From Chicago to Rome by way of Peru
The life of a son of Saint Augustine: Augustinian friar, missionary, Prior General of the Order and, since 2025, Bishop of Rome.
- Name
- Robert Francis Prevost
- Born
- Sep 14, 1955, Chicago
- Elected
- May 8, 2025
- Motto
- In illo uno unum
Biography
Robert Francis Prevost was born in Chicago on September 14, 1955. He is the youngest of three brothers, in a family closely tied to its parish. He studied at the Augustinian minor seminary in Michigan and earned a degree in Mathematics from Villanova University.
In 1977 he entered the novitiate of the Order of Saint Augustine. He made his solemn profession in 1981 and the following year was ordained a priest in Rome, where he earned a doctorate in Canon Law.
In 1985 he arrived as a missionary in Chulucanas, Peru. From 1988 he spent ten years in Trujillo, where he trained young Augustinians, taught at the seminary and served as a parish priest.
His brothers elected him Prior General of the Order in 2001 and confirmed him in 2007. In 2014 Pope Francis sent him to Chiclayo, first as apostolic administrator and, from 2015, as bishop; that same year he became a Peruvian citizen. His motto, In illo uno unum (“In the One, we are one”), comes from Saint Augustine.
In 2023 Francis called him to Rome as Prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops and President of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America, and made him a cardinal. On May 8, 2025 he was elected pope and took the name Leo XIV: he is the first pontiff born in the United States and the first from the Order of Saint Augustine.
Timeline
- 2001 Rome Elected Prior General of the Order of Saint Augustine. He serves two terms, until 2013.
Key speeches
Words of Leo XIV taken from his official texts, with a link to read them in full.
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I am an Augustinian, a son of Saint Augustine, who once said, “With you I am a Christian, and for you I am a bishop.”
First greeting from the loggia
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I chose to take the name Leo XIV. There are different reasons for this, but mainly because Pope Leo XIII in his historic Encyclical Rerum Novarum addressed the social question in the context of the first great industrial revolution.
To the College of Cardinals: why the name Leo
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Truly peaceful relationships cannot be built, also within the international community, apart from truth.
To the Diplomatic Corps: peace, justice and truth
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I would like that our first great desire be for a united Church, a sign of unity and communion, which becomes a leaven for a reconciled world.
Homily for the beginning of the pontificate
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I regard this journey as a special gift of God’s providence, a gift that the Lord wished to bestow upon the entire Church through an Augustinian Pope.
Homily in the Basilica of Saint Augustine
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A law does not attain its true greatness merely by having been formally enacted; it attains it when, in addition to being valid in form, it can stand before the dignity of the person and pass that test without shame.
Address to the Spanish Parliament
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Today, by the sea, the word of God becomes concrete: here so many wounded lives arrive, stripped of almost everything, but never of their dignity.
Meeting with migrants in Arguineguín
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The figure of Saint Augustine shines with particular brilliance. His thought, the story of his conversion, and his spirituality remind us of the value and primacy of the interior life.
Before the relics of Saint Augustine
Motto and coat of arms
“In the One, we are one.” The phrase comes from Saint Augustine. On the coat of arms, the pierced heart on a book: the emblem of the Order of Saint Augustine.