Pope Francis: Vatican releases first images of Pope Francis in open coffin

Vatican releases first images of Pope Francis in open coffin (Picture credit score: AP)

The Vatican on Tuesday revealed the first photograph and video of Pope Francis mendacity in repose, exhibiting the late pontiff in an open coffin dressed in crimson liturgical vestments, a mitre on his head and a rosary positioned in his fingers.
The images had been taken contained in the non-public chapel of the Casa Santa Marta, his Vatican residence the place he handed away on Monday on the age of 88.

The solemn visuals come only a day after the Holy See confirmed that Pope Francis died of a cerebral stroke which led to a coma and irreversible coronary heart failure. Dr Andrea Arcangeli, director of the directorate of well being and hygiene of the Vatican City State, licensed the trigger of dying in an official medical report, which additionally detailed the pontiff’s long-standing well being points, together with Type II diabetes, hypertension, and a historical past of respiratory failure and bilateral pneumonia.
His dying was formally recorded at 7:35 am (native time) on April 21 by electrocardiographic thanatography, in accordance with the Vatican.
Francis, born Jorge Mario Bergoglio in Buenos Aires, was the first pope from Latin America. His papacy started in March 2013 and spanned greater than a decade marked by reform, humility, and a world give attention to the poor. He made his closing public look only a day earlier than his passing — briefly greeting crowds from the balcony of St Peter’s Basilica on Easter Sunday, though he was too frail to ship the total conventional message.
As revealed in his will, Pope Francis had requested a modest burial on the Papal Basilica of St Mary Major in Rome, departing from the lengthy custom of entombing popes at St Peter’s Basilica. He had expressed a lifelong devotion to the Salus Populi Romani icon housed in the Pauline Chapel of St Mary Major and requested to be laid to relaxation close by in a easy, unadorned tomb marked solely “Franciscus.”
“I wish my last earthly journey to end at this very ancient Marian shrine,” he wrote in the testomony dated June 29, 2022. “The tomb must be in the earth; simple, without particular decoration,” he added, additional stating there needs to be no reference to his papal workplace on the headstone. “With lively hope in eternal life, I offer the suffering of the last part of my life for peace in the world and brotherhood among peoples,” he wrote.
This makes Francis the first pope in almost 150 years to not be buried at St Peter’s, with the final being Pope Pius IX. The tomb can be positioned close to the Queen of Peace statue contained in the basilica, fulfilling his private want.
His request additionally displays his aversion to conventional papal funeral customs. In his autobiography Hope, Francis wrote, “The Vatican is the home of my final service, not my eternity.”