CITY OF SAINTS

This book will be a celebration of the life of John Paul II, but it will also touch upon how a place can really form a person.

To follow Karol Wojtyla through Kraków, then, is to follow an itinerary of sanctity while learning the story of a city. Thus, in what follows, the story of Karol Wojtyla, St. John Paul II, and the story of Kraków are interwoven, in a chronological pilgrimage through the life of a saint that reveals, at the same time, the richly textured life of a city where a boy grew into a man, a priest, a bishop--and an apostle to the world.” The New York Times bestselling author of Witness to Hope travels with readers through Kraków, the birthplace of Saint Pope John Paul II and the site of World Youth Day 2016, to revisit the life of the beloved pontiff. In 1985, Pope John Paul II initiated World Youth Day, a worldwide encounter with the Pope for young people that draws millions across continents (3.7 million people attended the most recent WYD in Brazil in 2013). In 2016, the event will be held in Kraków, Poland, birthplace of its founder, newly canonized Saint Pope John Paul II. George Weigel, the preeminent biographer of John Paul II, now presents a spiritual travelogue that further illuminates the life and homeland of one of the most influential Catholic leaders of all time. GEORGE WEIGEL is a Catholic theologian and a foremost commentator on issues of religion and public life. A Vatican analyst for NBC News, Weigel is the author of fifteen books, including the New York Times bestseller Witness to Hope: The Biography of Pope John Paul II, Evangelical Catholicism and Faith, Reason, and the War Against Jihadism, and The End and the Beginning. His work has been translated into more than a dozen languages.