![]() ![]() From Wadowice, Wojtyła went to Krakow’s Jagiellonian University to study Polish literature and history, and he soon joined the Rhapsodic Theatre in Krakow, known as the “theatre of the living word.” Even Wojtyła’s understanding of Polish history was seen through the lens of the poets. It has been reported that later in life he knew around fifteen languages. He studied Latin, Greek, German, and, I think, French. His report card shows his deep love for the study of language. Since he was a little boy, Karol Wojtyła was reading with his father the Romantic works of Henryk Sienkiewicz. However, I did not realize the extent to which John Paul was enraptured by the poetic word. I have read George Weigel’s Witness to Hope and many other John Paul II biographies that stress this, so it should be of no surprise. It was better than I expected, and I came away with a deeper appreciation for this saint, particularly his love of poetry. Over the summer, I visited the John Paul II Museum in Wadowice, his hometown. However, my concern is that we in the West tend not to associate John Paul II with poetry whereas my experience in talking to Poles who knew John Paul II mostly describe him as an intellectual poet, reading his philosophy and theology as stemming from his poetic heart. I never had the chance to talk to the presenter about this description, and I am sure he would remind me that his talk was not about John Paul II and indeed John Paul II was the only pope of the three to hold a philosophy post. Thus, upon hearing John Paul II described mainly as a “philosopher” (granted, he was officially a philosopher), in contrast to Pope Francis’ literary mind, caught my attention. ![]() A couple of weeks ago, I attended a conference on the Catholic imagination where a presenter, trying to present Pope Francis as primarily of a literary mind-seeing the world in shades of “black and grey”-contrasted him with “Pope Benedict XVI the theologian and Pope John Paul II the philosopher.” While this way of distinguishing the three pontiffs was a rough-and-ready way of getting at his main point about Francis, I have to admit that it ticked me off.Įarlier that day, I gave little talk on the Polish Romantic poet Cyprian Norwid, who Nobel laureate Czeslaw Milosz described as “undoubtedly, the most ‘intellectual’ poet ever to write in Polish,” and the significant influence Norwid had on the mind of John Paul II. However, many descriptions of the late pope overlook his poetic heart. John Paul II always saw himself as a poet. Home › Articles › Institute Fellows › St. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |