Pope Francis confirmed in his will released on Monday that he wanted to be buried in the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome and not in the Basilica of St. Peter in the Vatican, unlike many previous pontiffs.
Francisco died at the age of 88 on Monday. The Vatican released his final will late this afternoon.
The text specified that Francis wanted to be buried “on the floor, without special decoration”, but with the inscription of his papal name in Latin: Franciscus.
He had also arranged an unidentified benefactor to cover the expenses of his burial, according to the will.
Avoiding much of the Vatican’s tradition, Francisco has opted for simpler funeral rites and will become the first Pope over a century to be buried outside the Vatican.
The resting place chosen is the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore, one of the four major of Christendom, a place that is expensive to him due to his devotion to Mary, Mother of God. Jorge Mario Bergoglio prayed before boarding and returning from each trip abroad on the spot.
On the morning of March 14, 2013, a few hours after his election, the first Latin American Pope prayed in this church, whose gold plated ceiling was made of a plot of the precious metal that Colombo brought from the New World.
Francisco returned to the scene at important moments of his 12 -year -old papacy, including to pray for the end of the coronavirus pandemic in a deserted Rome in 2019 and after his two abdominal surgeries in 2021 and 2023.
Outside the chapel, the statue of Mary Queen of Peace, commissioned by Pope Benedict XV in 1918 to ask God for the end of World War I.
At the site, Francisco led an international prayer service for peace in Ukraine and elsewhere devastated by war in 2022.
Pope Francis’ funeral is still expected to take place in St. Peter’s Square, in front of St. Peter’s Basilica, where most of his predecessors rest.
Before Francis, the last pope to be buried outside the Vatican was Leo XIII, died in 1903.
Saint Maria Maggiore houses the bodies of seven popes and various religious figures, including Cardinal Bernard Bernard Law, former Boston, who became famous for his role in the cover-up of sexual abuse of children committed by priests.
Death of Francisco
First Latin American and Jesuit to take over the Holy See, Pope Francis passed away on Monday morning at 7:35 am, due to irreversible heart stroke and heart failure.
The Pope’s body will be placed in a coffin later this Monday. On the morning of Wednesday (23), will begin the Holy Father’s wake, open to the faithful.
The date of the funeral, a ceremony that will precede the burial of Francis, has not yet been released.
With information from Reuters.
This content was originally published in Santa Maria Maggiore Basilica: Meet where the Pope will be buried on the CNN Brazil website.
Source: CNN Brasil
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