Many popes were born in Rome. Some were probably born in what is today the Vatican. It's impossible to say which are which, so I had to combine Italy and the Vatican
I am curious about this - is there anyone specifically likely to have been born in the vatican or is this a general statement for all the ones born in Rome?
Not for all of them I guess, some birth houses must be well documented, inside or outside Vatican, while others were probably born long before modern layout of Rome/Vatican
Especially weird because travel became much easier during the Industrial Revolution. I mean, earlier in history, the Church had an excuse for not having foreign popes, but why not during the Industrial Revolution, when people in Europe could easily travel by rail? I wonder if the lack of non-Italian popes in the 1800s and early 1900s had something to do with Italian nationalism.
Yes, but they were Romans, born before our Croatian ancestors came to this land that is today Croatia. But there is some strong evidence that pope Sixtus V was of Croatian origin, but born in Italy.
You could use this logic for every branch of all Abrahamic religions or even religions with Abrahamic influence. Is Sikhism rooted in Israel? Mormonism? Anglicanism? Shiism? Bahai? If your answer to all of these in "yes" then fair enough, but otherwise I really don't follow your logic here.
No, the Roman empire adopted Christianity under emperor Constantine, some time around the 4th century CE. Prior to that, the Romans worshiped a religion similar to the ancient Greeks (e.g.-Jupiter the Roman equivalent of Zeus, Minerva the Roman equivalent of Athena). Christians were once persecuted by the ancient Romans.
Syria was home to some of the oldest Christian communities in history. Remember Paul was supposedly converted by a vision he saw on the road to Damascus. You know where Damascus is, right?
Itd be interesting to know whether Paul's vision was in Syria or not. It was on the road to Damascus like kalbahamut said, but he was travelling from Jerusalem, so it may have been in Israel before he reached modern day Syria.
The French popes : Sylvester II (999-1003), Stephen IX (1057-58), Nicholas II (1059-61), Urban II (1088-99), Callixtus II (1119-24), Urban IV (1261-64), Clement IV (1265-68), Innocent V (1276), Martin IV (1281-85), Clement V (1305-14), John XXII (1316-34), Benedict XII (1334-42), Clement VI (1342-52), Innocent VI (1352-62), Urban V (1362-70), Gregory XI (1370-78).
The German popes : Boniface II (530-32), Gregory V (996-99), Clement II (1046-47), Damasus II (1048), Leo IX (1049-54), Victor II (1055-57), Benedict XVI (2005-13).
Almost as English-sounding - Adrian IV. He's quite important for Irish history since he 'gave' Ireland to Henry II of England. It's somewhat ironic that England's first attempt to subdue Ireland came with the blessing of the Roman Catholic church.
Tried Morocco; Algeria; Tunisia and Egypt, but decided there was too much desert in Libya - Yeah yeah - the Desert fathers and all that. Thought most of the north africans were Coptic.
Two of the German Popes are wrong: Pope Gregory V was born in Austria and Pope Leo IX was a German but was born in Egisheim in what is now Alsace, France.
Funnily enough, when you look up for Syrian Popes, you get a list of 6. Then on a more close scrutiny, you find out that 3 of the Syrian Popes where born on what then was Syrian but now it's not.
THERE AWESOME