Pictures of Pope Francis’s tomb released as public now allowed to visit

27/04/2025 1

People have been allowed to view Pope Francis’s tomb after he was laid to rest there on Saturday.

The 88-year-old pontiff was buried in a private ceremony in Rome’s Santa Maria Maggiore (St Mary Major), following an outdoor funeral mass at the Vatican where an estimated crowd of 250,000 gathered, cramming St Peter’s Square and nearby roads.

Francis’s tomb is inscribed with a single word – Franciscus, which is his name in Latin.

Catholic faithful began visiting the tomb of Pope Francis on Sunday – with queues of people forming to file past his final resting place.

Footage and images showed a single white rose at the pontiff’s simple white tomb.

A light cast its warm glow over the tomb and a reproduction of the late pontiff’s pectoral cross on the wall above it.

“Pope Francis for me was an inspiration, a guide,” said Elias Caravalhal.

He said he visited the tomb to bid farewell to the Pope, and “to thank him for what he has done”.

The tomb was opened on the second of nine days of official mourning for Francis, after which a conclave will be held to elect the next pope. A mass was also held in St Peter’s Square in The Vatican.

“It’s unbelievable that he’s no more with us,” said Susmidah Murphy, who visited the bomb during a visit to Rome from her home in India.

“It’s sad that we don’t get popes like this very often.”

Even before he became the Pope in March 2013, Francis had a particular affection for the church, which houses a Byzantine-style icon of the Madonna, known as the Salus Populi Romani, or Salvation of the Roman People.

And later, as head of the Catholic Church, he would pray in front of the icon before and after each of his foreign trips.

The pontiff, who was also the first Jesuit pope, died on Easter Monday after suffering a stroke while recovering from double pneumonia.

After the funeral, his simple wooden coffin was placed on an open-topped popemobile and driven more than three miles through the heart of the Italian capital to Santa Maria Maggiore, as crowds lined the route.

Francis, who shunned much of the pomp and privilege of the papacy, had asked to be buried there rather than in St Peter’s Basilica, where many of his predecessors are.

It was the first time a pope was laid to rest outside the Vatican in more than a century.

The last was Pope Leo XIII, who died in 1903 and was entombed in another Roman basilica in 1924.

Among the world leaders at the service in St Peter’s Square were Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, US President Donald Trump, French President Emmanuel Macron and Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Royals were also there including Prince William, who was representing the King.

Before the mass, the US and Ukraine leaders were pictured sitting close and facing each other as they leaned in for private talks in St Peter’s Basilica.

A White House official said they had a “very productive discussion” and Mr Zelenskyy called it a “good meeting”.

During the service, foreign dignitaries sat on one side of Francis’s coffin while on the other were the cardinals who will pick his successor at a conclave next month.

Written by: Pippa Taylor

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