Pope Francis will be buried at Santa Maria Maggiore, as per his wishes

The will written in 2022 confirms the Pontiff’s wishes: a simple tomb between the Pauline Chapel and the Sforza Chapel, in the Basilica that marked his pontificate

Pope Francis, who died yesterday at the age of 88, had clearly expressed in his spiritual testament his wish to be buried in the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome. The document, drawn up on 29 June 2022 and made public by the Vatican, reads: “I ask that my mortal remains rest waiting for the day of resurrection in the Papal Basilica of Saint Mary Major”. A decision already known, matured in continuity with the deep Marian devotion that has marked his entire pontificate.

The funeral on Saturday on the parvis of St Peter’s

The funeral will take place on Saturday at 10am on the parvis of St Peter’s Basilica, the first day of the Novendiali. It is a solemn rite that opens the period of nine days of prayer in suffrage of the Pontiff’s soul, as required by Vatican tradition.

Devotion to Our Lady Salus Populi Romani

The testamentary text highlights the Pope’s spiritual bond with the Mother of God: ‘My life and my priestly and episcopal ministry I have always entrusted to the Mother of Our Lord, Mary Most Holy,’ Bergoglio wrote, requesting that his tomb be placed ‘between the Pauline Chapel and the Sforza Chapel’, in the loculus indicated in the annex.

The tomb, as specified by the Pope, must be ‘in the earth, simple, without particular decoration and with the only inscription: Franciscus’.

A bond that dates back to the evening of his election

Cardinal Santos Abril y Castello, archpriest emeritus of the Basilica, recalled how already on the evening of 13 March 2013, as soon as he was elected, Francis confided to him his desire to go the next day to pray before the icon of the ‘Salus Populi Romani’. A stop that has become habitual, to the point that every apostolic journey of the Pontiff began and ended precisely with a private visit to the Basilica.

The icon protagonist of the most symbolic moments of the pontificate

The image of the Virgin has been at the centre of numerous significant gestures by Pope Francis. Among the best known are the prayer of 15 March 2020 during the lockdown, and its exceptional translation to St Peter’s Square for the Urbi et Orbi on 27 March, in an Italy marked by the pandemic.

On 8 December 2023, on the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, the Pope offered the Golden Rose to the “Salus Populi Romani”, a gesture of great spiritual and symbolic significance.

The vow for the salvation of Rome and the call for peace

In June 2024, eighty years after the vow to Our Lady made by Pius XII for the salvation of the city during the Second World War, Pope Francis wanted to send a message on the occasion of the first liturgical memorial dedicated to Maria Salus Populi Romani. In that message, the Pope reaffirmed the value of peace and invited the faithful to oppose ‘the logic of arms’ and to become promoters of fraternity.

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(Photo: © AndKronos)