Pope Benedict XVI may not have had the chrisma Pope John Paul II had but here are some interesting information on our current Pope in The Vatican. Did you know Pope Benedict XVI is only the 2nd non-Italian Pope in over 400 years. When he became Pope in 2005 he was the 5th oldest Pope in history to be elected at aged 78. At the moment Pope Benedict XVI is the 8th oldest Pope in history, the oldest Pope ever was Pope Leo XIII who died age 93 in 1903.
Pope Benedict XVI was born the 16th of April 1927 which is actually the day after Leonardo Di Vinci’s birthday. And finally it is also worth noting that Pope Benedict XVI did not want to become Pope and was hoping to retire peacefully. He famously said “”At a certain point, I prayed to God ‘please don’t do this to me’…Evidently, this time He didn’t listen to me.”
We do tours of the Vatican museums and Sistine chapel. Click Roman Empire Tours and you can also see our 5 star reviews on tripadvisor.