Seventy-six-year-old Jorge Mario Bergoglio, the former archbishop of Buenos Aires, was elected to be Pope Francis on Wednesday, March 13.

According to La Nacion, Pope Francis was born on Dec.17, 1936, in Buenos Aires to Mario, a railway worker, and Regina, a housewife. The newspaper reported that when Pope Francis visited Rome, he kept a low profile and didn't like to reveal he was a cardinal.

He often was seen wearing a black overcoat and when he was named a cardinal, he decided not to buy new clothing but wore clothing of the previous cardinal that fit him.

The new pope is known to be a man full of humility who denied himself the luxuries that previous Buenos Aires cardinals enjoyed. Pope Francis took public transportation to work (he rode the bus) cooked his own meals and lived in a simple apartment in Argentina. He prefers social outreach, rather than doctrinal battles, to be the most important business of the church.

He reportedly came close to becoming pope last time, with the second-highest vote total in several rounds of voting before it was ruled that Pope Benedict XVI would take the throne.

Catholic News Service reported Pope Francis, who was archbishop of Buenos Aires until 2012, is said to be a spiritual man that has a growing reputation with a talent for pastoral leadership, which will benefit his abilities to serve the region with the largest numbers of the world's Catholics.

The Associated Press noted that the Pope Francis faced medical complications at a young age. When he was a teenager, doctors were forced to remove one of his lungs because of a serious infection he had.

Pope Francis - who speaks several languages including Spanish, Italian and German - delivered a speech on Wednesday before the electrifying crowd following announcement of him being the new pope.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, good evening," he said, before making a reference to his upbringing in Latin America.

"I think the Cardinals came for the end of the world," he added, after paying tribute to his predecessor Benedict XVI and urged the Church to "fraternity."

He is the first Jesuit Pope and the first non-European to be elected in 1,000 years.