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Pope St. John XXIII

Pope St. John XXIII

1881 CE1963 CE · Modern · Sotto il Monte

Born Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli to a peasant farming family near Bergamo, John XXIII was elected at seventy-six and widely expected to be a caretaker. Instead he summoned the Second Vatican Council (1962-65), the most far-reaching reform effort in centuries, calling for aggiornamento, the Church's updating and renewal. Warm, pastoral, and humble, he was beloved as 'Good Pope John.' His 1963 encyclical Pacem in Terris addressed peace and human rights amid Cold War tensions, including his mediation during the Cuban Missile Crisis. He died before the Council concluded but set its tone of openness, dialogue, and engagement. He was canonized in 2014.

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Stop 0 of 61881–1892Born

Sotto il Monte

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About Sotto il Monte

Sotto il Monte (now Sotto il Monte Giovanni XXIII), a village in Lombardy, northern Italy. It was the birthplace of Pope John XXIII (Angelo Roncalli).

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In the same place & time

Sages whose lives overlapped with Pope St. John XXIII’s in the same cities, drawn from their recorded journeys.

The world in their lifetime

Thinkers and teachers of other traditions whose lives overlapped with Pope St. John XXIII’s — a glimpse of the wider world they lived in. Drawn purely from recorded birth and death years.