Pope John Paul II Whipped Self, Slept on Floor

A new book by Monsignor Slawomir Oder, the man leading the campaign for the late Pope John Paul II's sainthood, claims that the former pontiff whipped himself with a belt, even on vacation, and slept on the floor as acts of penitence and to bring him closer to Christian perfection.

The book, "Why He's a Saint", also includes previously unpublished speeches and documents written by John Paul, including a memo from 1989 in which he said that he would resign if he became incapacitated.

Msg. Oder is the postulator for John Paul's canonization cause, and the book he wrote detailing the case for the late pope's sainthood was released on Tuesday. It was based on testimony of the 114 witnesses and boxes of documentation that Oder gathered on John Paul's life to support the case.

At a news conference Tuesday, Oder defended John Paul's practice of self-mortification, a practice used by some faithful to remind them of Jesus' suffering on the cross. Oder said:

"It's an instrument of Christian perfection."

In the book, Oder details how John Paul "frequently spent the night on the bare floor". He would also mess up his bed in the morning so that it would look like he had slept in the bed, so that he would not draw attention to his act of penitence.

Oder said, however, that the pope's acts of penitence were not just limited to sleeping on hard floors:

"But it wasn't limited to this. As some members of his close entourage in Poland and in the Vatican were able to hear with their own ears, John Paul flagellated himself. In his armoire, amid all the vestments and hanging on a hanger, was a belt which he used as a whip and which he always brought to Castel Gandolfo."

Castel Gandolfo was the papal retreat where John Paul would vacation each summer.

Pope Benedict XVI fast-tracked John Paul's potential for sainthood almost immediately after his death on April 2, 2005 by waiving the customary five-year waiting period. Last month, he got one step closer to a possible beatification, which is the first major milestone in the canonization process, when Benedict approved a decree on his "heroic virtues."

In order for John Paul to be beatified, the Vatican must now confirm a miracle attributed his intercession.