Genealogists have uncovered a hidden chapter in Leo XIV’s family history.
His French grandmother, Suzanne Fontaine, became pregnant amid an adultery involving married Sicilian language teacher Salvatore Riggitano. She fled from France in 1917 and gave birth in a Catholic mother and baby home near the US-Canada border.
Records from the birth show the family using assumed names, including Prevost. Riggitano later appears to have led a double life for years, while “Prevost” endured as the family name eventually inherited by the future pope.
en.news Novena - Oremus