# Who was the last Pope with a living mother?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-last-pope-with-a-living-mother/1017547
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [April 26, 2025, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-last-pope-with-a-living-mother/1017547 "2025-04-26T22:35:27Z")
**Posts on this page:** 5
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)
#### Post date: [April 26, 2025, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-last-pope-with-a-living-mother/1017547/1 "2025-04-26T22:35:27Z")
Who was the past Pope who’s mother was still alive to see her son become Pope?
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### Author:  [@gkster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gkster)
#### Post date: [April 27, 2025, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-last-pope-with-a-living-mother/1017547/2 "2025-04-27T01:12:54Z")
Interesting question. I’m looking on Wikipedia and have gotten as far back as Benedict XIV, who became Pope in 1740, and I haven’t found one yet.
For a few of the popes in the 1800s and several in the 1700s, their mothers’ names are given, but no date of death is provided. It’s remotely possible but unlikely that one of these popes had a living mother, since they were at least in their late 60s.
I thought that John Paul II, who was only 58 when he became pope, would have been a possibility, but his mother died when he was 8. And she was 37 when he was born and would have been 93 in 1978.
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### Author:  [@Schnitte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Schnitte)
#### Post date: [April 27, 2025, 6:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-last-pope-with-a-living-mother/1017547/3 "2025-04-27T06:56:32Z")
[Boniface IX](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Boniface_IX) was one of those medieval popes with a reputation for nepotism, and in his case records say that he provided generously for his family, including his mother. I don’t know if there are more recent ones whose mother died after the beginning of their papacy, but it’s at least a starting point. I also asked ChatGPT this question and it gave John XXIII as an answer, but this must be wrong because he was elected in 1958 and various online sources say his mother died in 1939.
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### Author:  [@gkster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gkster)
#### Post date: [April 28, 2025, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-last-pope-with-a-living-mother/1017547/4 "2025-04-28T22:36:07Z")
LOL, I’m always amused to see ChatGPT misstatements. John XXIII was 78 when he was elected and his mother would have been 103 if she hadn’t died 19 years earlier.
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### Author:  [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)
#### Post date: [April 28, 2025, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-last-pope-with-a-living-mother/1017547/5 "2025-04-28T22:40:27Z")
Never mind…I was waaay off (and wrong).