When Pope Francis was elected the 266th pope of the Catholic Church in March 2013, he became a pope of many firsts. He is the first non-European pope in 1,200 years, the first from the Americas and the first South American pope, representing the largest Catholic population in the world. He is the first Jesuit pope and the first pontiff to choose the name Francis, after St. Francis of Assisi, the patron of the animals who abandoned wealth and embraced a life of poverty and simplicity. Francis is also the first pope to be elected after a papal resignation in the modern era. Click through for more on what makes him different from his predecessors.
