TOTUS TUUS
IOANNIS PAULI II
KAROL WOJTYŁA
Born in Wadowice on May 18th 1920; ordained to the priesthood in Krakow on November 1st 1946; elected to the Titular Church of Ombi on July 4th 1958 and consecrated on September 28th 1958; promoted to Kraków on January 13th 1964; nominated and published Cardinal in the Concistory on June 26th 1967. Following in Rome: His election to the Pontificate on October 16th 1978 and His ministry as the universal Pastor of the Church began on October 22nd 1978.
The first known papal coat of arms is the one for Innocent III (1198-1216).
The symbols of papal authority, which are the tiara (or triregnum) and the keys of St. Peter or supreme keys, "to bind and to unloose", one in gold and the other in silver, crossed and bound with a red cord, are located directly behind the Pontiff’s personal coat of arms.
The coat of arms for Pope John Paul II is intended to be a homage to the central mystery of Christianity, that of Redemption. It mainly represents a cross, whose form however does not correspond to any of the usual heraldry models. The reason for the unusual shift of the vertical part of the cross is striking, if one considers the second object included in the Coat of Arms: the large and majestic capital M, which recalls the presence of the Madonna under the Cross and Her exceptional participation in Redemption. The Pontiff’s intense devotion to the Holy Virgin is manifested in this manner, as it is also expressed in the motto when he was Cardinal Wojtyla: TOTUS TUUS. One cannot forget that right in the territory of the ecclesiastical Province of Krakow one can find the famous Marian sanctuary of Czestochowa, where the Polish people have been nurturing their filial devotion to the Madonna for centuries.
Text published in L’Osservatore Romano", 09.11.1978 - Acta Apostolicae Sedis, 1978-II, p. 989.
