On 8 May 2025, white smoke rose above the Sistine Chapel and the world heard a name that no one had heard before in the 2,000-year history of the Catholic Church: Robert Francis Prevost. A 69-year-old Augustinian friar from Chicago, Illinois, had just been elected the 267th Pope — taking the name Leo XIV — becoming the first American-born pontiff in the history of the Church.

But behind that historic announcement lay an even more extraordinary story. Within hours of the election, genealogists across the United States began researching the new pope's family background — and what they found was a family tree of breathtaking depth and diversity. Sicilian immigrants, French Normans, Louisiana Creoles of colour, a World War II Navy veteran, a school librarian who sang Ave Maria — and roots stretching from New Orleans' 7th Ward to the hills of Sicily to the Normandy coast of France.

This is the story of the family that made a pope.

Who Is Pope Leo XIV?

Robert Francis Prevost was born on 14 September 1955 at Mercy Hospital in the Bronzeville neighbourhood of Chicago, Illinois. He was raised in the neighbouring town of Dolton, Illinois. He is the youngest of three brothers, brought up in a deeply Catholic home in Chicago's South Side. Wikipedia

He chose the papal name Leo XIV in honour of Pope Leo XIII — the great 19th-century pope who developed modern Catholic social teaching during the Industrial Revolution — as both a tribute to that legacy and a response to the challenges of today's era of artificial intelligence and economic inequality. Wikipedia

He is the first pope born in the United States, the first to hold Peruvian citizenship, the first from the Order of Saint Augustine, and — as genealogists quickly discovered — a man whose family roots span continents and cultures in ways that no papal biography had ever seen before.

His Father: Louis Marius Prevost — The Navy Veteran

Pope Leo XIV's father, Louis Marius Prevost (born Louis Lanti Omarius Prevost; 28 July 1920 – 8 November 1997), was born in Chicago, Illinois, and raised in the Hyde Park neighbourhood on the city's South Side. Wikipedia — Family of Pope Leo XIV

Louis Prevost served his country with extraordinary distinction. During World War II, he served in the United States Navy, commanding an infantry landing craft during the Normandy landings on D-Day — one of the most dangerous and pivotal military operations in history. He later participated in Operation Dragoon, the Allied invasion of southern France. By the end of his 15-month deployment, he had achieved the rank of lieutenant, junior grade. Wikipedia — Family of Pope Leo XIV

After the war, Louis pursued education with the same discipline he had shown in uniform. He earned a Master of Arts degree from DePaul University in 1949. He went on to become superintendent of Brookwood School District 167 in Glenwood, Illinois — a career in education that mirrored the values of faith and service he and his wife instilled in their three sons. He was also a devout catechist — a teacher of the Catholic faith in his parish. In 1949, he purchased a house at 212 East 141st Place in Dolton, Illinois, where he raised his family. Wikipedia — Family of Pope Leo XIV

Louis Prevost passed away on 8 November 1997, eight years before his youngest son would become a bishop — and 28 years before he would become pope.

His Mother: Mildred Martínez Prevost — The Librarian with Louisiana Roots

If Louis Prevost represents the European immigrant story of 20th-century America, his wife Mildred Agnes Prevost (née Martínez) — born 2 January 1912, died 18 June 1990 — represents something altogether different and equally extraordinary: the story of Louisiana's Creole community, and of a family that carried its history quietly across generations.

Mildred Martínez was born in Chicago to a family that had migrated from the 7th Ward of New Orleans — one of the most historically significant neighbourhoods in American history, long known as the cultural heartland of Louisiana's Creole community. Historic New Orleans Collection

She grew up to become an accomplished woman in her own right. After attending Immaculata High School in Chicago, she graduated from DePaul University with a bachelor's degree in library science in 1947, and earned a master's degree in education in 1949. She worked as an educator and librarian, including at Von Steuben High School, at Holy Name Cathedral, and at Mendel Catholic High School in Roseland, Chicago — the very school where her youngest son Robert later worked. She was an accomplished singer who competed in the 1941 Chicagoland Music Festival and had her own recording of the Ave Maria. Wikipedia — Family of Pope Leo XIV

She married Louis Prevost — who was eight years younger than her — in her mid-30s. Together they were a profoundly devout couple. Pope Leo himself has spoken about how his parents prayed the rosary together every day of their lives, how his mother called him and his brothers to 6:30 a.m. Mass before school, and how she told them that Jesus "is your best friend." Wikipedia

Mildred Prevost died from cancer on 18 June 1990. She did not live to see her youngest son become a bishop, a cardinal, or the pope — but the faith she planted in him shaped every step of that journey.

The Extraordinary Discovery: Louisiana Creole and African Roots

Within hours of the papal announcement on 8 May 2025, family historian Jari C. Honora of the Historic New Orleans Collection began researching the new pope's ancestry. What he found made headlines worldwide.

Mildred Martínez's parents — Pope Leo XIV's maternal grandparents — were Joseph Martínez (1864–1926), born in Hispaniola (the Dominican Republic), and Louise Baquié (1868–1945), born in New Orleans. Both were mixed-race individuals from Louisiana's Creole of colour community. In census documents, Joseph and Louise were variably described as Black or mulatto (mixed-race, of African and European heritage). In the 1900 United States census, they are listed as Black. Wikipedia — Family of Pope Leo XIV

Joseph and Louise grew up in New Orleans's 7th Ward — an enclave for the city's Creoles of colour, a community with deep roots in African, French, Spanish, and Native American heritage. They married on 17 September 1887 at Our Lady of the Sacred Heart in New Orleans. Between 1910 and 1912, they moved north to Chicago — as many Louisiana families did during the Great Migration era — and their daughter Mildred was born there in 1912. Historic New Orleans Collection

A comprehensive genealogical study by Henry Louis Gates Jr., in collaboration with the American Ancestors genealogy society and the Cuban Genealogy Club of Miami, was published in The New York Times in June 2025. It found that among the pope's known ancestors, 40 are from France, 24 are from Italy, and 21 are from Spain, along with others born in Cuba, Haiti, and the United States. Wikipedia — Family of Pope Leo XIV

At least 17 of the pope's maternal ancestors identified in Louisiana are described in historical documents as having some measure of Black African heritage — with terms including mulatto, free person of color, and quadroon recorded across generations. Wikipedia — Family of Pope Leo XIV

The pope's great-great-grandmother Celeste Lemelle was a free woman of colour from a Creole family that made its wealth from cattle ranching. Her parents, Louis Lemelle and Celeste Olimpie Grandpres, married in Opelousas, Louisiana in 1798 and were legally classified as "quadroons." NBC News

The pope's brother John Prevost confirmed this connection to The New York Times. He and his brothers had never openly discussed their Creole roots. "It was never an issue," John Prevost told the Times. Historian Honora noted that the family, like many Louisiana Creole families who moved north, "grew up considering themselves white Chicagoans." NBC News

This discovery has led many to describe Pope Leo XIV as potentially the first pope with documented African ancestry — a claim that is genealogically accurate, while recognising that questions of identity are deeply personal and tied to lived experience, not just lineage.

His Paternal Grandfather: A Sicilian Who Became Someone Else

On the other side of the family tree lies a story that is no less remarkable. The pope's paternal grandfather was born Salvatore Giovanni Gaetano Riggitano on 24 June 1876, in Milazzo, near Messina, Sicily. He emigrated to the United States in 1903 during the first great wave of Italian immigration, and settled in Illinois, where he worked as a teacher of music and language. Wikipedia — Family of Pope Leo XIV

In America, he fell into a relationship with a young French woman named Suzanne Louise Marie Fontaine, born in 1894 in Le Havre, Normandy. The story of how they came together — including a 1917 newspaper scandal — is a vivid snapshot of immigrant America. When their sons were born, they chose to give them the surname Prévost — which had been Suzanne's mother's maiden name. Salvatore Riggitano also took the first name John, reinventing himself as John Prevost. In doing so, he gave his descendants — including a future pope — the French surname they would carry to the Vatican. Wikipedia — Family of Pope Leo XIV

Their son Louis — the pope's father — was born in 1920, carrying a surname assembled from a Sicilian grandfather's decision and a French grandmother's maiden name.

His Paternal Grandmother: From Normandy to Illinois

Suzanne Louise Marie Fontaine (2 February 1894 – 10 October 1979) was born in Le Havre, Normandy, France, into a family with the maiden name Prévost on her mother's side — the very name that would become the papal surname. She emigrated to Illinois, raised her two sons as John Prevost and Louis Prevost, and lived as a devout Catholic. Her death notice recorded that she was a member of the Third Order of Carmelites. She and her partner John (formerly Salvatore) are buried together at Holy Sepulchre Cemetery in Alsip, Illinois. Wikipedia — Family of Pope Leo XIV

His Brothers: Louis and John Prevost

Pope Leo XIV is the youngest of three brothers. Wikipedia

Louis Martín Prevost (born 1951) is the eldest brother. John Joseph Prevost is the middle brother. Both brothers grew up alongside Robert in the same Dolton, Illinois, household, attending the same parish school of Mary of the Assumption, praying the rosary with their parents, and serving as altar boys alongside the boy who would one day lead the universal Catholic Church.

It was John Prevost who confirmed the family's Louisiana Creole connection to the press following the election — a quiet man suddenly thrust into global attention by virtue of his youngest brother's extraordinary journey.

The Prevost Family Tree at a Glance

Paternal Grandparents

  • Grandfather: Salvatore Giovanni Gaetano Riggitano (born Milazzo, Sicily, 1876; became John Prevost) — Italian immigrant, music and language teacher
  • Grandmother: Suzanne Louise Marie Fontaine (born Le Havre, Normandy, France, 1894) — French immigrant; her mother's maiden name was Prévost

Maternal Grandparents

  • Grandfather: Joseph Martínez (1864–1926) — born in Hispaniola; Creole of colour; cigar maker; migrated from New Orleans to Chicago c.1910–1912
  • Grandmother: Louise Baquié (1868–1945) — born New Orleans, Louisiana; Afro-Creole; from the 7th Ward

Parents

  • Father: Louis Marius Prevost (28 July 1920 – 8 November 1997) — born Chicago; World War II Navy veteran (Normandy landings, Operation Dragoon); MA from DePaul University; superintendent of Brookwood School District 167
  • Mother: Mildred Agnes Martínez Prevost (2 January 1912 – 18 June 1990) — born Chicago to Louisiana Creole family; educator and school librarian; DePaul University graduate; accomplished singer; died of cancer 1990

Children of Louis and Mildred Prevost

  • Eldest: Louis Martín Prevost (born 1951)
  • Middle: John Joseph Prevost
  • Youngest: Robert Francis Prevost (born 14 September 1955, Chicago) — elected Pope Leo XIV on 8 May 2025

Ancestry Summary

  • Paternal: Sicilian Italian (grandfather) + French Norman (grandmother)
  • Maternal: Louisiana Creole of colour (grandparents) — documented African, French, and Spanish ancestry
  • Among known ancestors: 40 from France, 24 from Italy, 21 from Spain, plus Cuban, Haitian, and American-born ancestors

Education and Path to the Papacy

Robert Prevost grew up in the parish school of Mary of the Assumption in Dolton, sang in the choir, and served as an altar boy. From childhood, he played at celebrating Mass with his brothers at home — a boy already drawn, instinctively, toward the altar.

He earned a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics from Villanova University in 1977, followed by a Master of Divinity from the Catholic Theological Union in Chicago. He joined the Order of Saint Augustine in 1977 and was ordained as a priest in 1982. He later earned a Doctor of Canon Law (JCD) from the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas in Rome in 1987. Hellovybes

His missionary service in Peru spanned the 1980s and 1990s — years spent as a parish pastor, seminary teacher, and diocesan official. He served as Bishop of Chiclayo, Peru, from 2015 to 2023, during which time he customarily used the name Robert Francis Prevost Martínez in accordance with Spanish naming customs — his mother's family name, the Martínez that traces back to the 7th Ward of New Orleans. Wikipedia

In 2023, Pope Francis appointed him Prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops in Rome — one of the most powerful positions in the Vatican, responsible for overseeing the selection of Catholic bishops worldwide. That same year, he was made a cardinal. On 8 May 2025, following the death of Pope Francis, he was elected pope by 99 votes in the conclave. National Catholic Reporter

What the Prevost Family Story Teaches Us

The family tree of Pope Leo XIV is one of the most remarkable genealogical stories of modern times — not because it is the story of popes or kings, but because it is the story of America itself.

A Sicilian immigrant who reinvented his name and identity in Illinois. A French woman from Normandy who carried her mother's surname across the Atlantic. A Louisiana Creole family that quietly carried their New Orleans roots northward during the Great Migration, letting their identities shift as new cities required. A World War II Navy veteran who commanded a landing craft at Normandy. A school librarian who sang Ave Maria and prayed the rosary every day of her life.

These are not famous people. They are the ordinary ancestors of an extraordinary man — the kind of people whose stories live on paper in census records and parish registers, not in history books. And yet, from this convergence of Sicilian, French, Spanish, African, Creole, and American threads, came a man who now leads 1.4 billion Catholics around the world.

The genealogist Alex DaPaul Lee put it best: "His rise is not just a religious milestone, it's a historical affirmation. The pope's ancestry represents a more inclusive view of what it means to be a Catholic, and what it means to be an American with Louisiana Creole ties. This is more than just genealogy, it's a legacy." NBC News

For those passionate about family history and genealogy, the Pope Leo XIV family tree is a vivid reminder that the most extraordinary legacies often grow from the most quietly lived roots.

Inspired by the story of Pope Leo XIV's remarkable family? Every family — whatever its heritage, wherever its roots — has a story worth preserving. Start building your own family tree today with the Family Root App.

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