Gladness Gideon
Pope Francis, who passed away on Monday at the age of 88, was laid to rest on Saturday in a modest tomb at the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome, fulfilling his final wish to be buried in the church closest to his heart.
The burial followed a solemn funeral mass held earlier in St Peter’s Square, attended by mourners from around the world. The Vatican confirmed that the private interment ceremony began at 1:00 p.m. local time (1100 GMT) and lasted approximately 30 minutes.
Footage released by the Holy See showed cardinals sealing Francis’ wooden and zinc coffin with red wax, a traditional practice symbolizing the formal closure of his earthly life. Cardinal Kevin Farrell, acting as camerlengo and overseeing Vatican affairs during the sede vacante, then sprinkled the coffin with holy water as it was lowered into a simple tomb inside an alcove of the basilica.
Above the final resting place, a reproduction of Francis’ pectoral cross — a symbol of his papal service — was placed in honor of his enduring humility and devotion.
True to the spirit of his pontificate, Pope Francis had requested an unadorned and understated tomb. The marble slab, crafted from stone sourced in Liguria — the northwestern Italian region linked to his ancestry — bears only a single word: “Franciscus,” his papal name in Latin.
Born Jorge Mario Bergoglio in Argentina, Francis had a deep and enduring devotion to the Virgin Mary. Throughout his papacy, he made a tradition of praying at Santa Maria Maggiore both before and after his international journeys, a gesture underscoring his spiritual connection to the basilica.
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In 2023, he formalized his wish to be entombed within the fifth-century church, selecting a side nave near the altar of Saint Francis. The basilica, a revered site in Catholic tradition, houses relics including an ancient icon of the Virgin Mary attributed to Saint Luke.
While Santa Maria Maggiore holds the tombs of seven popes, Francis is the first pontiff to be buried there since Clement IX in 1669. In recent centuries, most popes have been interred at St Peter’s Basilica.
The basilica itself stands as one of the four major papal basilicas in Rome and is a masterpiece of early Christian architecture. It also serves as the final resting place for figures such as Gian Lorenzo Bernini, the famed artist and architect who designed St Peter’s Square and its iconic colonnades.
With Francis’ burial, the Catholic Church bids farewell to a leader whose life was marked by humility, service, and compassion, and who chose to rest eternally in a place that embodied his devotion to faith and simplicity.