Recalling St John Paul II’s Seven Visits to the United States

Recalling St John Paul II’s seven visits to the United States

St. John Paul II was the most traveled pope in history, logging some 700,000 miles and visiting nearly 130 countries.

John Paul II became pope on October 16, 1978, and was known as the "Traveling Pope" for his long and frequent trips around the world, taking the Church to places where Christianity, much less Catholicism, was never expected to arrive. Among his trips—which included Puerto Rico—were those he frequently made to places where peace, conceptually defined as the absence of war, was threatened, and/or where serious armed conflicts were taking place.