Pope Leo XIV was elected by the College of Cardinals to succeed late Pope Francis as the successor of Saint Peter the Apostle on May 8, 2025. He is the 267th Pope.
He was born Robert Francis Prevost to Louis Marius Prevost and Mildred Martinez in Chicago on September 14, 1955.
He has two brothers, Louis Martin and John Joseph.
His early education was in Minor Seminary of Saint Augustine in Michigan from where he passed out in 1973.
He studied in Philadelphia’s Villanova University and graduated with a first degree in Mathematics in 1977.
He turned down several offers and joined the Augustinian Order and was ordained priest in Rome on 19 June, 1982.
Reverend Father Prevost has Master’s degree in Divinity from the Catholic Theological Union in Chicago and a Doctorate in Canon Law from the Pontifical College of Saint Thomas Aquinas in Rome.
He worked extensively in Peru from 1985 to 1998 as a missionary priest and also taught Mathematics to children who walked barefoot in the rural villages there.
He was made Cardinal by Pope Francis on September 30, 2023.
He speaks fluent Spanish, Italian, French, Portuguese and English and can read Latin and German.
Pope Leo XIV is the first North American and first Augustinian to be elected Pope, and possibly, the first mathematician to be a Pope.
