2013 papal conclave
Jorge Mario Bergoglio is elected Pope Francis
View full image ↗ How was this image made?
The creative brief sent to the image model. These are instructions, not a record of what actually happened.
Original prompt & settings (JSON) ↗White smoke came at 7:06 p.m. The crowd waited another 66 minutes to hear the name — and then heard a papal name nobody had used before.
7:06, 8:12, 8:22
The 115 cardinal electors meeting in the Sistine Chapel elected Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, archbishop of Buenos Aires, on 13 March 2013. White smoke emerged at 7:06 p.m. Rome time.
At 8:12 p.m., Cardinal Protodeacon Jean-Louis Tauran announced the election from the central loggia of St. Peter's Basilica and disclosed that Bergoglio had taken the name Francis.
Francis appeared on the loggia at 8:22 p.m., opened with an informal “Brothers and sisters, good evening,” and joked that the cardinals had gone almost to the end of the earth to find Rome's bishop.
A blessing he asked for before giving
He led prayers for Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, whose resignation had taken effect at 8:00 p.m. on 28 February and left the See of Rome vacant.
Then he bowed his head and asked tens of thousands of strangers to pray silently for a blessing upon him, before he blessed them.
He later explained the name: Cardinal Cláudio Hummes, seated beside him, had embraced him after the decisive vote and told him not to forget the poor, which set him thinking of Francis of Assisi while the final ballots were still being counted.
What the numbers and the name mean
He was the 266th pope and the 265th successor of St. Peter — compatible counts, because Peter is counted as the first pope but not as his own successor.
His name is Francis, not Francis I; a numeral would ordinarily be added only if a later pope chose the same name. The election and his acceptance made him pope that evening, while the Mass of 19 March inaugurated his public ministry rather than conferring the office.
He was the first Jesuit pope and the first from the Americas, though not the first non-European: several early popes came from North Africa or the eastern Mediterranean. The ballot totals remain secret.
Sources
Researched 24 Aug 2026 7 sources not yet audited
How this was checked
Researched from the web into a fact sheet and rewritten from that sheet. This article has not yet had an independent model audit. How the pipeline works →