Pope thanks well-wishers as he gives noon blessing on his 70th birthday

Banners wishing the Pope a happy 70th birthday were held up by worshippers in St Peter’s Square on Sunday (Gregorio Borgia/AP)

The Pope has marked his 70th birthday by thanking God, his parents and all those who prayed for him.

Leo saw giant “Happy birthday” banners, in English, Italian and Spanish, balloons and congratulatory signs held up by the faithful gathered in St Peter’s Square for his traditional noon blessing on Sunday.

Groups of Peruvians, including dancers in traditional attire, were out in force, a testament to the two decades the Pope spent in Peru as a missionary and a bishop.

“My dears, it seems you know today I have turned 70,” Leo said to cheers.

Leo waved to the faithful gathered in St Peter’s Square at the Vatican for the Angelus prayer on his 70th birthday (Gregorio Borgia/AP)

“I thank the Lord, my parents and all those who remembered me in their prayers.”

Many people in the square knew it was Leo’s birthday and wished him well, especially given the weight of responsibility he has taken on to run the Catholic Church.

Lorenzo Vecchio, a member of a Catholic university group in the square, said: “He definitely needs a lot of support, because he has to carry on a pontificate during a particularly difficult period, both for geopolitical issues and certainly for internal matters.

“We are certainly happy that he is a very young Pope.”

Faithful from Peru display a banner wishing the Pope a happy 70th birthday (Gregorio Borgia/AP)

Celso Fernandez, a Rome resident originally from Leo’s former diocese in Chiclayo, Peru, recalled how Chiclayo faithful used to celebrate their former bishop’s birthday, which fell on the same day as a local religious celebration.

He said the then Robert Prevost would spend his birthday with locals to honour their feast day, and “now we come to him for his birthday”.

Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni issued a special greeting thanking Leo.

In a statement, she said Leo’s teachings “provide reliable and solid guidance in extremely complex times, when certainties seem to waver and changes are as sudden as they are profound”.

Leo will spend the afternoon of his birthday presiding over an ecumenical prayer service in honour of 21st century martyrs.

When he was elected last May at age 69, he became the youngest pope since 1978, when Karol Wojtyla was elected Pope John Paul II aged 58.