ATICAN CITY — The wooden coffin of Pope Francis, simple and unadorned as he wished, rolled through Rome’s ancient streets on April 26, carried by the popemobile one final time. Crowds lined the route, some weeping, others clutching rosaries, as the first Latin American pontiff was borne to his eternal rest in the Basilica of St. Mary Major. Earlier, in St. Peter’s Square, some 250,000 faithful—pilgrims, priests, and presidents—gathered under a pale spring sky for a funeral Mass that marked the end of a 12-year papacy defined by humility and a fierce love for the marginalized. The day began at 10 a.m., when pallbearers carried the zinc-lined coffin from St. Peter’s Basilica to the square. A single cross marked the wood—no pomp, no cushions, just as Francis had ordered when he rewrote the papal funeral rules last year.
Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, a 91-year-old Italian and dean of the College of Cardinals, led the Mass, his voice steady as he spoke of Francis’ life above the Sistine Chapel Choir’s haunting Latin hymns. The crowd, spilling beyond the square’s colonnades, included 130 delegations, with 50 heads of state and 12 monarchs. U.S. President Donald Trump, Britain’s Prince William, and Argentina’s President Javier Milei stood among them, a rare assembly of global power for a man who once called himself a “sinner” from Buenos Aires.
For three days before, St. Peter’s Basilica had been a river of grief. Over 250,000 mourners—nuns in crisp habits, tourists with backpacks, Romans in work clothes—filed past Francis’ open coffin from April 23 to 25. Some waited four hours, shuffling through the basilica’s cool marble to glimpse the pontiff, dressed in red vestments, a white miter on his head. On April 25, at 8 p.m., Cardinal Kevin Farrell, the Irish-American camerlengo, sealed the coffin in a quiet rite, placing a deed of Francis’ life inside before the lid closed. The procession to St. Mary Major, four kilometers from the Vatican, was a journey through Francis’ adopted city. Romans leaned from balconies, tossing flowers as the coffin passed.
At the basilica, a group of the poor—homeless men, refugees, the “last ones” Francis championed—greeted him, a nod to his lifelong devotion. Inside, his tomb, inscribed only with “Franciscus,” was set in the earth, plain and unembellished, fulfilling his will. Seven other popes rest in the same Marian shrine, but Francis is the first in over a century to be buried outside the Vatican’s grottoes. The Mass, broadcast to millions, blended languages—Portuguese, Polish, Arabic—reflecting the global church Francis led. Swiss Guards knelt during the consecration, their halberds glinting. After the final prayer, “In Paradisum,” the crowd fell silent as the coffin left for its final stop. The Novemdiales, nine days of mourning Masses, began that afternoon, with the first at St. Peter’s on April 27. Francis, born Jorge Mario Bergoglio, died on April 21 at 88, felled by a stroke and heart failure in his Casa Santa Marta residence.
His papacy, begun in 2013, shook the Catholic Church with reforms, clashes with conservatives, and a relentless focus on the poor. Now, as cardinals prepare for a conclave by May 10 to choose his successor, Rome feels the weight of his absence. Over 4,000 journalists covered the funeral. The Italian government estimated 200,000 attendees in the square. The Vatican confirmed 220 cardinals and 750 bishops concelebrated the Mass. Francis’ burial site was prepared per his 2024 instructions. The conclave date remains undecided.