St. John Paul II was highly influenced by the many saints of Poland, and St. Adalbert was a saint he was particularly close to and frequently invoked.
St. Adalbert is one of the patron saints of Poland and was one of the earliest missionaries that came to the region in the 10th century. He was eventually martyred by the local pagan population, and his martyrdom ended up becoming a seed for Christianity to spread in the Slavic world.
Blueprint for his pontificate
While honoring the 1,000-year anniversary of St. Adalbert's death in 1997, St. John Paul II made reference to a homily in 1979, saying, "Today, eighteen years later, we should return to that homily in Gniezno, which in a certain sense became the program of my pontificate."
Shortly after being elected pope, St. John Paul II visited Poland in 1979 and made a special visit to the tomb of St. Adalbert in Gniezno. While there, he delivered a rousing homily that laid out his hopes for his pontificate:
Is it not Christ's will, is it not what the Holy Spirit disposes, that this Polish Pope, this Slav Pope, should at this precise moment manifest the spiritual unity of Christian Europe? Although there are two great traditions, that of the West and that of the East, to which it is indebted, through both of them Christian Europe professes "one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of us all" (Eph 4:5-6), the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
He then goes on to answer his own question, affirming that this is what the Holy Spirit desires:
Yes, it is Christ's will, it is what the Holy Spirit disposes, that what I am saying should be said in this very place and at this moment in Gniezno, in the land of the Piasts, in Poland, close to the relics of Saint Adalbert and Saint Stanislaus, before the image of the Virgin Mother of God, Our Lady of Jasna Gora and Mother of the Church.
St. John Paul II proceeded to strive to unite East and West and through his mediation, the Berlin Wall was taken down and a new era began in Europe.
However, later St. John Paul II reflected that much work still needed to be done. While one wall was taken down, an invisible wall remained:
Can we not say that after the collapse of one wall, the visible one, another, invisible wall was discovered, one that continues to divide our continent — the wall that exists in people's hearts? It is a wall made out of fear and aggressiveness, of lack of understanding for people of different origins, different color, different religious convictions; it is the wall of political and economic selfishness, of the weakening of sensitivity to the value of human life and the dignity of every human being. Even the undeniable achievements of recent years in the economic, political and social fields do not hide the fact that this wall exists. It casts its shadow over all of Europe. The goal of the authentic unity of the European continent is still distant. There will be no European unity until it is based on unity of the spirit.
St. John Paul II then invoked St. Adalbert's intercession for peace in Europe and in the Church. For the Polish pontiff, St. Adalbert stood as a sign of both political and spiritual unity. Being an early missionary in Slavic lands, St. Adalbert was at the crossroads of humanity.
In an address to Heads of State in 1997, St. John Paul II said, "Adalbert, after the example of those illustrious predecessors, was able to combine the spiritual traditions of East and West." Adalbert’s lasting influence is largely due to the harmony he achieved between the different cultures he assimilated, to his independence as a man of the Church and to his tireless defense of human dignity, the quality of social life and service to the poor."
St. John Paul II made great strides towards unity and while there still remain many obstacles, the possibility for unity has increased as the years progress.
