John Paul II, born Karol Wojtyła in Poland, died at 9:37 PM in his private apartment after months of declining health from Parkinson's disease. His papacy, the third-longest in history, saw him travel to 129 countries, survive a 1981 assassination attempt in St. Peter's Square, and lend moral support to the Solidarity movement that helped topple communism in his native Poland.
For weeks, crowds had gathered beneath the papal apartment windows overlooking St. Peter's Square, keeping a vigil as the 84-year-old pontiff's health failed. He had been hospitalized twice in February for breathing crises linked to Parkinson's disease and a tracheotomy, but chose to spend his final days at the Vatican rather than a hospital. He died at 9:37 PM local time on the vigil of Divine Mercy Sunday, a feast he himself had established.
Wojtyła's journey to the papacy was extraordinary: a Polish factory worker and underground seminarian under Nazi occupation, he became the first non-Italian pope in 455 years when elected in 1978. Three years later he was shot four times in St. Peter's Square by Mehmet Ali Ağca, surviving to later visit and forgive his attacker in prison.
His support for Poland's Solidarity movement is widely credited with helping unravel Soviet control of Eastern Europe, while his conservative stances on doctrine coexisted with historic outreach to other faiths, including the first papal visit to a mosque. An estimated four million pilgrims flooded Rome for his funeral, and he was canonized just nine years later in 2014.