Pope John XXIII
Early life

Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli was born on 25 November 1881 in Sotto il Monte, a small country village in the Bergamo province of the Lombardy region of Italy. He was the eldest son of Giovanni Battista Roncalli (1854–1935) and his wife Marianna Giulia Mazzola (1855–1939), and fourth in a family of thirteen. His siblings were:

His family worked as sharecroppers, as did most of the people of Sotto il Monte – a striking contrast to that of his predecessor, Eugenio Pacelli (Pope Pius XII), who came from a family established in senior roles in the Papal administration. Roncalli was nonetheless a descendant of an Italian noble family, albeit from a secondary and impoverished branch; "(he) derived from no mean origins but from worthy and respected folk who can be traced right back to the beginning of the fifteenth century". The Roncallis maintained a vineyard and cornfields, and kept cattle.

In 1889, Roncalli received both his First Communion and Confirmation at the age of 8.

On 1 March 1896, Luigi Isacchi, the spiritual director of his seminary, enrolled him into the Secular Franciscan Order. He professed his vows as a member of that order on 23 May 1897.

In 1904, Roncalli completed his doctorate in canon law and was ordained a priest in the Church of Santa Maria in Montesanto in Piazza del Popolo in Rome on 10 August. Shortly after that, while still in Rome, Roncalli was taken to Saint Peter's Basilica to meet Pope Pius X. After this, he would return to his town to celebrate Mass for the Assumption.
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