Pope Leo XIV, born in Chicago as Robert Francis Prevost, is a descendant of Creole people of color from New Orleans, according to a genealogist and confirmed by members of his family.
The Pope’s grandparents, Joseph Martinez and Louise Baquié, described as being either Black or mulatto in various historical documentation, moved to Chicago from New Orleans’ Seventh Ward in the early 20th century, where they had a daughter, Mildred Martinez, the mother of the Pope, reports The New York Times.
A New Orleans genealogist, Jari C. Honora, traced the Pope’s background Thursday, and the pontiff’s older brother, John Prevost, 71, confirmed the lineage to the Times.
Prevost, who lives in the Chicago suburbs, said in a text message late Thursday that the “discovery is just an additional reminder of how interwoven we are as Americans.”
He added that he hopes the news will “highlight the long history of Black Catholics, both free and enslaved, in this country, which includes the Holy Father’s family.”
Prevost said that their family does not identify as Black. It is also not clear if the new Pope has addressed his Creole ancestry publicly.
He added that their paternal grandparents came from France and that their father had been born in the United States.
The new Pope and his brothers never discussed their Creole roots, and “it was never an issue,” Prevost said.
The announcement of the new Pope’s selection on Thursday has focused mostly on his younger years in Chicago, which were followed by decades serving in Peru.
Honora works for the Historic New Orleans Collection museum in the French Quarter, and started investigating the Pope’s ancestry because of his French name, Prevost. Instead, he quickly found the connections to New Orleans.
“Both Joseph Norval Martinez and Louise Baquié were people of color, no doubt about it,” Honora said.
“We are all just a few degrees (or less than a few degrees) removed from each other,” he added.
The links connecting the new Pope to New Orleans included his grandparents’ marriage certificate from their wedding in New Orleans’ Seventh Ward in 1887, along with a photo of the Martinez family’s gravestone in Chicago, and an electric birth record for Mildred Martinez, showing she was born in Chicago in 1912.
The birth record shows Joseph Martinez and “Louis Baquiex” as Mildred’s parents. It lists that the father was born in the Dominican Republic and the mother in New Orleans.
The birthplace of the Pope’s maternal grandfather varied according to the records, however, Honora found records in the 1900 Census listing Martinez as Black, his birthplace as “Hayti,” and that his occupation was “cigar maker.”
In a 1870 Census record, Martinez’s birthplace was listed as Louisiana, but Honora said it is not uncommon for people to change their responses on Census records.
The Pope’s maternal grandparents were married at Our Lady of the Sacred Heart in New Orleans. The church was destroyed by a hurricane in 1915, but before that was located on Annette Street in the city’s Seventh Ward, which historically has been a center of Afro-Creole culture.
Lolita Villavasso Cherrie, who co-founded The Creole Genealogical and Historical Association, said the revelation of the heritage of Pope Leo XIV marks a key moment for the Louisiana Creoles’ history.
“I hate to say it, but we feel, many of us, that our history was hidden from us,” she said, as many Creoles were able to “pass” as being white.
Cherrie, a retired teacher, said that the advent of the internet allowed people to research their families’ histories and become more aware of their Creole background. Further, she said that many Louisiana Creoles migrated to Chicago in the 20th century.
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