Divine Office

October 11

Saint John XXIII, Pope

Optional Memorial

St. John XXIII (Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli, 1881–1963) was pope from 1958 until his death in 1963. Born into a large family of poor sharecroppers in northern Italy, he was ordained in 1904 and served as a seminary teacher, military chaplain in World War I, Vatican diplomat in Eastern Europe and France, and later Patriarch of Venice. Elevated to cardinal in 1953, he was unexpectedly elected pope at age 76 in 1958.

Though seen at first as a transitional figure, John XXIII transformed the Catholic Church by calling the Second Vatican Council (1962–1965), which modernized church practices, emphasized pastoral outreach, promoted Christian unity, and fostered dialogue with other religions. He also expanded the College of Cardinals, appointing members from Asia, Africa, and Latin America, and prohibited political interference by clergy. His encyclicals, including Mater et Magistra (1961) and Pacem in terris (1963), advanced social justice, peace, and human dignity.

Despite being diagnosed with cancer in 1962, he continued his mission until his death in 1963. Remembered as “the Good Pope” (il papa buono), he was beatified in 2000 and canonized in 2014 alongside John Paul II by Pope Francis. His feast day is October 11. His legacy is that of a warm, humble, and visionary pope who opened the Catholic Church to the modern world.

[1] Vatican Website Saint John XXIII Biography
Note: Optional Memorials and Commemorations are optional celebrations and, at present, we do not include content specific to these special days. This “About Today” is provided so that you can celebrate this Saint as you worship Christ.

Thank you everyone for your feedback, it allowed us to see what needs to be fixed or changed. We recently became aware, thanks to feedback from our visually impaired users, that zooming in on a desktop browser could trigger the mobile version of the Divine Office website, that tab bar on the bottom of the page. This issue has been affecting some users, making it harder to navigate to the prayers.

We have addressed this and now, even when you zoom in on a desktop, the mobile navigation won’t appear, effectively giving you more space for the prayer text.

We also made an adjustment to the red support button. Now, both on mobile and on zoomed-in desktops, the button will scroll away as you navigate through the page, freeing up screen space while you pray.

We are grateful to our community for bringing this and other issues to our attention. It matters and it helps!

To make sure you’re seeing the latest version of the website, you may need to force-reload the page. Here’s how:

• On Mac: Hold down Shift and click the reload button in the browser toolbar, or press Command + Shift + R.
• On PC: Hold down Ctrl and click the reload button, or press Ctrl + F5.
• On iPhone: In Safari, tap the address bar and swipe down to reload, or go to Settings > Safari > Clear History and Website Data.
• On Android: In Chrome, tap the three-dot menu at the top right and select “Reload,” or clear your cache through Settings > Privacy > Clear Browsing Data.

Thank you for your help, and if you have any other issues or suggestions, please don’t hesitate to reach out. God bless you all!