Bye bye Francis is buried today in the basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore (Saint Mary the Great) in Rome, as asked in the will. He thus becomes the first pope who is buried outside the Vatican, after Leon XIII, who died in 1903. By choosing this place, Pope Francis, who asked to be buried “on the ground, without particular decorations”, avoided a large part of the traditional Vatican fast, writes Reuters.
The Vatican has announced that the funerals of Pope Francis take place on Saturday in Saint Peter Square, in front of the basilica of Saint Peter where most of his predecessors rest. The place of rest chosen by Pope Francis is a different one. He will be buried at the basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore (Saint Mary the Great), one of the main four churches of Christianity in Rome.
The Church of Saint Mary Maggiore, located about 4 km from the Vatican, was dear to Francis because of his devotion to Maria, the Mother of the Lord. He prayed there before leaving and returning from every trip abroad.
“I have always had a great devotion to Saint Mary the Great, just before becoming a pope,” Francis said in his 2024 book “El Sucesor” (the successor), a long interview with journalist Javier Martinez.
Francis returned here in key moments of his papacy, praying for the end of the coronavirus pandemic in a Roma in Lockdown in 2020 and after his abdominal operations of 2021 and 2023.
Details about the church
It is said that the ceiling of the golden sheet of the church was made of a batch of precious metal brought from the New World by the explorer Cristofor Columbus.
A venerated Byzantine icon of Maria is housed in the Paulina chapel of the left nave of the basilica. A vessel with golden roses, donated by Francis in 2023, is among the candlesticks, under the icon.
Before reaching the entrance to the chapel, there is a statue of Maria, the Queen of Peace, commanded by Pope Benedict XV in 1918 to ask God to end the First World War. In May 2022, Pope Francis led an international prayer service for peace in Ukraine and other places destroyed by war.
“Just beyond the sculpture of the Queen of Peace, there is a small niche, a door that leads to a room where the chandeliers were stored. I saw it and I thought: this is the place,” the Pope said in “El Sucesor”, referring to the place where his tomb will be.
Its coffin will not be covered in lead, with an additional wooden outer layer, as used to popes.
The neighborhood where the church is located, a place of funeral for slaves and poor
In ancient Rome, Esquilin was used for the funeral of slaves, poor and death. Currently, here are Stazione Termini, the main station in Rome, and is a multi-ethnic and populated neighborhood, in which many directors and actors have been established.
Santa Maria Maggiore was founded in 432, one year after the Ephesus Council said that Mary is the Mother of God. It is the only basilica in Rome that retains the Paleocreştine primitive structure, although there have been many subsequent additions.
The basilica houses the bodies of seven popes and several religious personalities, including Cardinal Bernard Law, a former Archbishop of Boston, who was blamed for his role in caring for sexual abuses committed by priests. Also, this basilica is the burial place of the sculptor and architect Gian Lorenzo Bernini.
Live the funeral of Pope Francis. Tens of thousands of people, in Saint Peter Square to say goodbye / Donald Trump and other world leaders, present at the ceremonies
