They say behind every successful man there is a woman. But not every time it is a wife or a lover, sometimes, it’s the woman who brought you into the world and taught you how to survive in it with your chin held high and eyes looking forward. Mothers across the world are given much less credit for what they do. They birth a human, teach them the right and wrong of the world, and are held responsible for how their children turn out. This is why days like Mother’s Day remind us to remember who really holds the credit for all our success.One such exemplary woman was Mildred Agnes Martinez Prevost, the mother of Pope Leo XIV. On Sunday, May 11, 2025, an estimated 100,000 pilgrims gathered at St. Peter’s Square as Pope Leo XIV stepped onto the central loggia of St. Peter’s Basilica for his first public Regina Caeli, the Marian prayer Catholics offer in place of the Angelus during the Easter season. While the whole world was expecting the Pope to recite it, he sang. He began intoning the ancient Marian hymn in clear, confident Latin and the crowd erupted in applause. But what many forgot, was that he did so on Mother’s Day, probably as a tribute to his own mother who also sang in a choir.
Meet Mildred Agnes Martinez Prevost
Mildred Agnes Martinez Prevost was born on December 30, 1911 in Chicago and baptized two months later at Holy Name Cathedral. She had graduated from Immaculata High School in 1929. In 1947, she earned a Bachelor of Science degree in education and attended graduate school at DePaul University, an academic path not many women achieved at the time.The youngest daughter in a large Catholic family, she waited until her mid-30s to marry Louis Prevost, who was eight years her junior, another peculiarity for a woman of the time. It was in her late 30s and early 40s that she welcomed three boys in the span of four years.By the time her youngest son, Robert Prevost arrived in 1955, Mildred had been singing in the choir at St. Mary of the Assumption parish for years. As per the Chicago Tribune archives, she was a soloist in a 1940 Mundelein College performance and a competitor in the 1941 Chicagoland Music Festival.For those who knew her, Mildred was a regular in costumed skits and plays at school fundraisers and an accomplished singer. She once recorded her own rendition of ‘Ave Maria’, a hymn of considerable difficulty. “That was her trademark song,” her oldest son, who was also named Louis, said to the New York Times. “She would belt it out.”The most dominant in her life were her family and deep Catholic faith, something that would go on to inspire her son’s journey into the priesthood and beyond. She also volunteered in Catholic school libraries and reviewed ‘Helena’ a novel by Evelyn Waugh in 1950 along with participating in a forum titled ‘The Catholic Woman in the Professional World’.In 1990, Mildred died after being diagnosed with cancer and enduring chemotherapy treatments.
The mother who inspired the Pope
Robert Prevost spent his childhood in Dolton, Chicago immersed in the Catholic culture that revolved around the family parish St. Marty of the Assumption. Going to a Catholic school was a generational family tradition, just like his mother had.For Robert, it was clear from a young age that he would become a priest, as per his family. His mother was a fervent supporter of the idea and when he wanted to attend a minor seminary in Michigan for high school, his parents allowed him to go.“When he went into the Augustinian seminary, he did it with the encouragement of his loving mother,” said Bishop Daniel Turley, who met the future pope when he was a teenager. He also recalled meeting Mildred and seeing in her son, her own intense Catholic conviction. “She was practically a saint,” he said. “She was just one of those people you meet and you feel the presence of God.”Not only did she teach her kids faith but also how to cook, clean and iron clothes. “I think she may have wanted to be a teacher one day, but that never went to fruition because she got married and had kids,” said younger Louis Prevost to the outlet.While Pope Leo XIV’s parents who died in 1990 and 1997 could not see their son become the Pope, as per his brother John Prevost, they would be on “cloud 9” if they knew.
