Pope Benedict XV

About Pope Benedict XV

Pope Benedict XV, serving as the head of the Catholic Church from 1914 to 1922, is ranked as the 334th most historically important figure globally by MIT's Pantheon project. His tenure was entirely dominated by World War I, where he famously advocated for peace and sought to serve as a neutral mediator between the warring powers, earning him considerable, though perhaps ephemeral, diplomatic weight. His efforts included establishing an international office to trace prisoners of war and missing persons.

In terms of modern digital visibility, Benedict XV commands an Attention Gap of approximately 1x, meaning his current internet attention aligns reasonably with his historical standing. He accumulated 277K annualized Wikipedia views in 2025. This level of attention is comparable to other religious figures in our pool, such as Anthony of Padua (#699 importance, 604K views) or Samuel (#862 importance, 506K views), suggesting a relatively balanced, though low, modern engagement relative to his high historical rank.

Despite the slight gap equilibrium, his profile shows significant *change* year-over-year, with views up by +163.7%, indicating a recent surge in interest, though this was partially offset by a -25% momentum drop between the first and third quarters of 2025.