The New Pope Is Calling Himself Leo—Just Like 13 Other Pontiffs Who Came Before Him. Who Are They?

The New Pope Is Calling Himself Leo—Just Like 13 Other Pontiffs Who Came Before Him. Who Are They?

When Robert Prevost was elected pope this week, he chose one of the most popular papal names. The lives of the Pope Leos who preceded him may offer insight into his approach to the papacy

The adoption of the name Leo by the new pope is an opportunity to recall his predecessors with this name, at least several of whom played an important role in the Church and in the political life of their time. Of particular note are the first and last, before Robert Prevost, Bishops of Rome, bearing this name, which in Latin Leo means "lion". One could say, The article Popes Leones - "Lions of the Church" comes from the website Misyjne.pl.

There has been a Pope named Leo more than a dozen times. One had to do with the Huns, another with Luther. Leo XIV follows in great footsteps.

Frequency of papal names

The new pope chose the name Leo XIV. That made me curious about the distribution of names of popes and so I made the graph below. (I’m Protestant, so wasn’t familiar to me.) Looks like Leo is tied with Clement for fourth place, the top three names being John, Benedict, and Gregory. There are a few oddities in counting the names due to the time in the Middle Ages when there was disagreement over who was pope. For this reason some popes are listed…