Pope Saint John XXIII 12 Interesting Facts

Pope John XXIII whose Latin name is Ioannes XXIII, was born Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli on 25 Nov 1881 in the village of Sotto il Monte in the provice of Bergamo, Italy and was Pope from 28 October 1958 until his death at the age of 81 on 3 June 1963 in Italy. Nicknamed "Good Pope John".

Pope Francis canonized Pope John Paul II and Pope John XXIII on April 27, 2014.

1. He was the last pope to used a full papal ceremony which lasted for five hours.
2. He was the first pope to take the pontifical name of "John" after more than 500 years.
3. He is commemorated every 11 October which was the first session day of the Second Vatican Council and not on the date of his death and also commemorated every 4 June in the Anglican Church of Canada.
4. He was the pope who, as part of his first acts as pope, eliminated the description of Jews as "perfidious" in the Good Friday liturgy and also confessed the sin of anti-semitism.
5. He became the first pope since 1870 to visit the Diocese of Rome by visiting children infected with polio at the Bambino Gesù Hospital and Santo Spirito Hospital and also visited prisoners at the ironically named “Queen of Heaven Prison” in Rome on 25 December 1958.
6. He was the first Pope to become Time magazine's "Man of the Year" in 1963.
7. He was the first pope since Pope Pius X to be declared "Blessed" alongside Pope Pius IX on 3 September 2000 by Pope John Paul II who later became "Saints" alongside Pope John Paul II when they were canonized on 27 April 2014 by Pope Francis.
8. He was assumed to be a transitional or caretaker pope because of his age, 76, but his reign was regarded as the most important pontificate since the Middle Ages because of his decision to call an ecumenical council which was the first since 1870 and only the 21st in the Church's history and he delivered a speech at the conclusion of the first session which became known as the "Speech of the Moon".
9. He addressed "all men of good will”, not only Catholics, in his encyclical letter, "Pacem in terris” for the first time in history.
10. He also established the first Vatican department to promote unity amongst Christians.
11. He opened the Second Vatican Council in the 4th year of his reign, 1962. The first Antipope John XXIII opened the Council of Constance in the 4th year of his reign, 1414.
12. He died shortly before the 3rd Session of Vatican Council II, in 1963. The first Antipope John XXIII's reign ended shortly before the 3rd Session of the Council of Constance, in 1415.

Pope Saint John XXIII 1963 TIME Man of the Year

References:

Pope John XXIII
St. John XXIII
List of Popes
John XXIII Mystic Pope
An uncontested miracle
A miracle has been attributed to John XXIII but not for his canonization
Biography of Blessed Pope John XXIII
Pope John XXIII
Biography: Pope John XXIII
John XXIII: His Council and Achievement Remembered
John XXIII and John Paul II
Popes John XXIII and John Paul II to become saints on Sunday
Pope John XXIII Catholic Parish
Leader Values
VIS news Biography of Pope John XXIII
Saints John Paul II and John XXIII
‘The Good Pope:’ For older Catholics, recalling the late John XXIII may be highlight of ceremony
The Famous People
Five things you need to know about Pope John XXIII

Pope Saint John Paul II 12 Famous First Visits

Pope Saint John Paul II whose name in Latin is Ioannes Paulus II, was born Karol Józef Wojtyła on 18 May 1920 in Wadowice, Poland and was pope from 16 October 1978 until his death at the age of 84 on 2 April 2005 in Italy. Nicknamed "Pilgrim Pope", he was the first non-Italian pope in 455 years (since Pope Adrian VI who died in 1523) and the first ever from a Slavic country.

Pope Francis canonized Pope John Paul II and Pope John XXIII on April 27, 2014.

1. First pope to visit the former Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz-Birkenau in Oswiecim, Poland on 7 June 1979, where many of his Polish Jew compatriots had perished during the Nazi occupation in World War II.
2. First pope to visit Ireland, on 29 September 1979, a devoutly Catholic country, just 11 months after being pope.
3. First pope to visit the White House on 6 October 1979, where he was greeted warmly by then-President Jimmy Carter. Pope Saint John Paul II gave a silver sculpture with the words “Peace Unto Thee” to the president and a parchment copy of his first encyclical letter to the President’s mother, Lillian.
4. First reigning pope to make a pastoral visit to United Kingdom during the Falklands War, on 28 May 1982, where he met Queen Elizabeth II, the Supreme Governor of the Church of England.
5. First pope to have a pastoral visit to Spain on 8 November 1982 in Valencia.
6. First pope to visit and participated in an ecumenical service in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Rome on 11 December 1983, 500 years after the birth of Martin Luther, the German Augustinian monk who initiated the Lutheran reformation.
7. First pope known to have made an official papal visit to a synagogue, the Great Synagogue of Rome on 13 April 1986 and met Rome's Chief Rabbi Elio Toaff.
8. First pope to visit Romania, a predominantly Eastern Orthodox country, on 7 May 1999 since the Great Schism or the East-West Schism (an event that separated Eastern Orthodoxy and Western Catholicism in 1054) on the invitation from Patriarch Teoctist Arăpaşu of the Romanian Orthodox Church.
9. First modern pope to visit Egypt on 25 February 2000, where he met with the Coptic pope, Pope Shenouda III, the leader of the major Christian church in Egypt and the Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Alexandria and Muhammad Sayed Tantawi, the sheik of Al Azhar, the highest authority of the Sunni Muslim faith.
10. First pope to officially visit Jerusalem on 26 March 2000 and pray at the Western Wall and also visit the Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum which are sites that are central to Judaism.
11. First Catholic pope to visit, enter and pray in an Islamic mosque, in Damascus, Syria, on 6 May 2001 in the company of Mufti Ahmed Kuftaro of Syria when he visited the Umayyad Mosque, a former Byzantine era Christian church where John the Baptist is believed to be interred.
12. First pope to visit Greece in 1291 years, on 4 May 2001 in Athens, the Pope met with Archbishop Christodoulos, the head of the Greek Orthodox Church.

Pope Saint John Paul II 1994 TIME Man of the Year

References:

HIGHLIGHTS ON THE LIFE OF HIS HOLINESS POPE JOHN PAUL II
Two Women Helped Put Pope John Paul II on the Path to Sainthood
John Paul II Biography
Huge Pope John Paul II Crucifix Collapses, Kills Young Tourist
Pope John Paul II becomes the first pope to visit the White House
Bruno Barbey - POLAND. 1979. Pope John PAUL II's Official Visit.
Pope John Paul II in pictures
Revealed: How Pope John Paul II sent secret envoy to Margaret Thatcher during Falklands War to ask Britain to abandon islands
John Paul II Holy Mass In Westminster Cathedral, London, 28 May 1982
Pope made important overtures to non-Christian religions
Who are Egypt's Christians?
Pope Is in Egypt, Tracing Moses' Path and Urging Dialogue
Visit of Pope John Paul II White House Statement.
Western Wall Prayer
Papal Visits to Israel: A Retrospective
1979: Pope calls for peace in Ireland
The Pope’s visit to Ireland
John Paul II at the Cathedral
Pilgrim Pathways
USCCB Blog Pope John Paul II: East-West Relations
Pope Apologizes for Anti-Orthodox Past
"In Greece and Syria, Pope John Paul II Tries to Heal Ancient Wounds"
John Paul II
Pope John Paul II's relations with the Eastern Orthodox Church
Primacy of Peter, The
Pope John Paul II's Journey From Poland to Rome: A Timeline 
SPECIAL COMMEMORATION – POPE JOHN PAUL II
Pope John Paul II
List of Popes
John Paul II
Pope Benedict XVI's visit to the United Kingdom
Pope John Paul II
The Famous People