Fifty heads of state and government, 170 foreign delegations and over 400,000 faithful solemnly attended the funeral ceremony of Pope Francis at St. Peter’s Square in Rome on Saturday.
Along with the attendants, millions of people across the world watched the live broadcast of the funeral service of the beloved Argentine pontiff, the 266th Pope, who was called by many “Pope of the poor”.
The funeral service that took place at the Santa Maria Maggiore basilica which is dedicated to Virgin Mary started at 10 a.m. Italian time and lasted more than two hours.
According to the will of the deceased pontiff, his was “a funeral service of a shepherd and a disciple of the Lord, not one of the mighty of the earth,” as Pope Francis himself had written.
After centuries of unchanged ritual, the rule according to which the body of the deceased pope had to be placed in three different wooden coffins was also changed. The will of Jorge Mario Bergoglio (the secular name of Pope Francis) was that his coffin would be made of plain wood and, as he had requested, for this last trip, he was given to wear his old, worn-out shoes, which he had used on his pastoral journeys.
A prayer in Greek was held shortly before the funeral ceremony concluded. The Gospel was read in Greek and “Christos Anesti” (Christ is Risen) was chanted. There was also a significant and moving moment when the service for the repose of the dead was heard, singing “Aionia sou e Mnimi” (Eternal is your memory).
This year, the Catholic and Orthodox Easter coincided, and this was also an indication and reference to Pope Francis’s wish for a joint celebration of Easter.
Among the fifty state leaders who attended the farewell to the universally loved Pop Francis were U.S. President Donald Trump, French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Frank-Walter Steinmeier, outgoing German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Argentine President Javier Milley and Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenski.
At St. Peter’s Square, also from Argentina, next to the world’s powerful, was Pope Francis’ grandson, Mauro Bergoglio. He works as a nurse and had stated that he wanted to come to Rome, but did not have the money for the fare. He finally attended the funeral thanks to a travel agency owner in Argentina who offered him and his wife the plane tickets to Rome.
Greece was represent by Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis with his wife, Mareva Grabowski-Mitsotakis, the Ecumenical Patriarch of the Greek Orthodox Church Bartholomew and Archbishop of America Elpidophoros.
After the funeral ceremony at St. Peter’s Square, the coffin was taken in procession to the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore, near the central train station of the Eternal City. This is where the “Pope of the poor” had asked to be buried, only a few meters from the precious Byzantine icon of the Virgin Mary with Jesus, in front of which he used to kneel and pray every time he returned from abroad.
A crowd of people prayed along the procession at the historic center of Rome, along the six-kilometer route. The atmosphere was emotionally charged as some people were crying, while others applauded, in a show of respect and love for the universally loved Pope Francis.
At Santa Maria Maggiore, forty “friends of Francis” awaited for the coffin to arrive. The forty people are migrants, prisoners, transgender people, homeless people, whom the pope had met personally and whom he had tried to understand and help in his own, direct way. Each person left a white rose on the grave, the flower that Jorge Mario Bergoglio loved more than any other.
Santa Maria Maggiore will reopen on Monday, when a new people’s pilgrimage to the simple, marble tomb of the Latin American Pope will take place.
