There have been 264 popes, with John being the most common name. No pope has taken Peter’s name. The first pope was Saint Peter. There have been 21 Pope Johns, and the youngest pope was John XII. Pope Benedict IX was the only pope to serve more than once.
There have been 264 official popes of the Catholic Church, in the time of Pope Francis, who was elected on March 13, 2013. This total includes Pope Benedict IX once, despite having been pope three separate times, and does not count Stephen II who died earlier to be consecrated. Twenty-one pontiffs (just under 8%) have taken the more common papal name of John. The next most popular papal names were (in order of popularity): Benedict, Gregory, Clement and Innocent. No pope has ever taken Peter’s name because he would be interpreted as immodest as popes are seen as successors to the original pope, St. Peter.
Other papal facts:
Saint Peter, one of Jesus’ twelve apostles, was the first pope of the Catholic Church from about AD 32 to AD 67. (These dates vary between different sources.)
Although there is one Pope John XXIII, there have only been 21 Pope Johns. That’s because 24 people to use this name, two were antipopes and one didn’t actually exist: a numbering error meant the line ran from Pope John XIX to XXI, skipping XX.
Originally, popes were given their papal names. In 533, this changed when Pope John II chose that name over his given name of Mercury because the latter had pagan ties.
The youngest pope was John XII who was 18 years old in AD 955
Pope Benedict IX was the only man to have been Pope more than once after being expelled once and resigning to marry or sell the papacy (sources disagree on the true reason) another time.
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