VATICAN CITY: The first public prayer for Pope Francis following his death will take place in St Peter’s Square at 17:30 GMT on Monday, the Vatican said.
The Rosary, for which thousands of faithful are expected to attend, will be presided over by Italian Cardinal Mauro Gambetti, the Holy See’s press office said.
The Vatican City announced on Monday that Pope Francis, history’s first Latin American pontiff, died on Monday at the age of 88.
Bells tolled in churches from his native Argentina to the Philippines and across Rome as news spread around the world.
“At 7:35 this morning, the Bishop of Rome, Francis, returned to the home of the Father. His entire life was dedicated to the service of the Lord and of his Church,” Cardinal Kevin Farrell said from the chapel of the Domus Santa Marta, where Francis lived.
Francis, who suffered from chronic lung disease and had part of one lung removed as a young man, was admitted to Gemelli hospital on February 14, 2025, for a respiratory crisis that developed into double pneumonia.
He spent 38 days there, the longest hospitalization of his 12-year papacy.
He made his last public appearance on Easter Sunday — a day before his death — to bless thousands of people in St. Peter’s Square, drawing wild cheers and applause. Beforehand, he met US Vice President JD Vance.
Francis performed the blessing from the same loggia where he was introduced on March 13, 2013, as the 266th pope.
From his first greeting that night — a remarkably normal “Buonasera” (“Good evening”) — to his embrace of refugees and the downtrodden, Francis signalled a very different tone for the papacy.
The Argentine-born Jorge Mario Bergoglio brought a breath of fresh air into a 2,000-year-old institution that had seen its influence wane during the troubled tenure of Pope Benedict XVI, whose surprise resignation led to Francis’ election.
Pope Francis’s final resting place
The Santa Maria Maggiore basilica, which Pope Francis chose as his final resting place, is a fifth-century church located in the centre of Rome that already holds the tombs of seven popes.
The Argentinian pontiff will be the first in more than a century who will not be entombed in St Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican.
Francis was very devoted to the worship of the Virgin Mary and made a point to pray in Santa Maria Maggiore before leaving on trips abroad and upon his return to Rome.
Most recently, Francis prayed to the icon of the Virgin Mary inside the basilica on April 12, to mark the beginning of the week that culminated in Easter.
Francis declared his desire to be entombed in the basilica — known in English as the Basilica of Saint Mary Major — in 2023.
The last pope to be buried there was Clement IX in 1669 and the last pontiff to be buried outside the Vatican was Leo XIII in 1903, whose final resting place is the Church of Saint John Lateran, the Cathedral of the bishop of Rome.
One of four papal basilicas in Rome, Santa Maria Maggiore holds the remains of several other renowned personalities, such as the architect and sculptor Gian Lorenzo Bernini, who designed St Peter’s Square and its surrounding columns.
The interior of Santa Maria Maggiore remains close to its origins. The central nave is lined by 40 Ionic columns and contains exquisite mosaics.
One legend ties the basilica to the Virgin Mary from its origins. It says that a childless wealthy Roman couple wanted to donate their possessions to the Virgin Mary.
She appeared to them in a vision and told them to build a church in her honour where a miracle would take place. Snow fell that summer night in August 352 on the hill where the basilica now stands.
Another legend has Pope Liberius being told in a dream of the summer snowfall.
According to the Vatican, however, nothing remains of that original church. Construction of the current basilica began around 432 under Pope Sixtus III.
The basilica holds some of the Church’s most important relics, including an icon of the Virgin Mary holding the baby Jesus attributed to Saint Luke.
It also holds pieces of wood believed to have been from Jesus’s crib. The basilica’s website says recent studies have dated the wood from the period of Jesus’s birth.
