Pope John XXIII portrait

Portrait of Pope John XXIII that I have painted with oil on canvas in 1963. His Holiness Pope John XXIII will be canonized the day April 27, 2014

Prints and canvas replicas of this work are for sale at Fine Art America!


Pope John XXIII (Latin: Ioannes XXIII), born Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli; 25 November 1881 – 3 June 1963), was Pope from 28 October 1958 to his death in 1963.
Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli was the fourth of fourteen children born to a family of sharecroppers that lived in a village in Lombardy. He was ordained a priest on 10 August 1904 and served in various posts including appointments as a papal nuncio in France, and a delegate to Bulgaria and Greece. Pope Pius XII made Roncalli a cardinal in a consistory on 12 January 1953 in addition to naming him the Patriarch of Venice and the Cardinal-Priest of Santa Prisca.

Roncalli was elected pope on 28 October 1958 at the age of 76 after eleven ballots. No one could have been more surprised with the election than Roncalli himself, who had come to Rome with a return train ticket to Venice. He was the first pope to take the pontifical name of "John" upon election in more than 500 years, and his choice settled the complicated question of official numbering attached to this papal name due to the antipope of this name.

Pope John XXIII surprised those who expected him to be a caretaker pope by calling the historic Second Vatican Council (1962–65), the first session opening on 11 October 1962. However, he did not live to see it to completion, dying on 3 June 1963 of stomach cancer, four-and-a-half years after his election, and two months after the completion of his final and famed encyclical, Pacem in Terris.

His passionate views on equality were summed up in his famous statement 'We were all made in God's image, and thus, we are all Godly alike. John XXIII made many passionate speeches during his pontificate, one of which was on the day that he announced the Second Vatican Council in the middle of the night to the crowd gathered in St. Peter's Square: "Dear children, returning home, you will find children: give your children a caress and say: This is the caress of the Pope!"

Pope John XXIII was buried in the Vatican grottoes beneath Saint Peter's Basilica on 6 June 1963 and his cause for canonization was opened on 18 November 1965 by his successor, Pope Paul VI, who declared him a Servant of God. In addition to being named Venerable on 20 December 1999, he was beatified on 3 September 2000 by Pope John Paul II alongside Pope Pius IX and three others. Following his beatification, his body was moved on 3 June 2001 from its original place to the altar of Saint Jerome where it could be seen by the faithful. Bypassing the traditionally required second miracle, Pope Francis declared John XXIII a saint based on his merits of opening the Second Vatican Council on 5 July 2013. He is to be canonised alongside John Paul II on 27 April 2014. John XXIII today is affectionately known as the "Good Pope" and in Italian, "il Papa buono".

His feast day is not celebrated on the date of his death as is usual, but it is on 11 October, the day of the first session of the Second Vatican Council. He is also commemorated in the Anglican Communion with a feast day of 4 June. It was originally 3 June, but this was later changed.

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