Pope Francis has been laid to rest less than a week after his de.ath
The pontiff’s funeral began on the morning of Saturday, April 26, in St. Peter’s Square in front of St. Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City.
The service was led by Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, dean of the College of Cardinals and concluded with the Ultima commendatio and the Valedictio.
Following the Mass, Francis’ coffin was transferred via a much-watched procession to the basilica of St. Mary Major for a private burial, making him the first pope in more than a century not to be interred at St. Peter’s Basilica.
But St. Mary was one of Francis’ favorite places in Rome and a church with deep personal significance to him.
“It’s especially beautiful because of Pope Francis’ love for the basilica of Mary Major, which began when he was a cardinal,” Father Patrick Briscoe, a Dominican friar and the editor of Our Sunday Visitor magazine, tells PEOPLE.
“Whenever he made trips to the Vatican as a cardinal, he would come and pray in front of the icon of the Virgin Mary there, the Salus Populi Romani, and he continued that practice as pope,” Briscoe says. “That’s not a papal custom; that’s a Pope Francis custom — to go and pray in front of that icon — and it became a signature of his apostolic visits.”
Briscoe adds that there’s another layer of meaning to Francis’ choice.
“Pope Francis’ first public activity as pope, the very first thing he did on his first official day as pope, was to go to St. Mary Major to pray at the tomb of St. Pius V,” Briscoe says. “It’s very beautiful that he’s going back, having concluded his ministry, to the place where it began.”
Follow Us on Facebook – @LadunLiadi; Instagram – @LadunLiadi; Twitter – @LadunLiadi; Youtube – @LadunLiadiTV for updates
