Karol Wojtyła was born on 18 July 1879 in Lipnik. He was a son of Maciej Wojtyła and his first wife Anna Marianna Przeczek. He married Emilia Kaczorowska on 10 February 1906.The wedding took place in Kraków, in Saints Peter and Paul Church, Kraków. They had three children: Edmund, Olga Maria, Karol Józef. He was a taylor by trade. In 1900 he was called up for Austro-Hungarian Army. He has spent 27 years in army in total. He was a non-com, during the World War I he was transferred to Hranice on Moravia, among others, he fought in Gorlice–Tarnów Offensive in May 1915. In August 1915, he was appointed military registrar's officer on 1 September 1915 and as an overcommissioned soldier of the 56th Infantry Regiment he worked in the Wadowice County Supplementary Command until 1918. Before 1917 he was awarded the Iron Cross of Merit with a crown. After Poland regained independence, he was admitted to the Polish Army and was an officer of the 12th Infantry Regiment from Wadowice. He was promoted to the rank of Poruchik in the corps of professional administrative officers of the office department. In 1924 he served in the Wadowice County Supplementary Command. Before 1928 he was retired. In 1934, as a retired lieutenant, he remained in the records of the Poviat Supplementary Command Wadowice. In 1929, as a result of myocarditis and kidney failure, his wife died, and three years later, his son Edmund Wojtyla died of scarlet fever. In 1938 he moved from Wadowice, together with his adolescent son Karol, to Kraków. He died there on February 18, 1941. He was buried in the military cemetery on Prandoty Street in Kraków.
Commemoration/beatification process
The role of Karol Wojtyła Senior in the film played Olgierd Łukaszewicz and Robert Mazurkiewicz in the Pope John Paul II and Alfred Burke in the film Pope John Paul II. In 2018 his and his wife's name was given to one of the streets in Lublin. The Wojtyls are also patrons of the street in Wadowice. On 11 March 2020 Marek Jędraszewski, Archbishop of Kraków, announced the beginning of the process of beatification of Karol and Emilia Wojtyła; officially the process of beatification of John Paul II's parents began on 7 May 2020 in Wadowice.
