Today in Papal History marks the day in which the Cardinal Archbishop of Kraków, Karol Wojtyla, entered the conclave that would elect him pope.
This was the year’s second conclave in as many months, thanks to the untimely death of (the soon-to-be-Blessed) Pope John Paul I, who reigned for just 33 days before dying of a sudden heart attack.
As the story goes, Cardinal Wojtyla had suspected he might be elected pope – after all, according to Jason Evert’s great book on John Paul II, a poem by the famous Pole Juliusz Slowacki a century earlier seems to have foretold it:
Amid discord God strikes
At an immense bell,
For a Slavic pope
Open is the throne…
Boldly like God, he bravely face the sword;
For him the world is dust…
So behold, here comes the Slavic Pope,
A brother of the people.
So, naturally, Wojtyla was relieved when he wasn’t chosen in the August conclave.
At any rate, the Polish cardinal had barely returned home when he heard the news at breakfast that the new pope had died. It’s said that he dropped his utensil, was overcome with emotion, and immediately developed a migraine headache before retreating to his chapel for many hours, laying prostrate on the floor.
When leaving for the Eternal City once more shortly thereafter, his driver bade him farewell and wished for a safe journey back to Poland once the conclave was all over.
Cardinal Wojtyla responded soberly, “One never knows.”
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