War he worked first as a medical orderly and then as a chaplain, encountering suffering well before his later diplomatic responsibilities.

John XXIII convened the Second Vatican Council, which opened on October 11, 1962, and initiated revision of the Church's canon law. His teaching also emphasized peace and human dignity. He died in June 1963 before the council concluded and was canonized in 2014. His feast recalls the council's opening, one of the defining acts of his short pontificate.

His early spiritual notebooks eventually became the Journal of a Soul, a record of examination, prayer, and intention over many decades. That private discipline provides a counterpart to the public initiative of the council. Remembering both helps explain a pope whose relatively brief tenure had effects that continued long after his death.

This saint is included on this recurring date in the U.S. Roman Rite calendar published by the USCCB. This reading guide gives U.S. calendar saints priority; the Mass celebrated on a particular year’s date can differ because of Sundays, seasons or higher-ranking celebrations.