Pope John Paul this morning starts a two-week pastoral visit to his native Poland that is sure to be marked by poignant memories, both historical and personal.
During what will be his longest papal visit to a European country, the 79-year-old Pope will not only visit the scenes of his childhood but also those symbolically linked to the trade union movement Solidarity, which, with the Pope's support, played such a large part in the downfall of the Polish communist regime.
Despite the ageing Pope's all-too apparent frailty, this seventh papal visit to his native land entails a busy schedule in which he will visit at least two different dioceses every day, making no fewer than 23 helicopter trips as he zigzags across Poland.
The institutional highpoint of the trip will be three ceremonies at which he will beatify 108 Polish second World War martyrs, including three bishops, all killed by Nazi forces, with five of them executed for having tried to save the lives of Polish Jews.
World War memories will also be rekindled by his visit to Poland's Holocaust Memorial near Warsaw on June 11th, on a day certain to prompt memories of the June 1979 open-air Mass that the Pope celebrated there in front of an estimated million people in a first, direct challenge to the ruling communist regime's authority.
The Pope is also due to visit his birthplace of Wadowice, as well as Cracow, the city where he was ordained a priest on November 1st, 1946. Fittingly, the Pope begins his visit today with a trip to the port of Gdansk, one-time focal point of the Solidarity movement, where he will be received by the former Solidarity leader and former Polish state president, Mr Lech Walesa.