Pope Francis moved to St Peter’s for final goodbye

The late Pope will lie in state until the evening of 25 April, when Cardinal Farrell will close the coffin in preparation for the funeral Mass the next morning in St Peter’s Square.

Pope Francis’ coffin was carried in solemn procession on to St Peter’s on Wednesday morning, to lie in state for three days for mourners to pay their final respects and say goodbye. 

The rite began in the chapel of the Casa Santa Marta, where Francis lived for the 12 years of his pontificate, and where he was placed in a simple, zinc-lined coffin on Monday, hours after he died at the age of 88. 

Members of the lay confraternity of chair-bearers, called sediari pontifici, carried Pope Francis’ coffin – led in procession by priests, bishops, and cardinals – through Vatican City to St Peter’s Square, where thousands of mourners waited in silence for a glimpse of their former pope. 

Flanked by eight Swiss Guards, the coffin was carried into the square with loud applause breaking through the solemn silence. The Pope was carried across the left side of the square, up the incline, and through the main door of the basilica. 

The choir chanted Psalms, the Kyrie and the Litany of Saints as Francis’ body was carried down the centre aisle and his coffin placed on a low, wooden catafalque in front of the Altar of the Confession.

Four Swiss Guards stood watch as clergy and laypeople prayed together for Pope Francis following the rite of the “translation of the coffin of the Roman Pontiff Francis”, according to the Ordo Exsequiarum Romani Pontificis, the liturgical book for the funeral rites of popes.

The camerlengo of the papal household Cardinal Kevin Farrell presided of the rite, which included incensing and sprinkling the coffin with holy water, the sung proclamation of the gospel passage John 17:24-26, intercessory prayers, and a prayer that God will “hear us as we pray in union with all the saints, and welcome into the assembly of your elect, the soul of your servant, our Pope Francis, who placed his trust in the Church’s prayer”.

The prayer ended with the congregation singing the Pater Noster and the Salve Regina. The cardinals and bishops in attendance silently approached the coffin in two lines to pay their final respects, and around 45 minutes later, just before 11 a.m. local time, the first mourners were allowed to enter the basilica.

Pope Francis will lie in state in St Peter’s for the public to see, pray, and say goodbye, until the evening of 25 April, when Cardinal Farrell will close the coffin in preparation for the funeral Mass the next morning in St Peter’s Square.

Saturday 26 April will also mark the first day of a formal period of nine days of prayer and mourning in the Catholic Church, called the novendiales.

After his funeral Mass, the late pontiff will be buried in the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore, as he requested in his last testament.

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