Pope Benedict XVI hit hundreds of thousands of followers on Wednesday, Dec 12, on Twitter. The 85-year old Catholic leader sent a tweet which read, "Dear friends, I am pleased to get in touch with you through Twitter. Thank you for your generous response. I bless all of you from my heart."

After the message was tweeted, the number of followers surpassed the 1 million count on eight languages of the handle and more than 10,000 followers in the following hours. According to Vatican officials, the Pope won't type messages personally but someone in the Vatican's secretariat of state will use the Pope's personal words, culled from his speeches, homilies, or catechism lessons.

It won't be the first time a pope used mass communication tools to spread messages of faith around the globe. Pope Pius XI used Vatican Radio about 80 years ago. The Vatican also has its own newspaper, television service and maintains dedicated YouTube channels and an Internet news portal.

According to official Twitter data of the Pope @Pontifex, he has more than 700,000 followers, while another source indicated that he has already reached 1 million followers.

The pontiff of the Roman Catholic church is not the only one with a Twitter account. At least five others have one too and substantial number of followers, which is not surprising since their respective sects or congregations have millions or several thousands of adherents.

Twitter, after all, is more than just a simple social networking site but also allows religious leaders to communicate to their followers across the globe. Here are five other religious leaders with Twitter accounts and followers.

1. Rick Warren, author of the bestseller, The Purpose Driven Life, has 810,955 followers to date. He is an American evangelical Christian pastor, and founder of Saddleback Church which is currently is the 8th largest church in the United States. The Purpose Driven Life sold over 30 million copies worldwide.

2. John Piper, a theologian, preacher and currently serving as pastor for preaching and vision of Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis, Minnesota, has 394,366 followers. Mr Piper is a continuationist which means he believes in supernatural gifts such as prophecy, miracles, healings, and speaking in tongues.

3. Grand Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Hosseini Khamenei, the supreme leader of Iran and Shia Marja', has 1,912 followers in his Twitter account. He holds absolute power in his country and has been described as one of only three people having important influence during the history of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Being the supreme leader of Iran, he is the highest ranking both as political and religious authority in the Middle Eastern country. Forbes in 2010, selected him as the 26th World's Most Powerful People. The small number of followers in an indicator that Twitter is not too hot in Iran.

4. .Swami Baba Ramdev, a spiritual leader known for his contribution in yoga, ayurveda, politics and agriculture, has 22,958 Twitter followers to date. He is best known for popularising yoga among health conscious Indians through his mass yoga camps and TV shows. Recently, he has become a vocal advocate on Indian political issues.

5. Tenzin Gyatso, a 1989 Nobel Peace Prize winner and the 14th Dalai Lama of Tibetan Buddhism, has over 5.7 million Twitter followers. He is well known for his lifelong advocacy for Tibetans inside and outside Tibet. He has spoken about several topics in environment, economics, women rights, non-violence, interfaith dialog, reproductive health, sexuality along with various Mahayan and Vajrayana topics.

However, Time mobile wrote that despite his large following, the Dalai Lama's Twitter account is a hoax, but there is no word yet if the account has been verified.

Time notes that even Satan has a Twitter account too.

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