THE Pope has joined Justin Bieber, the Kardashians, Taylor Swift and Beyonce as one of the top players on Instagram.

Pope Francis gained more than 100,000 followers within an hour after launching an account on the photo-sharing social media platform yesterday.

The Pontif's new account was christened with an image of him kneeling in prayer - though it wasn't a selfie. It was titled "pray for me" in nine languages

Pope Francis picked the Instagram name "Franciscus.", and while the account will be separate from the official Vatican account, it will be maintained by members of his staff much as his Twitter account is.

Instagram CEO Kevin Systrom marked Franciscus arrival on Instagram with his own picture of him shaking hands with the Pope.

He included this message: "Watching Pope Francis post his first photo to Instagram today was an incredible moment. @franciscus, welcome to the Instagram community! Your messages of humility, compassion and mercy will leave a lasting mark."

Pope Francis has been keen to embrace social media as a way to reach out to the world, and opened the Instagram account on the third anniversary his inauguration.

Dario Viganò, the Vatican’s prefect of the secretariat for communications, said: “Instagram will help recount the papacy through images, to enable all those who wish to accompany and know more about Pope Francis’s pontificate to encounter his gestures of tenderness and mercy...In this way we can show those aspects of closeness and inclusion that Pope Francis lives every day.”