FIRST feast day celebrating St. John Paul II comes with apps

October 22 is the first feast day (optional memorial) celebrating St. John Paul II who was canonized in April 2014 along with St. John XXIII. Here are a couple free apps that can help you get to know this great pope of our age who impacted the Church and world history.

John Paul II: the Official App of Canonization (Free) iOS and Android.

While this app was designed for use by participants in Rome at the canonization in April 2014, it was also designed in part for we folks staying home. You don’t need the schedule of events or travel help, but what is still valuable are a few other salient features concerning St. John Paul II packed into this little app: archived videos, his encyclicals, explanation of why he was declared “saint,” his official prayer and his biography. You will find language options in the “settings” tab on the home screen for Italian, English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese. Note that Polish is not among the language options, a serious omission by CTV and Osservatore Romano, Vatican news outlets that had the app produced.

eVotion Saint (Bl.) John Paul II (Free) iOS and Android. eVotions are a series of digital Catholic devotions. This one is designed around Saint Pope John Paul II who was canonized on 27 April 2014. You get image galleries, streaming video, and push notifications for praying novenas. The app also offers common prayers, introductions by well-known Catholics, and writings on the tradition and history of each saint and blessed, according to developers.

Features:
– Introduction by Archbishop Charles Chaput
– History, Traditions, and Videos about John Paul II
– A novena that allows you to customize your experience
– Alert notifications to remind you to pray your novena
– Prayers both to and by Blessed John Paul II
– lots of great photographs of John Paul II that you can customize.

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Liturgical texts (optional memorial)

Common of Pastors: For a Pope.

Collect

O God, who are rich in mercy
and who willed that the blessed John Paul the Second
should preside as Pope over your universal Church,
grant, we pray, that instructed by his teaching,
we may open our hearts to the saving grace of Christ,
the sole Redeemer of mankind.
Who lives and reigns.