According to John Prevost, when Robert was in kindergarten or first grade, a mother living nearby told the boy that he would become the first American pope.
The story was later reported by ABC News and other outlets following the 2025 conclave. John said the neighbor made the prediction when Robert was only about six years old.
The remarkable part is not merely that she mentioned the possibility of Robert becoming pope.
She reportedly specified something even more extraordinary: that he would become the first American pope.
At the time, that was a prediction with no obvious reason to come true.
American Catholics had certainly played important roles in the Church, but the papacy had never gone to a U.S.-born man.
And there was no reason for a six-year-old boy in suburban Chicago to appear destined for the highest office in the Catholic Church.
Robert was simply a child.
He played games.
He attended school.
He rode bikes with neighborhood children.
He played Monopoly and Risk.
He went to church.
He served as an altar boy.
And, according to his brother, he played priest.
There was no public evidence that the Catholic Church would one day choose him to lead more than a billion Catholics worldwide.
The prediction therefore remained what it was: a remarkable childhood story remembered by his family.
Until history caught up with it.
From Dolton to the Seminary
The boyhood stories become even more striking when placed beside what happened next.
Robert did not remain a child playing priest indefinitely.
His interest developed into an actual vocation.
After finishing eighth grade, he entered St. Augustine Seminary High School in Holland, Michigan. The school was operated by the Augustinians, the religious order that would eventually become central to his entire life.
The transition was significant.
He was no longer merely imitating a priest.
He was beginning to seriously discern whether he wanted to become one.
The Augustinian environment combined academic education, religious formation, prayer and community life. Robert studied Latin and participated in school activities while continuing to develop academically.
His future was not entirely predetermined, however.
Years later, Prevost acknowledged that he experienced doubts about the priesthood. In a 2024 conversation, he recalled wondering whether he should leave religious life, marry and have children.
That detail matters because it complicates the simple version of the childhood story.
It would be easy to tell the story as though a six-year-old boy knew exactly what his entire life would become.
The reality was more human.
Robert Prevost grew up with a strong vocation, but he still had to make decisions.
He had doubts.
He had choices.
And ultimately, he continued.
Mathematics, Theology and the Augustinians
After seminary high school, Prevost attended Villanova University in Pennsylvania, where he studied mathematics and philosophy. Vatican News records that he graduated in 1977 with a degree in mathematics.
At first glance, mathematics may seem far removed from the life of a priest.
But Prevost's education reflected an intellectual curiosity that would remain part of his career.
He later studied theology at the Catholic Theological Union in Chicago.
In 1977, he formally entered the novitiate of the Order of St. Augustine.
He made his first profession in 1978 and solemn vows in 1981.
Then came Rome.
At age 27, Prevost was sent to study canon law at the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas, commonly known as the Angelicum.
On June 19, 1982, he was ordained a priest at the Augustinian College of Saint Monica in Rome.
He was 26 years old, turning 27 later that year.
Vatican News has noted the striking symmetry of his life: the young Augustinian priest was ordained in a chapel just steps from the Vatican, decades before he would eventually live and work there as pope.
The ironing board was long behind him.
The pretend Masses were long behind him.
This was real priesthood.
Peru Changed His Life
If childhood shaped Prevost's vocation, Peru shaped his ministry.
In 1985, he was sent as a missionary to Peru, where he would spend many years serving communities in the country.