Pope Innocent IV chose Giovanni to head this mission, and apparently was in charge of nearly everything in the mission. As a papal legate, he bore a letter from the Pope to the Great Khan, "Cum non solum". "At the age of sixty-three Carpini embarked from Lyon," where the Pope then resided, on Easter day (16 April 1245), accompanied by another friar, Stephen of Bohemia, who broke down at Kaniv near Kyiv and was left behind. After seeking counsel of an old friend, Wenceslaus, king of Bohemia, Giovanni was joined at Wrocław by another Franciscan, Benedykt Polak, appointed to act as interpreter.