Individuals have been allowed to view Pope Francis’s tomb after he was laid to relaxation there on Saturday.
The 88-year-old pontiff was buried in a non-public ceremony in Rome’s Santa Maria Maggiore (St Mary Main), following an outside funeral mass on the Vatican the place an estimated crowd of 250,000 gathered, cramming St Peter’s Sq. and close by roads.
Francis’s tomb is inscribed with a single phrase – Franciscus, which is his identify in Latin.
Catholic trustworthy started visiting the tomb of Pope Francis on Sunday – with queues of individuals forming to file previous his last resting place.
Footage and pictures confirmed a single white rose on the pontiff’s easy white tomb.
A lightweight forged its heat glow over the tomb and a replica of the late pontiff’s pectoral cross on the wall above it.
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Pope Francis’s tomb inside Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome. Pic: AP
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A single white rose left on the tomb. Pic: Vatican
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Individuals line as much as pay their respects on the tomb of Pope Francis. Pic: PA
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Breaking with custom, Pope Francis was laid to relaxation exterior the Vatican. Pic: AP
“Pope Francis for me was an inspiration, a guide,” mentioned Elias Caravalhal.
He mentioned 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 9 days of official mourning for Francis, after which a conclave will likely be held to elect the subsequent pope. A mass was additionally held in St Peter’s Sq. in The Vatican.
“It’s unbelievable that he’s no more with us,” mentioned Susmidah Murphy, who visited the bomb throughout a go to to Rome from her dwelling in India.
“It’s sad that we don’t get popes like this very often.”
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2:48
Key moments from Pope’s funeral
Even earlier than he grew to become the Pope in March 2013, Francis had a specific affection for the church, which homes a Byzantine-style icon of the Madonna, referred to as the Salus Populi Romani, or Salvation of the Roman Individuals.
And later, as head of the Catholic Church, he would pray in entrance of the icon earlier than and after every of his international journeys.
The pontiff, who was additionally the primary Jesuit pope, died on Easter Monday after struggling a stroke whereas recovering from double pneumonia.
After the funeral, his easy wood coffin was positioned on an open-topped popemobile and pushed greater than three miles by way of the guts of the Italian capital to Santa Maria Maggiore, as crowds lined the route.
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Francis, who shunned a lot of the pomp and privilege of the papacy, had requested to be buried there reasonably than in St Peter’s Basilica, the place lots of his predecessors are.
It was the primary time a pope was laid to relaxation exterior the Vatican in additional than a century.
The final was Pope Leo XIII, who died in 1903 and was entombed in one other Roman basilica in 1924.
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7:51
The farewell to Pope Francis
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Pope Francis in 2015. Pic: AP
Among the many world leaders on the service in St Peter’s Sq. have been Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, US President Donald Trump, French President Emmanuel Macron and Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Royals have been additionally there together with Prince William, who was representing the King.
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2:49
Trump meets Zelenskyy at funeral
Earlier than the mass, the US and Ukraine leaders have been pictured sitting shut and dealing with one another as they leaned in for personal talks in St Peter’s Basilica.
A White Home official mentioned that they had a “very productive discussion” and Mr Zelenskyy referred to as it a “good meeting”.
Throughout the service, international dignitaries sat on one facet of Francis’s coffin whereas on the opposite have been the cardinals who will decide his successor at a conclave subsequent month.
