The late Pope Francis, born Jorge Mario Bergoglio on December 17, 1936, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, was the 266th pope of the Roman Catholic Church.
He was also the head of the Vatican City State.
He became pope on March 13, 2013, following the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI, becoming the first pope from the Americas and the first Jesuit pope.
He was the first pope from the Society of Jesus (the Jesuit Order), the first from the Americas and the Southern Hemisphere, and the first born or raised outside Europe since the 8th-century Syrian pope Gregory III.
Before his papacy, Pope Francis served as the Archbishop of Buenos Aires and was a cardinal in the Vatican.
by Hillary Bett
