Your Top Three Favorite Popes

[Catholic21]

Mine are:

1. St. John Paul the Great
2. St. Gregory the Great
3. St. Peter

 

[Saxum]

St. John Paul the Great

Is this actually his title? I hope it is.

 

[Catholic21]

I feel that Leo Xll is great too!

 

[Catholic21]

@Saxum

I believe it is his title yes

 

[phil19034]

St. Albert wasn’t a Pope.

my bad… I don’t know what I was thinking… he became an advisor to the Pope. I guess I forgot he wasn’t a Pope because he has “the Great”

 

[Mary888]

1. Pope Sylvester I
2. Pope Gregory the Great
3. Pope Inocentius I

 

[phil19034]

Catholic21:

St. John Paul the Great

Is this actually his title? I hope it is.

Not officially, at least not yet.

However, there are MANY who are pushing for it… including John Paul the Great Catholic University and a number of Catholic schools that have been named “John Paul the Great”

Pope John Paul II - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[Saxum]

However, there are MANY who are pushing for it… including John Paul the Great Catholic University and a number of Catholic schools that have been named “John Paul the Great”

Normally, I’d say let the title be given naturally through spontaneous use. But in this case, I think an official bestowal of the title is warranted. He was a truly great Pope and a brilliant mind. More needs to be done to recognise his status and achievements.

 

[Dovekin]

John XXIII, who called the Second Vatican Council

Paul VI, who renewed the sacraments

Honorius III, who approved the Dominicans and Franciscans. (Wikipedia has this delightful sentence “in contrast with Innocent III, he sought [reform of the Church and the Crusades] by kindness and indulgence rather than by force and severity.”)

 

[Bixby]

Mine would be

1.) Gregory the Great

2.) Pius V

3.) Pius X

with Leo XIII a very, very close #4.

Saxum, I have to say I too was surprised at your pick of John Paul II. I’m not sure I share your enthusiasm, but I greatly respect your opinion; out of curiosity, which biography was it that so impacted you?

 

[ioannes_pius]

Alexander IV is up there as one of my personal “bad Popes” list.

 

[gracepoole]

I literally just burst out laughing.

 

[Dan_Defender]

1. Pope Clement I (c.92-c.99), thrown into sea with anchor around his neck.
2. Pope Pontian 230-235, condemned to mines in Sardinia and died on a prison island.
3. Pope John I, was sent as an envoy by Ostrogoth king Theodoric to Constantinople. Upon return, Theodoric accused John I of conspiracy with the Byzantine empire. Imprisoned and starved to death on 18 May 526.

I may have a slight bias towards martyrs

 

[Tis_Bearself]

I know there’s some controversy over whether Pope Clement was actually thrown into the sea. I like the imagery of it though, it reminds me of Dio’s “Holy Diver” album cover.

 

[Dan_Defender]

The Inkerman Cave Monastery marks the supposed place of Clement I’s burial in the Crimea. A year or two before his own death in 869, Saint Cyril brought to Rome what he believed to be the relics of Saint Clement, bones he found in the Crimea buried with an anchor on dry land. They are now enshrined in the Basilica di San Clemente. Other relics of Saint Clement I, including his head, are claimed by the Kiev Monastery of the Caves in Ukraine.