St. John of Kanty

Patron Saint of Poland

St. John of Kanty was born in 1390 near Krakow, Poland. After being ordained a priest, he became a professor of theology at the University of Krakow. St. John of Kanty lived a very selfless and simple life, sleeping very little and eating only what was necessary to survive. He is remembered for the incredibly simplistic life he lived even though he was considered a preeminent intellectual. Throughout his life, he made four pilgrimages to Rome, always carrying his luggage on his back. He was canonized in 1767 by Pope Clement XIII. Pope John Paul II had a special devotion to St. John of Kanty because they were from similar areas of Poland and he admired St. John of Kanty’s simplistic, everyday holiness.