Today predominantly Muslim, North Africa was once the heart of the Christian world, from where popes came who left a deep mark on the history of Christianity.
They were popes in the Roman Empire, which included the territory of present-day Tunisia, northeastern Algeria, and the coast of western Libya.
“North Africa was the Bible Belt of early Christian civilization,” says Professor Christopher Bellito, a historian at Keene University in the United States of America (USA).
Today, many Catholics in Africa hope that after more than 1.500 years, the pope will be from the African continent.
Below, we present three popes of African descent and how they influenced Christians to celebrate Saint Valentine's Day and Easter on Sundays.
All three have been canonized.
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Pope Victor I (189-199)
It is assumed that Pope Victor I was of Berber origin.
He was the head of the Catholic Church at a time when Christians were occasionally persecuted by Roman authorities for refusing to worship Roman deities.
He is best known for establishing that Easter is celebrated on Sunday.
In the 2nd century, some Christian communities in the Roman province of Asia (the territory of present-day Turkey) celebrated Easter on the same day as the Jewish Passover, which could fall on any day of the week.
However, Christians in the western part of the Roman Empire believed that Jesus was resurrected on Sunday, so Easter should always fall on that day.
The debate over when the resurrection occurred has become a highly contentious issue.
This so-called "Easter controversy" symbolized the broader divisions between East and West, and raised the question of whether Christians should follow Jewish customs.
Pope Victor I convened the first Roman Synod, a council of church dignitaries, to resolve this conflict.
He threatened to excommunicate bishops who refused to accept his decision.
"It was powerful enough to literally pull everyone to the same side," Professor Belito tells the BBC.
It was an incredible feat considering that Victor was the bishop of Rome at a time when Christianity was banned in the Roman Empire, the historian adds.
Another important legacy of Pope Victor I was the introduction of Latin as the common language of the Catholic Church.
Before that, Ancient Greek was the main language of Catholic liturgy, as well as official communication in the Roman Catholic Church.
Victor I himself spoke and wrote in Latin, which was then widely spoken in North Africa.
Pope Miltiades (311 - 314 AD)
Pope Miltiades is believed to have been born in Africa.
During his pontificate, Roman emperors began to embrace Christianity, which eventually became the official religion of the Roman Empire.
Before that, the persecution of Christians was widespread throughout various periods of Roman history.
However, Professor Bellito points out that Miltiades was not responsible for this change, but, as he says, "was the recipient of Roman favor", not a great negotiator.
The Roman Emperor Constantine the Great gifted Miltiades a palace, making him the first pope to receive an official residence.
Constantine also gave him permission to build the Basilica of Saint John Lateran, which is today the oldest public church in Rome.
Although modern popes live and work in the Vatican, Catholics still sometimes refer to the Lateran Basilica as the "mother of all churches."
Pope Gelasius I (492–496 AD)
Gelasius I is the only one of the three popes from Africa who historians believe was not born on that continent.
"There is a record that he was... born in Rome."
"So we don't know if he ever lived in North Africa, but it seems clear that he was of North African origin," explains Professor Bellito.
In the opinion of Professor Belit, Gelasius I was the most significant of the heads of the Roman Catholic Church from Africa.
Gelasius I is widely recognized as the first pope to officially bear the title "Vicar of Christ," a term denoting the pope's role as Christ's representative on Earth.
He also developed the famous "two swords" doctrine, which emphasizes the separate but equal powers of church and state.
Gelasius I made the key distinction with this doctrine that both powers were entrusted to the church by God, which then delegated secular power to the state, making the church supreme.
"Later, during the Middle Ages, popes sometimes tried to veto the election of an emperor or king, claiming that God had given them that power," says Professor Bellito.
Gelasius I is also remembered for his decisive reaction during the Schism of Acacius, the first major split between Eastern and Western Christianity, which lasted from 484 to 519.
During this period, Gelasius strongly advocated the primacy of Rome and papal authority over the entire Christian church, East and West, surpassing all his predecessors, according to experts.
Gelasius is also responsible for establishing one of today's popular holidays - Saint Valentine's Day, better known as Valentine's Day, which is still celebrated every year on February 14th in honor of the Christian martyr Saint Valentine.
According to some traditions, Valentine was a priest who secretly married couples despite the prohibitions of the Roman Emperor Claudius II.
Historians believe that Saint Valentine's Day originated from Lupercalia, a Roman festival of love and fertility, and that Gelasius I thus attempted to convert pagan customs into Christian ones.
What did the popes from Africa look like?
Professor Christopher Bellito says that there is no reliable source on the basis of which it could be said precisely what these three popes looked like.
"We must keep in mind that neither in the Roman Empire nor in the Middle Ages was race viewed in the way it is today."
"It had nothing to do with skin color," Belito tells the BBC.
"People in the Roman Empire weren't concerned with race, but with ethnicity."
Professor Philomena Muaura from Kenyatta University in Kenya explains that in Roman times, Africa was a very multicultural society, home to Berber and Punic communities, freed slaves and people who came from Rome.
"North Africa was a highly mixed environment, and it was also an important trade route in early antiquity," Muaura points out.
"Most people who lived in areas of the Roman Empire did not identify with specific ethnic groups, but considered themselves Romans," she adds.
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Why hasn't a single pope from Africa been elected since Gelasius I?
It is believed that none of the 217 popes elected after Gelasius I came from Africa.
“The church in North Africa was weakened by many historical circumstances, including the fall of the Roman Empire, but also the Muslim invasion [of North Africa] in the 7th century,” says Professor Muaura.
However, some experts argue that Islam being the predominant religion in North Africa does not fully explain the fact that no pope from the continent has been elected for more than 1.500 years.
Professor Bellito explains that for years the election of the pope was an "Italian monopoly".
However, he believes there is a strong possibility that the next pope will be from Asia or Africa, given that today the number of Catholics is greater in the Southern Hemisphere than in the Northern Hemisphere.
In fact, today Catholicism is spreading faster in sub-Saharan Africa than anywhere else in the world.
The latest data shows that in 2023 there were 281 million Catholics in Africa, which is about 20 percent of all Roman Catholic believers in the world.
Three cardinals from Africa are currently in the running to succeed Pope Francis - Fridolin Ambongo Besungu from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Peter Turkson from Ghana and Robert Sara from Guinea.
However, Professor Muaura points out that, although Christianity is extremely strong in Africa, "the power of the Catholic Church is still in the north, where there have always been resources."
"Perhaps, if the Roman Catholic Church on the African continent continues to grow stronger and is able to support itself independently, the time will come when we finally have a pope from Africa," she concludes.
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