POPE LEO XIV
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Throughout the history of the Catholic Church, popes have been chosen at a variety of ages, even as young as 20 years old.
According to I.Media, in the last few centuries, most popes have been in their 60s when they were elected:
Since 1800, the average age of a pope when he was elected has been almost 66.
The three oldest popes to emerge from the Sistine Chapel after the voting rounds were Benedict XVI (78), Francis (76), and John XXIII (76).
Pius IX, elected in 1846, was the youngest (54). John Paul II was 58 when he became pope.
But some popes were chosen when they were much older, with multiple popes being chosen in their 80s and at least one chosen when he was 90 years old.
Pope Boniface VI
Few recall the papacy of Pope Boniface VI, and that is for multiple reasons. First of all, he was pope of the Catholic Church in 896.
Secondly, his papacy was one of the shortest, only lasting a total of 15 days.
This might have been due to his old age, as he was elected when he was 90 years old.
The Catholic Encyclopedia provides a short summary of his papacy:
A Roman, elected in 896 by the Roman faction in a popular tumult, to succeed Formosus. He had twice incurred a sentence of deprivation of orders, as a subdeacon and as a priest. At the Council of Rome, held by John IX in 898, his election was pronounced null. After a pontificate of fifteen days, he is said by some to have died of the gout, by others to have been forcibly ejected to make way for Stephen VI, the candidate of the Spoletan party.
He is not known for any major sweeping reforms and is not regarded as a saint by the Catholic Church.
Even though some claimed that he was removed from priestly ministry before becoming pope, he still remains listed as a successor of St. Peter in the official Vatican list of popes.
The shortest papacy on record is Pope Urban VII. His papacy lasted only 13 days, which is 2 days shorter than that of Pope Boniface VI.
Despite such a strange papacy, the Church still holds that the Holy Spirit preserved the Church from any official error and that the line of popes since St. Peter has not been broken.
It's another example of how God's ways are not our ways and that he can even use apparent failures for his greater glory.
