As news accounts have noted, Pope Francis is a man of many firsts: the first Jesuit selected to lead the Roman Catholic Church, and the first pope from Latin America. And the media has also highlighted that he is the first pope from outside Europe in 1,300 years, which raises the question: under what circumstances did Catholicism embrace a non-European pope?

In fact, during the first First Millennium it was not that uncommon to have popes who were born or had roots outside Europe, with several having been born in northern Africa or the Middle East. Most notable, of course, was Saint Peter, a disciple of Jesus who, as the first bishop of Rome, was considered the first pope and for whom Saint Peter’s Basilica is named. According to Catholic Online, he was born in Bethsaida on the northeastern shore of the Sea of Galilee and, according to Catholic teaching, established the church with the Apostle Paul in Rome, where he was crucified under Emperor Nero.

While early details about the lives of popes from the First Millennium are scarce, three popes are believed to have been either born or have had roots in Africa: Pope Victor I, who served for a decade starting in the year 189; Pope Miltiades, who served from either 310 or 311 until 314, and Pope Gelasius I, who had African roots but was believed to have been born in Rome. The popes with African roots reflected how at the beginning of the First Millennium, Rome still controlled large parts of coastal North Africa at a time when Christianity was spreading through the empire.

At least one pope, Theodore I, was born in Jerusalem and was considered Greek. And the last pope born outside Europe was John V, who was a Syrian born in Antioch in what is now part of Turkey. He oversaw the church for slightly more than a year starting in the summer of 685, ruling during the so-called Byzantine papacy, when Byzantium, which had previously controlled parts of Syria, held wide sway over the papal affairs.

— GERRY MULLANY