Leo XIV is the first pope from the order of Augustinians and the second Roman pontiff from America – after Pope Francis. Unlike Jorge Maria Bergoglio, however, the 69-year-old Robert Francis Prevost hails from the northern part of the continent, although he spent many years as a missionary in Peru before being elected as the Prior General of the Augustinians for two consecutive terms.

He was born on September 14, 1955, in Chicago, Illinois, to Louis Mario Prevost (of French-Italian descent) and Mildred Martínez (of Spanish descent). He has two brothers, Louis Martínez and John Joseph. He spent his childhood and adolescence with his family, initially studying at a smaller seminary of the Augustinians and later at Villanova University in Pennsylvania, where he earned a degree in mathematics in 1977 and also studied philosophy.

On September 1 of the same year, he entered the novitiate of the Order of Saint Augustine (O.S.A.) in St. Louis in the province of "Mother of Good Counsel" in Chicago. He made his solemn vows on August 29, 1981.

He studied theology at the Catholic Theological Union in Chicago. At the age of 27, he was sent by his superiors to Rome, where he studied canon law at the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas (Angelicum). He was ordained a priest on June 19, 1982, by Archbishop Jean Jadot at the Augustinian College of Saint Monica.

In 1984, he earned a licentiate, and the following year, while preparing his doctoral thesis, he was sent to the Augustinian mission in Chulucanas in the Piura region of Peru (1985–1986). In 1987, he defended his dissertation on the topic "The Role of the Local Superior in the Order of Saint Augustine" and was appointed director for vocations and missions in the Augustinian province of "Mother of Good Counsel" in Olympia Fields, Illinois.

The following year, he joined the mission in Trujillo, Peru, as the director of a joint formation program for Augustinian candidates from the vicariates of Chulucanas, Iquitos, and Apurímac.

During his eleven years there, he served as the superior of the community (1988–1992), formator (1988–1998), and instructor for the religious brothers (1992–1998). In the Archdiocese of Trujillo, he held the positions of judicial vicar (1989–1998) and professor of canon law, patristics, and moral theology at the San Carlos y San Marcelo seminary. At the same time, he was responsible for pastoral care for the faithful in the community of Our Lady Mother of the Church, later the parish of Saint Rita (1988–1999), and from 1992 to 1999, he served as the administrator of the parish of Our Lady of Montserrat.

In 1999, he was elected provincial of the Augustinian province of "Mother of Good Counsel" in Chicago. Two and a half years later, he was elected by the order's general chapters as the General Prior of the Order of Saint Augustine, and in 2007, he was confirmed for a second term.

In October 2013, he returned to his province in Chicago, where he served as a formator at the Augustinian convent of Saint Augustine, provincial vicar, and first counselor – positions he held until November 3, 2014, when Pope Francis appointed him apostolic administrator of the Peruvian diocese of Chiclayo and simultaneously elevated him to the rank of titular bishop of Sufar.

He entered the diocese on November 7 in the presence of Apostolic Nuncio James Patrick Green, who ordained him a bishop on December 12 – the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe – in the Cathedral of Saint Mary.

His episcopal motto is "In Illo uno unum" – words of Saint Augustine from Psalm 127, expressing that "although we are many Christians, we are one in Christ."

On September 26, 2015, he was appointed bishop of Chiclayo by Pope Francis. In March 2018, he was elected as the second vice president of the Peruvian Bishops' Conference, where he also served as a member of the Economic Council and chairman of the Committee for Culture and Education.

In 2019, Pope Francis appointed him a member of the Congregation for the Clergy (July 13, 2019) and in 2020 a member of the Congregation for Bishops (November 21). Meanwhile, on April 15, 2020, he was appointed apostolic administrator of the Peruvian diocese of Callao.

On January 30, 2023, the pope called him to Rome as the Prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops and Chairman of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America, also elevating him to the rank of Archbishop.

Pope Francis made him a cardinal at the consistory on September 30, 2024, entrusting him with the Diaconate of Saint Monica, which he assumed on January 28, 2024.

As the Prefect of the Dicastery, he participated in the last apostolic journeys of the pope and both sessions of the 16th Ordinary Assembly of the Bishops' Synod on Synodality, which took place in Rome from October 4 to 29, 2023, and from October 2 to 27, 2024.

On October 4, 2023, Pope Francis appointed him a member of several other dicasteries: for evangelization (section for the first evangelization and new particular churches), for the doctrine of faith, for Eastern churches, for clergy, for institutes of consecrated life and societies of apostolic life, for culture and education, for legislative texts, and also as a member of the Pontifical Commission for Vatican City State.

On February 6, 2025, Pope Francis elevated him to the rank of cardinal-bishops and entrusted him with the suburbicarian diocese of Albano. Three days later, on February 9, he celebrated a Mass presided over by Pope Francis in St. Peter's Square on the occasion of the Jubilee of the Armed Forces – the second major event of the Jubilee Year of Hope.

During the last hospitalization of his predecessor at the Gemelli Hospital, Prevost presided over the rosary prayer on March 3 in St. Peter's Square for the health of the pope.