On the anniversary of the 1981 assassination attempt on St. Pope John Paul II, Pope Leo XIV knelt in prayer May 13 at the spot in St. Peter’s Square where the late pontiff was shot 45 years earlier.
Pope Leo stopped to pray ahead of his weekly general audience and on the Feast of Our Lady of Fatima. As he made his way through the crowd after exiting the popemobile, the Holy Father stopped and knelt at a white marble plaque embedded in the square’s pavement that marks the site.
Before beginning his General Audience, Pope Leo XIV stops to pray where St. John Paul II was shot on May 13, 1981. pic.twitter.com/07RWEXj46j
— Zeale News (@ZealeNews) May 13, 2026
The plaque, bearing Pope John Paul II’s coat of arms and the date of the attack, is a frequent site of pilgrimage and quiet devotion in the square.
On May 13, 1981, Turkish gunman Mehmet Ali Ağca fired four shots at Pope John Paul II as he greeted pilgrims, seriously wounding the Polish pontiff in the abdomen, according to Vatican News. After undergoing surgery at Rome’s Gemelli Hospital, Pope John Paul II addressed the faithful during a Regina Caeli message from the hospital four days later and publicly spoke of forgiving Ağca and formally did so two years after the assassination attempt.
The late pontiff, who died in 2005, repeatedly credited his survival to the intercession of the Virgin Mary.
“One hand fired, and another guided the bullet,” he once said, crediting Our Lady of Fatima for saving his life on her feast day.
In thanksgiving, he had a mosaic image of the Virgin Mother, titled Mater Ecclesia (Mother of the Church), installed on the facade of the Apostolic Palace overlooking St. Peter’s Square. The image was blessed on Dec. 8, 1981, the Feast of the Immaculate Conception.
One year after the assassination attempt, St. John Paul II traveled to the Shrine of Our Lady of Fatima in Portugal to thank the Blessed Mother for saving his life. He offered the local bishop the bullet extracted from his body, and it was later embedded in the crown of the statue of Our Lady of Fatima.
During his greetings to pilgrims, Pope Leo highlighted both the memorial of Our Lady of Fatima and the assassination attempt on St. John Paul II, saying that “for these reasons, I dedicated my catechesis today to the Blessed Virgin Mary.”
He also encouraged the faithful to look to the Shrine of Our Lady of Fatima, where Mary “entrusted a message of peace to the three shepherd children.”
"In that place, so dear to Christianity, numerous pilgrims from all five continents gather today: their presence is a sign of the need for consolation, unity, and hope among the people of our time,” Pope Leo said, according to Vatican News. “Let us entrust to the Immaculate Heart of Mary the cry for peace and harmony rising from every part of the world, especially from peoples afflicted by war. My blessing to all!"