Stanisław Pigoń and Karol Wojtyła (A Reminiscence)

This article presents little known facts sampled from the notes and personal records of Professor Stanisław Pigoń and Karol Wojtyła. The two met for the fi rst time in 1938, when young Wojtyła began his studies at the Polish Department of the Jagiellonian University. A bond of mutual liking and respect, based on similar personalities and similar war experiences, morphed into an abiding friendship in the years after the war. The article chronicles that friendship on the basis of documents and private papers held in the Jagiellonian Library (Professor Pigoń’s Archives) and the Archives of the Metropolitan Curia in Cracow. Wojtyła, when he became Pope John Paul II always spoke warmly about his university teachers, especially about Professor Pigoń.