On May 9, multiple identical posts (1;2;3;4;5) were circulated on Facebook, claiming that the newly elected Pope Leo XIV has Georgian roots. According to the posts, Robert Francis Prevost’s maternal grandfather, Giorgi Gabrielashvili, was originally from Gori and emigrated to France in 1921, where his daughter, Margarita, was born. The posts claim that Margarita later moved to the United States and married Robert Prevost’s father.
The claims that Pope Leo XIV has Georgian ancestry originated from a satirical post. The author included hashtags in the description such as: satire, sarcasm, and allegory. Additionally, in the comments, the author confirmed that the information is not true. The newly elected pope’s mother, Mildred Martinez, was of Spanish descent.
The first person to post the information on social media that the Pope has Georgian roots on his mother’s side was Facebook user Giorgi Chubinidze. At the end of the post, the author includes hashtags such as satire, sarcasm, and allegory. These hashtags indicate that the text is satirical. The author also confirms in the comments that the information is not true but invented by himself. For example, in one comment, the author advises Facebook users to listen to a podcast so they stop believing “such fairy tales.” In another comment, he says he spreads “exquisite fake news.”
Furthermore, the claim that Robert Prevost’s grandfather was a Georgian man named Gabrielashvili is not supported by any open sources. The newly elected pope’s parents were Louis Marius Prevost and Mildred Martinez. Louis Marius Prevost was of Italian and French descent, while Mildred Martinez was of Spanish descent. According to publicly available information, Mildred Martinez was the daughter of Joseph Nerval Martinez and Louise Baquié Martinez.
The New York Times has published an article about Mildred Agnes Martinez. In 1947, Martinez earned a bachelor’s degree in education and married Louis Prevost, who was eight years her junior, before the age of 40. The couple had three sons within four years. According to the article, Mildred Prevost was actively involved in educating her children and teaching them how to live independently. She also frequently participated in charity costume events and plays at the school. She once even recorded her own rendition of “Ave Maria.” In addition, Mildred volunteered in the libraries of Catholic schools. Her deep Catholic faith is cited as the main reason that influenced Robert Prevost’s future path. Mildred Agnes Martinez passed away in 1990 from cancer. Her husband, Louis Marius Prevost, died in 1997.
After the death of Pope Francis, on May 8, white smoke emerged from the chimney of the Sistine Chapel — the conclave had elected a new pope. Robert Francis Prevost, who chose the papal name Leo XIV, became the first pope of American origin.
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