Pope Francis’ hospitalization and illness have led to a lot of reflection in the media about popes future, and popes of the past. Indeed, even as the pope recovers, the Church is likely to be discussing the Francis papacy in the weeks to come, and especially the factors that made it historically unique.
One of these is that unlike most popes in history, Francis was not Italian. Neither was his predecessor, Benedict XVI, nor his predecessor, Pope St. John Paul II.
A string of non-Italian popes makes the recent decades of the Church unusual, especially because if you picked the name of a pope randomly out of a hat, the chances are that they would be Italian.
Since the first pope, St. Peter, was martyred in Rome, the Italian peninsula has been a privileged recruiting ground for the papacy.
Of history’s 266 popes, 217 were born in modern-day Italy, according to most counts. That means that four out of every five popes come from the land of pizza, pasta, and gelato.
All of the popes in the 455 years between the pontificates of the Netherlands’ Adrian VI and Poland’s John Paul II were Italian. Anyone living between 1523 and 1978 could reasonably have presumed that the papacy was an exclusively Italian vocation.
But that wasn’t always the case. Non-Italian popes are scattered across the centuries, testifying to the Church’s universality long before the great Catholic missionary era starting in the 15th century.
Here’s a guide to five non-Italian popes you might not have heard about — but each of them is memorable, and intriguing.
🇬🇷 Pope Sixtus II
Historians aren’t sure where the third-century pope Sixtus II was born — or even when. According to the Liber pontificalis, a compilation of papal biographies, Sixtus came from modern-day Greece. But historians think the book confused him with a similarly named Greek philosopher.
Sixtus’ predecessor, Stephen I, had left the Church teetering on the brink of schism, amid a dispute between Rome and the churches of Africa and Asia Minor over rebaptizing heretics. Sixtus, a more conciliatory figure, was able to cool the controversy — an impressive achievement given he was pope for less than a year.
Years before Sixtus’ election, Valerian had risen to power as the Roman emperor, unleashing persecution against Christians who refused to acknowledge the Roman gods. In the blood-soaked year of 258, Sixtus was seized along with several deacons and beheaded. He was recognized as a saint and is mentioned at Masses whenever the Roman Canon (Eucharistic Prayer I) is recited.
🇸🇾 Pope Gregory III
The eighth-century pope Gregory III’s year of birth and birthplace are also unknown. But historians believe he was Syrian. He was reputedly elected pope by acclamation while participating in his predecessor’s funeral procession, because of his reputation for scholarship and holiness.
Gregory was immediately embroiled in the Iconoclastic Controversy, triggered by the Byzantine Emperor Leo III’s ban on religious imagery. Gregory upheld the importance of devotional images, underlining his disagreement with the emperor by paying them special honor in St. Peter’s Basilica.
He offered considerable support to St. Boniface in his mission to evangelize Germany, and is said to have banned the consumption of horse meat, because of its pagan associations. The last years of his pontificate were overshadowed by tensions in the Italian peninsula between the Lombards, a Germanic people, and the Byzantines.
After Gregory’s death in 741, there would be a 1,272-year wait for another non-European pope, ending in 2013 with the election of Pope Francis.
🏴 Pope Adrian IV
The origins of the 12th-century pope Adrian IV are also somewhat mysterious. Born in England, he left to complete his studies in France, where he took monastic vows, rose to the post of abbot, and began traveling to Rome. There, he caught the eye of Pope Eugene III, who deployed him as a sort of international troubleshooter.
After a spectacularly successful mission to Norway and Sweden, he was hailed in Rome as the “Apostle of the North.” Perhaps on the strength of this, he was elected pope in 1154, becoming the first (and so far only) Englishman to hold the post.
Adrian faced a chaotic, divided world in which he sought to assert papal authority. He had a notable standoff with Frederick Barbarossa outside of Rome in 1155. Barbarossa wanted the pope to crown him as Holy Roman Emperor. But when he approached Adrian, he failed to help the pope descend from his horse, a traditional sign of homage. In turn, Adrian refused to offer the kiss of peace. Barbarossa eventually offered his full homage and was crowned at St. Peter’s, on a day marred by clashes between the emperor’s forces and Roman locals.
🇵🇹 Pope John XXI
The 13th-century pope John XXI was born in Lisbon, Portugal, around the year 1215. An academically brilliant man, he studied at the University of Paris, making his mark in fields such as medicine, theology, logic, and metaphysics. He gained the favor of Pope Gregory X, who died in January 1276.
Over the following months, a surprising series of events unfolded that led to 1276 being dubbed “the year of four popes.” Gregory’s successor, Innocent V, died in June that year. Innocent’s successor, Adrian V, then died in August. The weary electors gathered for a third time. After a protracted dispute, they elected the only man considered neutral, who took the name John XXI, although there hadn’t been a John XX.
Like those of his two immediate predecessors, John’s reign was short. It was also marked by misfortune. On May 14, 1277, the ceiling of his apartment collapsed and he died days later from the injuries, after just eight months in office. One of his few tangible acts as pope was to reinforce rules designed to speed up papal elections.
🇪🇸 Pope Alexander VI
Pope Alexander VI was born Rodrigo Borgia near the Spanish city of Valencia in 1431. His birth into the influential House of Borgia offered him great advantages, further enhanced when his uncle was elected as Pope Callixtus III in 1455. Callixtus showered his nephew with honors, naming him a cardinal deacon when he was just 25. Not long afterward, the pope appointed him vice-chancellor of the Roman Church, a hugely powerful (and lucrative) office. His contemporaries regarded him as a charming man, but suspected that behind his elegant facade lay depravity.
Having served for years as a kingmaker in conclaves, he emerged as a viable candidate for the papacy at the conclave of 1492, the first to be held in the Sistine Chapel. He was elected on the fourth ballot, but would be dogged by allegations of vote-buying. Despite Alexander VI’s ambivalent reputation, his election was greeted with joy by the people of Rome. He won further affection for restoring law and order to the city. He was also an energetic patron of the arts and science, and staged highly successful Jubilee celebrations in 1500.
Among Alexander VI’s favorite mistresses was Vannozza dei Cattanei, with whom he had four children, including Cesare Borgia, who would go on to inspire Machiavelli’s “The Prince,” and Lucrezia Borgia, a figure of great intrigue to historians who became the Duchess of Ferrara.
