The funeral ceremony of the 266th Pope Francis (Jorge Mario Bergoglio) will take place today in the Vatican, the press service of the Holy See reported. The funeral mass will be celebrated in St. Peter's Square.
Then the coffin with the body of the pontiff, who died on April 21 at the age of 88, will be transported to the church of “Virgin Mary Maggiore“ (the papal basilica “Santa Maria Maggiore“).
Over three days, 250,000 people came to St. Peter's Basilica to say goodbye to Francis. In total, according to estimates by the Roman authorities responsible for ensuring security, up to half a million people could gather in the Vatican for the funeral. The square will be attended by 80 heads of state and government, including US President Donald Trump and his wife Melania, 10 crowned heads, including the kings of Belgium, Jordan, Spain, as well as religious representatives, including Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople. Prince William will arrive from Britain. Due to the arrest warrant issued by the International Court of Justice in The Hague for Russian President Vladimir Putin, Russia will be represented by Culture Minister Olga Lyubimova, and the head of the Department for External Church Relations, Metropolitan Anthony of Volokolamsk, will represent the Russian Orthodox Church, TASS reported.
According to the approved protocol, the first row will be occupied by the President of Argentina (Bergoglio's homeland) Javier Milley and the President of Italy Sergio Mattarella. The delegations of Italy and Argentina are the largest. The remaining high-ranking guests will be seated in accordance with the alphabetical order of the names of the countries they represent, the Holy See press service specified. According to the preliminary list, Trump should sit between the presidents of Estonia and Finland, not far from the president of France, and the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen and other EU leaders will be in the last row. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is also expected to be accommodated there.
The funeral mass will be led by Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, dean of the College of Cardinals. The ritual of closing the coffin was performed the day before.
Francis, who took his papal name from Francis of Assisi, known for his asceticism, maintained a modest lifestyle, both as archbishop of his native Buenos Aires and as head of the Roman Catholic Church. He refused the papal apartments of the Apostolic Palace, remaining to live in an apartment in the Vatican hotel "Casa Santa Marta". He wore a simple pectoral cross and a silver fisherman's ring (a symbol of papal authority), which is generally made of more expensive materials. Francis ordered that he be placed in a simple wooden coffin in his papal vestments and the worn-out black shoes he always wore instead of the red velvet slippers.
His tombstone in the church of "Santa Maria Maggiore" will also be simple. The coffin with his body will be placed under a simple marble slab with the inscription "Francis" in Latin. A reproduction of his pectoral cross will hang in the niche above. Francis asked to be buried "in the ground", meaning buried below ground level, rather than in a wall, as is the Catholic custom.
Francis chose the place of his burial during his lifetime. The church of "Santa Maria Maggiore", one of the papal basilicas in Rome, houses a revered icon of the Virgin Mary, believed to protect and patronize Rome. The church itself was founded on the site indicated by the Virgin Mary in a vision to Pope Liberius in the 4th century. According to legend, she ordered the construction of a temple dedicated to her on the spot where the miracle occurred on August 5, when snow fell in the middle of summer.
Francis chose a burial place in a niche between the Pavillion Chapel (in honor of Paul V, Borghese, who is buried there) and the Sforza Chapel. Francis' choice is unusual, as most popes have chosen to be buried in St. Peter's Basilica. In the event of canonization, as happened with John Paul II, the body is transferred to the upper part of the cathedral.
Seven popes are buried in Santa Maria Maggiore, one of whom (Pius V, papacy 1566-1572) is a saint. Benedict X, the first to be buried in this church, was the so-called antipope in the mid-11th century. There are also those who do not recognize Francis as pope, since his predecessor Benedict XVI abdicated the throne and lived for almost 10 years after that as pope emeritus. The last papal burial in Santa Maria Maggiore - that of Clement IX - dates back to the second half of the 17th century.