Pope Francis hit one million Instagram followers within 12 hours of launching his account.
Pope Francis’ new account was christened on Saturday with a photo of him kneeling in prayer. The accompanying message said “pray for me” in 9 languages. It was not a selfie.
His new account broke a record for getting one million followers — the previous record was 24 hours held by David Beckham.
The Pope’s Instagram handle is “Franciscus.” While the account will be separate from the official Vatican account, it will be maintained by members of the Vatican — his Twitter account is also maintained by other peoplen reports CNNMoney.
News of the Pope’s plans to join Instagram broke Thursday and came just weeks after his meeting with Instagram CEO Kevin Systrom.