Pope Francis was laid to rest inside his favourite church in Rome following a funeral mass in St. Peter’s Square, the Vatican confirmed on Saturday.
Francis, who passed away on Monday at the age of 88, was buried during a brief 30-minute ceremony that began at 1:00 pm (1100 GMT) at the Santa Maria Maggiore basilica in the Italian capital.
Footage released by the Holy See showed cardinals affixing red wax seals to his wooden and zinc coffin. Cardinal Kevin Farrell, who as camerlengo is overseeing the Vatican’s affairs until a new pope is elected, sprinkled holy water over the coffin before it was lowered into a tomb set within an alcove.
Above the tomb hangs a reproduction of the pectoral cross that Pope Francis wore during his lifetime.
True to the humble spirit of his papacy, Pope Francis had requested a simple and unadorned tomb, situated near the altar of Saint Francis. The tombstone is inscribed with just a single word: ”Franciscus”—the pope’s name in Latin.
The marble used for the tombstone comes from Liguria, the northwestern Italian region where Pope Francis’s ancestors once lived.
Born Jorge Bergoglio, Pope Francis had detailed in his will the exact location where he wished to be buried, within the side nave of the beloved fifth-century basilica.
Deeply devoted to the Virgin Mary, Pope Francis regularly prayed at Santa Maria Maggiore before and after his trips abroad and publicly expressed his wish in 2023 to be entombed there.
Situated in the heart of Rome, the basilica already houses the tombs of seven popes. However, the last pope to be interred there was Clement IX in 1669, with more recent popes typically buried in St. Peter’s Basilica.
Santa Maria Maggiore is one of four papal basilicas in Rome and contains some of Catholicism’s most revered relics, including an icon of the Virgin Mary holding the infant Jesus, traditionally attributed to Saint Luke.
The basilica also serves as the final resting place for notable figures such as the architect and sculptor Gian Lorenzo Bernini, designer of St. Peter’s Square and its surrounding colonnades.
