The surname "Prevost" (originally: "Prévost") is from a French cognate[a] of the title "provost", originally from the Latin praepositus'[one] placed in charge'. Leo XIV's paternal grandfather's original family name was the Italian "Riggitano," which the grandfather changed to Prevost—the surname of the pope's French paternal great-grandmother—after settling in the United States.
Background
A documentary genealogical study of Pope Leo XIV's family by Henry Louis Gates in collaboration with the American Ancestors genealogy society and the Cuban Genealogy Club of Miami was published in The New York Times in June 2025. Looking at both his maternal and paternal ancestors, the study "so far identified, 40 are from France, 24 are from Italy and 21 are from Spain."[1] It was able to trace his father's side to Italy and France, and his mother's side to Spain and France. His paternal heritage comes from relatively recent immigration to Illinois in the United States from Italy and France. Several of his French ancestors on his maternal side came through French Canada (Quebec), and several of his Spanish ancestors through Havana, Cuba. Over generations, some of them made their way to French Louisiana, Spanish Louisiana or the state of Louisiana (see Louisiana Creole). In Louisiana, at least seventeen of his maternal ancestors are described in documents as having some measure of black African heritage (creoles of color), using such terms as mulatto, mulatress, mulâtress créole, free person of color, and quadroon. The pope's maternal grandparents migrated to Illinois from Louisiana in the early 1900s.[1]
View of Milazzo, Metropolitan City of Messina, Sicily region, Italy, the town of origin of the paternal grandfather of Pope Leo XIV.[14] His family name was originally Riggitano, later changed to Prevost once settled in the United States during the first Italian diaspora.[14]
John Prevost (born Salvatore Giovanni Gaetano Riggitano), the Pope's paternal grandfather
Leo XIV's paternal grandparents were John Riggitano Prevost (born Salvatore Giovanni Gaetano Riggitano, June 24, 1876 – May 22, 1960), a Sicilian immigrant from Milazzo near Messina;[14] and Suzanne Louise Marie Fontaine (February 2, 1894 – October 10, 1979), a French immigrant who was born in Le Havre, Normandy.[15][16] Riggitano was born on June 24, 1876, to Santi and Maria (néeAlioto),[14][17] emigrated to the United States in 1903 during the first Italian diaspora,[18] and settled in Illinois, where he worked as a teacher of music and language.[14] Fontaine was born in 1894 to Jeanne-Eugénie (néePrévost)[14] and Ernest-Auguste Fontaine. The latter was born on September 17, 1857 in Saint-Pierre-sur-Dives, Normandy region.[19][16]
Riggitano and Fontaine were in a relationship by March 1917, when they were arrested for "unbecoming conduct" following a report from Riggitano's estranged wife, Daisy F. Hughes (August 8, 1875 – June 25, 1939); the affair was covered in local newspapers at the time.[14] Fontaine gave birth to her and Riggitano's first son, John Centi—the uncle of Leo XIV—on July 23, 1917, and to Leo XIV's father, Louis, in 1920. The couple gave both boys the surname "Prevost" at birth and adopted it themselves; it had been Fontaine's mother's maiden name. Riggitano also changed his first name to "John". The couple were still together when Riggitano, now John Prevost, died in 1960.[14] Suzanne Prevost died in a Detroit hospital on October 10, 1979, at the age of 83.[19][14] Her death notice recorded that she was a member of the Third Order of Carmelites, a Roman Catholic religious order of laypeople.[14] The couple are buried at the Holy Sepulchre Cemetery in Alsip.
Maternal relations
Mildred Prevost (1911–1990)
Mildred "Millie" Prevost, c.1969
Leo XIV's mother, Mildred Agnes (néeMartínez; December 30, 1911[b] – June 18, 1990),[20][21] was born in Chicago to a Louisiana Creole family that had moved from the 7th Ward of New Orleans.[21] After attending Immaculata High School on the North Side of Chicago,[22] she graduated from DePaul University with a bachelor's degree in library science in 1947.[23] She earned a master's degree in education in 1949.[9] She married Louis Prevost, who was eight years younger than her, in her mid-30s. The couple had three sons: Louis, John, and Robert.[22] She was an accomplished singer and performer, having her own recording of the Ave Maria,[22] and competed in the 1941 Chicagoland Music Festival.[9] She worked as an educator and librarian at Von Steuben High School and for Holy Name Cathedral. She was the librarian at Mendel Catholic High School in Roseland, Chicago in the 1970s, and her son, now Leo XIV, later worked there, as well.[24]
Joseph Martínez and Louise Baquié were married at Our Lady of the Sacred Heart in New Orleans.Joseph Martínez, the Pope's maternal grandfather
Leo XIV's maternal grandparents were the Hispaniola-born mixed-race Joseph Martínez (1864–1926), and the New Orleans–born Louise Baquié (also rendered Baquiex; 1868–1945), a mixed-race Black Creole.[4][25][26] Joseph was born to Jacques and Marie Martínez in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic (then under Haitian occupation). Jacques and Marie were registered on the 1910 United States census as Maltese and Spanish respectively; however, they may have done so to pass as white.[27] Louise was born to Ferdinand Baquié and Eugénie Grambois in New Orleans.[28] Joseph and Louise married on September 17, 1887, at Our Lady of the Sacred Heart in New Orleans.[25][28]
In census documents, Joseph and Louise are variably described as Black or mulatto (mixed-race, of African and European heritage).[29] In the 1900 United States census, when they lived in New Orleans, they are listed as Black. However, in the 1920 United States census after they had moved to Chicago, they are listed as white.[28] Genealogist Chris Smothers speculated that such a change may have been a "survival strategy" if they passed as white.[29]
Joseph and Louise had six daughters: Irma, Marguerite, Lydia, Mildred, Ethel, Louise, and Hilda.[9][30][31] Louise and Hilda would become religious sisters and take the names Sister Mary Sulpice Martinez, R.S.M. and Sister Mary Amarita B.V.M., respectively.[32] Sister Mary Amarita, born November 26, 1906, took her first vows on August 15, 1928, and served as a music teacher in Iowa, Oregon, and Illinois before her 1945 death.[9] Sister Mary Sulpice died in 1999.[30]
Joseph and Louise owned a home in New Orleans's 7th Ward, which was later demolished to construct a highway bypass.[33][29] Some time between 1910 and 1912, the family moved to Chicago.[28] Louise died in November 1945.[34]
Earlier ancestors
Ferdinand David Baquié, Leo XIV's great-grandfather, was born in New Orleans on October 10, 1837.[35] He married Eugénie Grambois on September 19, 1864.[36] Ferdinand's mother was Céleste Lemelle, the daughter of Louis Lemelle and Céleste Olimpie Grandpres, who were married in Opelousas, Louisiana, in 1798, and were classified as quadroons, having one-fourth either African or Native American ancestry.[35]
Louisiana newspaper Avoyelles Journal proposed a theory according to which his great-grandfather Jacques Martínez was the son of Giacomo (Jacques) Martino (1806–1852), an Italian immigrant from Sanremo, Liguria (at the time in the First French Empire), and Marguerite Cadeneth (1799–1870), a Creole from East Feliciana Parish, Louisiana. The family name changed from Martino to Martínez in New Orleans.[38][39]
Louis Martín Prevost (born 1951)[40] is Leo XIV's eldest brother. As a child, he was an altar server.[13] He is a Navy veteran who lives in Florida.[7][4] After attending Mendel Catholic High School, graduating in 1969, Louis was drafted into the Navy in college, and later studied computer technology.[31] Louis is a vocal critic of the Democratic Party, having shared numerous posts on Facebook supporting the MAGA movement. He states that he and his brother, Leo XIV, know each other's political views, and they have had disagreements on certain topics.[41] He is married to Deborah Prevost.[42]
John Prevost
John Joseph Prevost (born 1953 or 1954)[43] is the middle brother in the Prevost family; he is younger than Louis Prevost, but one year older than Leo XIV.[31] He is a retired educator who lives in New Lenox, Illinois, having followed in his father's footsteps to pursue a career in schooling.[7]
Prevost attended Mendel Catholic High School, graduating in 1972.[44] He worked in Catholic schools for 35 years, including 27 years as a principal,[31], some of which was at at St. Gabriel Catholic School in Chicago.[45]
Notes
↑ Modern French: prévôt, 'provost'. See also Piedmontese: prevòst, 'priest'.
↑ The year is disputed; her gravestone lists her birth year as 1912, however baptismal records indicate she was baptized on February 4, 1912 with a birthdate of December 30, 1911.
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