RELIGIOUS FIGURE

Pope Francis

1936 - 2025

Photo of Pope Francis

Icon of person Pope Francis

Pope Francis (born Jorge Mario Bergoglio; 17 December 1936 – 21 April 2025) was the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 2013 until his death in 2025. He was the first pope from the Society of Jesus (the Jesuit Order), the first Latin American, the first from the Americas, the first from the Southern Hemisphere, and the first born or raised outside of Europe since the 8th-century Syrian pope Gregory III. Born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, to a family of Italian origin, Bergoglio was inspired to join the Jesuits in 1958 after recovering from severe illness. He was ordained a Catholic priest in 1969, and from 1973 to 1979 he was the Jesuit provincial superior in Argentina. He became the archbishop of Buenos Aires in 1998 and was created a cardinal in 2001 by Pope John Paul II. Following the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI on 28 February 2013, a papal conclave elected Bergoglio as his successor on 13 March. Read more on Wikipedia

Since 2007, the English Wikipedia page of Pope Francis has received more than 36,715,106 page views. His biography is available in 160 different languages on Wikipedia (up from 155 in 2019). Pope Francis is the 9th most popular religious figure (down from 7th in 2019), the 2nd most popular biography from Argentina and the most popular Argentinean Religious Figure.

Pope Francis is most famous for being the first non-European pope in over 1,200 years. He is also famous for his simple lifestyle and his focus on social justice and environmentalism.

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Memorability Metrics

  • 37M

    Page Views (PV)

  • 90.52

    Historical Popularity Index (HPI)

  • 160

    Languages Editions (L)

  • 18.14

    Effective Languages (L*)

  • 3.63

    Coefficient of Variation (CV)

Among RELIGIOUS FIGURES

Among religious figures, Pope Francis ranks 9 out of 3,187. Before him are Moses, Saint Peter, Abraham, Martin Luther, Mary, mother of Jesus, and Paul the Apostle. After him are Solomon, Saint Joseph, John the Baptist, Saint Nicholas, Tutankhamun, and Jacob.

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Contemporaries

Among people born in 1936, Pope Francis ranks 1. After him are Silvio Berlusconi, Václav Havel, Sepp Blatter, Alan Alda, Yves Saint Laurent, Barry Barish, Mario Vargas Llosa, Robert Redford, Ken Loach, Mikhail Tal, and Amancio Ortega. Among people deceased in 2025, Pope Francis ranks 1. After him are Mario Vargas Llosa, David Lynch, Gene Hackman, Boris Spassky, Marianne Faithfull, Jean-Marie Le Pen, Sam Nujoma, Horst Köhler, George Foreman, Aga Khan IV, and Val Kilmer.

Others Born in 1936

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Others Deceased in 2025

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In Argentina

Among people born in Argentina, Pope Francis ranks 2 out of 1,154. Before him are Che Guevara (1928). After him are Diego Maradona (1960), Jorge Luis Borges (1899), Alfredo Di Stéfano (1926), Eva Perón (1919), Juan Perón (1895), Astor Piazzolla (1921), Juan Manuel Fangio (1911), Lionel Messi (1987), Isabel Martínez de Perón (1931), and Jorge Rafael Videla (1925).

Others born in Argentina

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Among RELIGIOUS FIGURES In Argentina

Among religious figures born in Argentina, Pope Francis ranks 1. After him are Leonardo Sandri (1943), Mario Aurelio Poli (1947), Juan Carlos Aramburu (1912), Estanislao Esteban Karlic (1926), Jorge María Mejía (1923), Antonio Caggiano (1889), Eduardo Francisco Pironio (1920), Víctor Manuel Fernández (1962), Luis Héctor Villalba (1934), Egypt at the 2020 Summer Olympics (null), and Raúl Francisco Primatesta (1919).

Argentinean born Religious Figures

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