(LifeSiteNews) — Pope Leo XIV has made history for becoming the Catholic Church’s first American, and Augustinian, pontiff.
Robert Francis Prevost (the future Pope Leo XIV) was born on September 14, 1955, to Louis Marius Prevost, of French and Italian descent, and Mildred Martínez, of Spanish descent. He was raised in south suburban Dolton, Illinois, and attended the Catholic Theological Union of Chicago in the city’s Hyde Park neighborhood, per a CBS News report.
According to Forbes, Pope Leo XIV’s maternal family line can be traced back to at least the 1840s among “free people of color” in New Orleans, per Jari C. Honora, genealogist with the Historic New Orleans Collection, a research center documenting the city’s history.
Subsequently, Prevost taught at Mendel Catholic High School, where his mother worked as a librarian.
A woman who was the future pope’s childhood friend testified to CBS News that the Prevost family were active churchgoers.
READ: First homily of Pope Leo XIV: Full transcript
“His family was very, very devout Catholics. I will say that. The mom and dad both were,” Linda Jorsch told the station. “They never missed church, and they were very active within our parish. His mom was like a member of the Altar & Rosary Society. They were lectors in their church – very active, very devout family.”
Notably, the Prevost family were parishioners at St. Mary of the Assumption Church, at 13764 S. Leyden Ave. in Chicago’s Riverdale neighborhood, next to suburban Riverdale and Dolton. The future pope also served as an altar boy at the same church, CBS News added.
After graduating from Villanova University in Pennsylvania with a degree in mathematics, Prevost read theology at the Catholic Theological Union of Chicago, eventually graduating with a Master’s of Divinity.
During his graduate studies, Prevost taught mathematics part-time and occasionally taught physics at Chicago’s St. Rita High School.
When Prevost was 27, he went to Rome to further his studies, and he was ordained as a priest in 1982 by Archbishop Jean Jadot in Rome. At that time, Archbishop Jadot was the pro-president of the Secretariat for Non-Christians, which subsequently became the Pontifical Council and then Dicastery for Interreligious Dialogue.
READ: Cardinal Prevost elected as Pope Leo XIV
After his stint in Rome, Prevost led the Diocese of Chulucanas in Peru in 1985 while working on his thesis on “The Role of the Local Prior in the Order of Saint Augustine,” which he then defended in 1987, according to Forbes. Moreover, Prevost was nominated as vocations and missions director of the Augustinian Province of “Mother of Good Counsel” in Olympia Fields, Illinois.
During his time in Peru, Prevost served as a parish pastor, seminary teacher, and diocesan official. In 1988, Prevost was stationed in Trujillo, Peru, where he spent the next ten years leading the local archdiocese. A biographical report on Prevost by Vatican News stated:
Over the course of eleven years, he served as prior of the community (1988–1992), formation director (1988–1998), and instructor for professed members (1992–1998), and in the Archdiocese of Trujillo as judicial vicar (1989–1998) and professor of Canon Law, Patristics, and Moral Theology at the Major Seminary ‘San Carlos y San Marcelo.’ At the same time, he was also entrusted with the pastoral care of Our Lady Mother of the Church, later established as the parish of Saint Rita (1988–1999), in a poor suburb of the city, and was parish administrator of Our Lady of Monserrat from 1992 to 1999.
In 1999, Prevost returned to his hometown after getting elected to lead the Augustinian Province of Chicago. Two-and-a-half years later, the ordinary general chapter of the Order of Saint Augustine appointed Prevost as prior general, a position Prevost continued to serve for a second term.
In October 2013, Prevost returned to his Augustinian Province in Chicago, serving as director of formation at the Saint Augustine Convent, first councilor, and provincial vicar – roles he kept until Pope Francis nominated him as Apostolic Administrator of the Peruvian Diocese of Chiclayo and appointing him Titular Bishop of Sufar in 2014.
The future pope entered the diocese on November 7, and was ordained bishop by Apostolic Nuncio James Patrick Green on December 12, the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, in the Cathedral of Saint Mary.
In 2023, Prevost was selected to be a cardinal by Pope Francis after years of serving the Catholic Church. The late pope also appointed Prevost as prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops that same year.
During Pope Francis’ hospitalization earlier this year, Prevost led the Rosary for Pope Francis’ health in Saint Peter’s Square on March 3.
