It was 18 May 1920, a bright sunny afternoon in Wadowice. In the flat of the Wojtyla family at 7 Kościelna Street, they were getting ready to welcome a new member of the family. Father and son, Karol and Edmund, went to church for the devotion to the Virgin Mary. Mother Emilia stayed with the midwife. Through an open window came the singing of the Litany of Loreto in the nearby parish church. Between 5 and 6 p.m. the birth took place, without complications. A baby was born, a healthy boy. “Life began” for Karol Józef Wojtyła, who fifty-eight years later, at the same time, was elected Pope. But this no one could know at the time… only God.
The joy of his birth filled the hearts of the family members, and in a special way the heart of his mother.
Emilia, née Kaczorowska, was thirty-six years old when she gave birth to her second son. Four years earlier, a daughter, Olga Maria, had been born in Biała, and died after several hours. Apart from this tragedy, the reason for fearing for Karol’s life was the diagnosis of an obstetrician, who believed that the mother might not survive the pregnancy and birth. The couple sought the opinion of a military doctor who monitored the pregnancy until its termination. This medic brought hope and confidence to the Wojtyla family that all would be well.
Let us mention that the marriage of Emilia and Karol was celebrated in 1906 in the church of St Peter and Paul in Krakow. The couple lived not far from Wawel Castle. Their son Edmund was born in Kraków. They moved from Krakow to Wadowice when the husband was transferred from active military service to work in military administration.
The time of their marriage included the First World War and the necessity to live in Hranice in Moravia and return to Wadowice. It was also the time of the rise of independent Poland. Wojtyla senior was able to work for the Polish army, for the 12th Infantry Regiment. The sons grew up and were educated in the free country.
The Wojtylas occupied a small flat on the first floor of a tenement house situated near the town square, right next to the parish church. They rented it from the Jewish merchant Chaim Bałamuth. His shops and bookbinding shop were located on the ground floor. One entered the flat from a side street and up a winding iron staircase. It was modest, consisting of two rooms, one larger and one smaller, and a kitchen. One of the windows overlooked the southern wall of the church, on which was a sundial and an inscription: “Time flees, eternity waits”. Since the day Karol was born, days, months and years have passed… and gratitude for the gift of life has grown.
“I kiss the threshold of my family home in a filial way, expressing gratitude to Divine Providence for the gift of life handed down by my parents, for the warmth of the family nest, for the love of my loved ones, which gave a sense of security and strength, even when it came to facing the experience of death and the hardships of everyday life in turbulent times” (John Paul II, Wadowice, 1999).
Rev. Andrzej Dobrzyński