# By what name is a sainted dead Pope known? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 29, 2013, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/by-what-name-is-a-sainted-dead-pope-known/675038 "2013-11-29T01:03:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2013, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/by-what-name-is-a-sainted-dead-pope-known/675038/21 "2013-11-30T18:59:15Z")
> [@sailor](#): > > It probably comes from a combination of ignorance and a desire to give the monarchy a patina of tradition and respectability. No, he’s making it clear that his name is neither Juan nor Carlos, it’s Juan Carlos. He doesn’t continue any of the previous lines of Carloses or of Juanes (either of which was a mess of numerals; note also that at the time of his accesion his father Don Juan was still around and equally ill-considered by pretty much any side you care to name). Felipes on the other hand are numeral-safe, and none of the four Infantas have names that would have been numeral-problematic. ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2013, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/by-what-name-is-a-sainted-dead-pope-known/675038/22 "2013-11-30T19:06:49Z")
Hey, they are ALL “Saint So-and-So, DEAD Bishop”, “Saint This-and-That, DEAD Confessor”. One of the major (or mild, if you are a true believer) inconveniences of gaining that accolade. I, too, find merit in the explanation that the 1970s compound-name adopters (the first Pope John Paul and King Juan Carlos) would have deliberately chosen to include the ordinal so as to make it clear they were not to be part of the sequence of prior Johns, Pauls, Juanes or Carloses. The Spanish King in particular as a way of emphasizing a new beginning. (More currently, Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands reigns with a compound \*hyphenated \*name and follows the traditional style of not using an ordinal) ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2013, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/by-what-name-is-a-sainted-dead-pope-known/675038/23 "2013-12-01T01:50:49Z")
> [@Senegoid](#): > > If he is Saint Francis, will the name have some additional qualifier or number or something attached to it, to distinguish him from, you know, that _other_ Saint Francis? I don’t know in general, but there three St Augustines (or should that really be _Saints Augustine_), known respectively as [ul] [li]St Augustine of Hippo (the city where he was bishop) (AKA the great, or greater)[/li][li]St Augustine of Canterbury (where he was bishop) (AKA the less, or lesser)[/li][li] and St Augustine Webster. He is of much less historical importance than either of the others, never got to a Bishop, and became a saint after the Reformation (indeed, was killed during it, by Henry VIII’s guys), which means he is only a saint for Catholics, and not for Protestants at all.\* Unlike the other two, however, he did have a surname, so he gets differentiated by that (when he gets mentioned at all).[/li][/ul] ¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬ \*I seem to remember reading somewhere that Francis of Assisi is the last, i.e., most recent, saint to be recognized as such by Protestants. Is that right? Surely there must have been other saints canonized in the ~300 years between Francis and Martin Luther? What did they do wrong? ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2013, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/by-what-name-is-a-sainted-dead-pope-known/675038/24 "2013-12-01T02:15:49Z")
> [@njtt](#): > > (or should that really be _Saints Augustine_) This is the form I would use. Just as there have been VI Kings George so far, and XXIII Popes John, and 2 Presidents Roosevelt. ETA: And, I think, VII Queens Cleopatra. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![sailor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a587f6/32.png) [@sailor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sailor)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2013, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/by-what-name-is-a-sainted-dead-pope-known/675038/25 "2013-12-01T02:23:58Z")
> [@njtt](#): > > St Augustine Webster. He is of much less historical importance Well, he did author the Holy Dictionary. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/by-what-name-is-a-sainted-dead-pope-known/675038.md?page=1)