A Complex Lineage II

Near the end the of the 2024 movie Conclave, the Dean of the College of Cardinals approaches the selected person, Vincent Benitez, Pope Innocent (XIV) and says, "Within the hour, you will be the most famous man in the world... " This now applies to Robert Francis Prevost, Pope Leo XIV, who was selected just over a month ago in the May 2025 conclave. Because of his position, there have been deep dives into his genealogy. First, there was the discovery of his Creole roots on his mother's side, and now a deep dive into his paternal ancestry, to try to figure out his Prevost line. It was baffling, even to  Robert Prevost about his paternal lineage, what he called the "French side". The findings, using information so far located, on his paternal lineage may be ripe and juicy for the gossip pages. They have solved the conundrum of the complex lineage on the Prevost line, by finding one man who used Prevost as an alias.

Pope Leo XIV

The Italians so much wanted an Italian Pope that they reported on a Jean Prevosto born the same date as Leo's grandfather in the Piedmont region of Italy; there is a major problem, however, as that Jean Prevosto died at age one. What the Italian fact checkers did not do, a group of genealogists affiliated with Geneanet and Genealogy Discord have found proof of where the Prevost surname arose. Leo's paternal grandfather is Italian, but from the far south end the football (soccer ball) being kicked--Sicily. The currently available facts show this to be an interesting story. A note to the readers, this story is murky due to either unlocated records, or there are reasons why the records do not exist. This poses the juicy part.

Leo's paternal grandfather was born 24 June 1876 in Sicily and was named Salvatore Giovanni Gaetano Riggitano. Leo's paternal grandmother is Suzanne Louise Marie Fontaine, aka Fabre, who was born in France on 2 Feb 1894. The thinking in the family was his grandfather was French, too, given that to his children and grandchildren he was known as John Prevost.

Salvatore Riggitano

Salvatore moved to the United States in 1903 and was well-known as a teacher of Romance languages. His son John, Leo's uncle, John Centi, was a professor of Romance languages, mainly at the University of Detroit. Pope Leo reads, and speaks five languages--English, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian and French, as well as an ability to read and use Latin and German, so he continues the multilingualism of the family. Leo, a math major at Villanova, may have had his grandfather's knack for languages and math, as Salvatore is reported to have received his diploma in languages, history, and mathematics on 22 February 1895. After receiving his degree, Salvatore worked for the Italian government in the court system. After arriving in the US, Salvatore first settled in Quincy, IL living with a sister and brother-in-law. He enrolled at St Francis Solanus college in that city, but he may have also taught varied languages. Leo's mother has been described as learned and teaching French, but also being a governess and  nurse. After about 1917, as one blogger put it, the family seems to have disappeared from official records for a few decades.

Salvatore was apparently well known in the world of foreign languages. In 1910, ads in the Chicago Tribune advertise the Riggitano Method of language instruction and by 1922 there is the Riggitano School of Languages. It was also featured in the 1923 Chicago Directory. His school, by 1934, has become the Riggitano-Prevost school. 

Salvatore and Daisy Marriage License

Salvatore was married in 1914 in a Baptist Church in Chicago to Daisy Hughes, then 38 years old, who was born near Ottumwa, IA.  She died in Chicago on 25 July 1939. Apparently, Salvatore met her while teaching in Iowa.  At the time of marriage, Salvatore was employed at the Spry School of Music. Salvatore's WWI draft registration lists Daisy as the contact, and has him living at 1716-18 Greenleaf, Chicago, and a teacher of languages at 116 S Michigan Ave. Daisy and Salvatore show up together in the 1920 census, and at the Greenleaf address, and no children are present. A Genealogy Discord report indicates that in 1917 scandal erupted in Quincy when Daisy accused and sought the arrest of her husband and a young woman named Suzanna Fountain for being "improperly mixed up." The suit was reported in varied news accounts. The Genealogy Discord report does not say anything if they were convicted of the crime. However, Suzanna ends up in April and May 1917 splitting time between Detroit and Toronto. But, on 22 July 1917 we find her in New York state where she gave birth to a boy at an infant home for unwed mothers in Lackawanna. The child is given the name Jean (John) Centi Prevost born to Suzanna Fontaine and a man identified as Jean Prevost on 23 July 1917. The father was named as Jean Prevost, whose occupation was an "Instructor." John Centi would be Pope Leo's uncle.

News Article on Love Triangle, 1917

The Pope's father, Louis "Lanti" Marius Prevost was born on 28 July 1920 in Chicago at 6037 Blackstone Ave. (I have not located a 1920 census record for Suzanna under Prevost, Fabre or Fontaine.)  If you have followed the dates that is the same year Salvatore Riggitano shows up in the 1920 US Census in the same household with Daisy, (bold by author for emphasis) but he is also under an alias (John Prevost) as the father of Pope Leo's dad. The birth record identifies the parents of Louis Marius Prevost as John Prevost and Suzanna Fabre (Fontaine) Prevost. Salvatore has taken an alias, and we know this by his own reporting. No divorce records for his marriage with Daisy Hughes, or any marriage records for him and Suzanna have so far been located, and they may not exist. He and Suzanne, apparently, are no where to be found in the 1930 or 1940 US Census. They do, however, appear in the 1950 US Census.   The 1942 draft record for Louis lists his father John Prevost as his contact, and at 5465 Ellis Ave, Chicago, IL.  As one blogger says, there is a reason the couple was not identified in census records, they were avoiding being located. This blogger suggests that the change in ID for the Pope's grandparents is that they never married. Who knows, someone may be digging deep to see if there are records of divorce (Salvatore and Daisy) and marriage (Salvatore (aka John) and Suzanna), not to mention an annulment for Salvatore. Or, it may well be that records are quickly being created.

John Prevost (Salvatore) Obituary

Suzanna Prevost Obituary

Genealogy Discord found varied clues-birthdates, occupations, and the like--to suggest that Salvatore Riggitano and John Prevost are the same man. But, the clues are not full proof. Undeniable proof that the two names are for one man goes to the US Congress and the man himself. The Alien Registration Act, enacted 28 June 1940, required all adult residents who were not citizens to register with the federal government. Suzanne registered under Fontaine, not Fabre, and Salvatore registered as John Riggitano Prevost; but he also identified that he entered the United States under the name Salvatore Giovanni Riggitano Aliota. This gets to that blogger, Frederic Thebault, who concludes that there are many errors in reporting for "the simple reason: they did not want to be clearly identified. Why? Simply because they were not married, and John Prevost, alias, Salvatore Giovanni Riggitano, was already married."

WWII Draft Registration of Louis M Prevost, Pope Leo's father

Interestingly, Suzanna was, according to her obituary, a third order Carmelite. So, where did the the Prevost surname come from? They used Suzanna's mother's maiden name. Suzanna's mother was Jeanne E Prevost, and she married Ernest Fontaine in 1863 (her parents were Romain Pascal Prevost and Jeanne Chauvin). The Pope's grandparents took on this surname, and it became the surname of their two children, John and Louis. 

Louis Prevost Birth Record
F

If the known situation holds (ie no divorce or marriage records) between Salvatore (John) and Suzanna they were in an irregular situation. Pope Francis had the desire to allow the church to better address, and be more merciful to irregular situations and in doing so was highly criticized by the traditional and conservatives of the Church. If no divorce and annulment record for John Prevost (Salvatore Riggitano), or a marriage record for Salvatore Riggitano or John Prevost to Suzanna Fontaine (Fabre) can be located, their situation was counter to church teaching. If this holds up, the Pope's father was the result of a non-married couple. Not only that, Leo's grandfather was married to another woman at the time of birth to both children. I am sure people are continuing to dig to see if additional records could be found, but some great genealogy minds who found the link for Prevost, have been unable to find a divorce or marriage records.

The Proof, top part of Alien Registration Form

Pope Leo has a complex lineage racially (Creole), and his paternal side lays out what may well be the complexities found in life, and how this differs from the perfection demanded of the laity by church law. It also shows that good things can came out of a such a situation. Both grandparents had Catholic funeral services. As Cardinal Sabbadin in Conclave states: "We are mortal men; we serve an ideal. We cannot always be ideal. Pope Francis tried to recognize this quote, and hence his position on the church needing to emphasize mercy. Francis attempts at recognizing such situations got him into a great deal of trouble with certain elements in the church.

Louis Prevost
Pope Leo's father

The union of Salvatore and Suzanna produced two sons, one in July 1917 at a home for unwed mothers, and the other (Pope Leo's dad, Louis) in Chicago in July 1920. A charge of an "improper relationship" was put forth by Daisy Hughes Riggitano in the spring of 1917. Researchers have yet to uncover a divorce record for Salvatore and Daisy, or a marriage record for Salvatore and Suzanna. Some unknowns remain making things murky, but wow what a story of a possible love triangle with the Pope's paternal grandfather at the apex. The lineage of Pope Leo is complex, and part may have been purposefully so.  Oh, the things that are hidden in the labyrinth of Leo's paternal grandparents, which added to his complex lineage.

NOTES: 

            1. Images from Google or Genealogy Discord report

            2.  Sean Meyer, part of the Genealogy Discord group in Muddy River News had this to say regarding the information: 

“There were just questions on, who is he?” he said. “We wanted to find that. We don’t want this to become like a negative press thing, or like a smear campaign, that the pope’s father was born out of wedlock. That was not our intention, and we don’t necessarily want it to be something that’s shameful.
“A lot of people don’t know what happened in their family tree, and I can guarantee, like a lot of us, have out-of-wedlock ancestors we just don’t know about. Obviously, there’s the context of him being the pope, and we definitely were concerned with that form of press, but we feel confident in the research."  

        3. Following quote, bold by author, was part of an address delivered by  Pope Leo XIV in June                    2025, to Seminar on Evangelizing Families Today and Tomorrow

Faith is primarily a response to God's love, and the greatest mistake we can make as Christians is, in the words of Saint Augustine, "to claim that Christ's grace consists in his example and not in the gift of his person" [Contra Iulianum opus imperfectum, II, 146]. How often, even in the not too distant past, have we forgotten this truth and presented Christian life mostly as a set of rules to be kept, replacing the marvelous experience of encountering Jesus – God who gives himself to us – with a moralistic, burdensome and unappealing religion that, in some ways, is impossible to live in concrete daily life.