With the election of Jorge Mario Cardinal Bergoglio as Pope Francis in 2013, there have been 266 popes in the history of the Roman Catholic Church. The pope is the spiritual leader of Catholicism and the visible head of the Catholic Church. He is the successor to Saint Peter, the first among the apostles and the first pope of Rome. This list contains the names of the popes of the Modern Age and the years that they reigned.

Nineteenth Century

252. Leo XII (1823-29)
253. Pius VIII (1829-30)
254. Gregory XVI (1831-46)
255. Blessed Pius IX (1846-78)
256. Leo XIII (1878-1903)

Twentieth Century

257. St. Pius X (1903-14)
258. Benedict XV (1914-22)
259. Pius XI (1922-39)
260. Pius XII (1939-58)
261. Blessed John XXIII (1958-63)
262. Paul VI (1963-78)
263. John Paul I (1978)
264. John Paul II (1978-2005)
265. Benedict XVI (2005-2013)
266. Francis (2013—)