10 Papal Beard Facts

I plan to do a post on 10 Awesome Papal Beards (and yes, I know that "Awesome Beards" is a tautology), but first let us note some Papal Beard Facts.

PAPAL BEARD FACT #1:
There have been a total of 266 Vicars of Christ. Out of these, 188 have had beards. That means 70% of the popes have had beards!

PAPAL BEARD FACT #2:
Out of the 188 bearded popes, 82 are saints and 2 are blesseds. 43% of bearded popes are saints.
Out of the 78 beardless popes, only 4 are saints and 5 are blesseds. Only 5% of beardless popes are saints.

PAPAL BEARD FACT #3:
There have been 86 total popes who are saints. 82 of these had beards. That is 95% of the papal saints!

PAPAL BEARD FACT #4:
For the first 643 years of the Church, Papal Beards reigned from 33AD with St. Peter to 676AD with Pope Adeodatus II.

PAPAL BEARD FACT #5:
The first pope sans beard, Pope Donus, is not a saint. Coincidence? I think not.

My face is cold.

PAPAL BEARD FACT #6
The next pope after Donus was Agatho. He had a long and marvelous beard. Oh, and he's a saint.

Doesn't this halo look good with my beard?

PAPAL BEARD FACT #7
After, Pope St. Agatho, beards reigned until 827AD with the election of Pope Valentine.

Also not a saint.

 PAPAL BEARD FACT #8
After Pope Valentine, there was a dispersion of beardless popes mixed with the bearded. The next stretch of bearded glory (with goatees towards the end) reigned from 1523AD to 1700AD, with the end of Pope Innocent XII's papacy.

Had Innocent XII known that he would be the last pope with facial hair, he surely would have grown a bushy beard like his namesake, Pope St. Innocent I!

His beard is a relic.

PAPAL BEARD FACT #9
There have been 9 popes named Stephen. All of them had beards.
Here is a picture of Pope Stephen IX:

I was rocking this beard style way before Lincoln!

 PAPAL BEARD FACT #10
This guy would make a great Stephen X!

Ahem! My eyes are up here.