The secret life of popes before they were famous: From the nightclub bouncer who became the head of the Catholic church to the quarry worker who worked for the Nazis… how well do you REALLY know the pontiffs?

As the head of the Catholic Church, you would think most popes would have spent their whole lives in service of their faith. 

But for a very small minority, their early careers were much less orthodox.

While most of the pontiffs that have previously been elected as pope had already served as cardinals, their journey to reach this role is not always straight forward. 

For some who grew up during the second world war, the pursuit of the Catholic faith was hampered by the closure of religious buildings and even arresting its leaders. 

For others, their need to make ends meet meant taking on more day-to-day jobs, which may now seem trivial given their newfound fame. 

Here MailOnline takes a look at the secret lives of some extraordinary popes before they became one of the most recognised public figures in the world. 

Pope Francis – Nightclub bouncer 

When elected in 2013, Pope Francis, born Jorge Mario Bergoglio, was the first pope from outside Europe in 1,300 years. 

He was born on December 17, 1936. He was one of five children of an Italian immigrant railway worker and his wife.

During his young adult life he worked as a nightclub bouncer and trained as a chemical technician before joining the elite Society of Jesus after being inspired by a priest.

At the age of 32, he became a Jesuit priest in his own right. 

Within four years, he was leading the local Jesuit community and in 1998 he was appointed archbishop of Buenos Aires.

He was chosen as Pope Benedict’s successor on March 14, 2013.

The German pontiff’s shock resignation the previous month triggered the first conclave since 2005, following the death of John Paul II. 

Pope Benedict – member of the Hitler Youth 

German born Pope Benedict grew up at his family home in the southern German village of Marktl, close to Austria. 

Born Joseph Aloisius Ratzinger, he was required to join the Hitler Youth aged 14 while growing up in Nazi Germany. 

At 16, he was conscripted into anti-aircraft work and drafted into the army at 21, according to the Washington Post.

But, he deserted the German army in April 1945, in the waning days of the war, and was briefly held as a prisoner-of-war by the Allies. 

His history was a sensitive and controversial issue for the Catholic Church, which had historically come under criticism for its neutrality during the Second World War.

Benedict had explained that he was forced to join the Nazi youth organization and that a kind Math teacher helped him to avoid attending meetings.

During a rally in New York in 2008, Benedict told a youth rally that his teenage years had been ‘marred by a sinister regime’.

He told his young audience: ‘My own years as a teenager were marred by a sinister regime that thought it had all the answers.

‘Its influence grew – infiltrating schools and civic bodies as well as politics and even religion – before it was fully recognised for the monster it was. It banished God and thus became impervious to anything true and good.

Benedict followed in the footsteps of John Paul when he was elected the 265th leader of the Church on April 19, 2005.

He was the oldest pope elected in 275 years and the first German in nearly 1,000 years.

In 2013 he became the first pontiff in 600 years to resign and left at a time when the Catholic Church was steeped in sexual abuse and pedophilia scandals.

His dramatic decision paved the way for the conclave that elected Pope Francis as his successor.

Pope Benedict died on December 31 in the Vatican after a long battle with illness. 

Pope John Paul – Nazi chemical factory worker 

The 264th Pope of the Catholic Church, Karol Józef Wojtyła, was born on May 18, 1920, in Wadowice, near Krakow. 

His father was a non-commissioned officer in the Polish army and his mother died in 1929 when he was eight.

In 1938, he began studying philosophy and literature at the university in Krakow which the Nazis closed when they invaded in 1939. 

To escape death or deportation, Wojtyla worked in a quarry and later took an office job. In 1941 his father, the last member of his immediate family, died. 

After deciding to become a priest, Wojtyla continued working in the quarry by day but studied secretly in the evenings with the Krakow cardinal because the Nazis had closed the seminaries. 

He was moved to a factory owned by chemical firm Solvay – which was supposedly considered essential to the Nazi’s war efforts – where he continued reading and writing religious teachings. 

In 2002, the pontiff later visited a basilica at a religious sanctuary in Krakow where he spent much of his youth. 

‘I used to come here, especially during the Nazi occupation, when I worked in the nearby Solvay’ chemical plant and quarry, the pontiff recalled. 

‘Every day I walked this road, coming to work … in wooden shoes that one used to wear in those days. 

‘How could one imagine that this man in wooden shoes would one day be consecrating the Basilica of Divine Mercy?’ 

Wojtyla was ordained in 1946 at the age of 26 and went to Rome for advanced studies. In 1948, he returned to Poland.

He became Poland’s youngest bishop at 38, was promoted to Archbishop of Krakow in 1964 and made cardinal three years later by Pope Paul VI.

On October 16, 1978, Wojtyla was elected the first non-Italian Pope in 455 years and, at 58, the youngest Pope for more than a century. 

John Paul was the subject of a vicious attack in St Peter’s Square, in May 1981. 

The Pontiff survived being shot hit four times with a poisoner tipped umbrella by Mehmet Ali Agca. 

The Turk was caught and later confessed to the crime, initially claiming Bulgaria’s Soviet secret service, guided by the KGB, had orchestrated the plot.

John Paul, who died in 2005, later pardoned Agca and even visited him in his jail cell to show his forgiveness.