Karol Wojtyla, 40 and now a priest, shaves in the open air.
He worked in a quarry for four years from 1940 to 1944, and then at the Solvay chemical factory to earn a living, to avoid being deported to Germany during the Nazi occupation.
After dabbling in experimental theatre, reading poetry and discussing literature that Poles are so fond of, after playing soccer and swimming, the very outdoors man abruptly decided he wanted to be a priest. In 1942, aged 22, he began courses at the clandestine seminary in Krakow, run by Cardinal Adam Stefan Sapieha, then the archbishop of Krakow. In less than 22 years, Karol Wojtyla would be an archbishop himself, an amazingly swift rise in the Church hierarchy.
After World War II, he continued his studies at the main seminary in Krakow and at the faculty of theology at Jagiellonian University until he was ordinated as a priest on November 1, 1946.
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