Pope Francis final resting place has been opened to the public – with a Brit being first in the queue.
Building boss Marcel Farcas, 43, was with his mum Elena, 73, and had arrived at 5.30am in order to beat the rush at Santa Maria Maggiore church.
In a break with tradition the Argentine born pontiff, who died on Easter Monday aged 88, was buried in Santa Maria Maggiore church and not St Peter’s.
Officials opened the church at 7am on Sunday, the day after his two hour long funeral mass that was attended by more than 250,000, with billions more watching on TV.
Another 750,000 lined the streets as his coffin – on the back of a converted Popemobile – made its way from the Vatican to Santa Maria Maggiore just under four miles away.
Marcel, who lives in London, had arrived in Rome with his mother last Thursday, and headed straight to St Peter’s to see the Pope Francis lying in state.
He joked:’ We’ve queued to see the Pope in St Peter’s when we arrived, then we queued to get into the Square to see his funeral and now we are queuing again to see his grave.
‘The last few days have been very emotional and intense; the service was so moving, and my mum and I cried for much of it.
Building boss Marcel Farcas, 43, was with his mum Elena, 73, and had arrived at 5.30am in order to beat the rush at Santa Maria Maggiore church
In a break with tradition the Argentine born pontiff, who died on Easter Monday aged 88, was buried in Santa Maria Maggiore church and not St Peter’s
The tomb of Pope Francis at the Papal Basilica of Saint Mary Major in Rome
‘He was such a humble man; he was a man of the people, and his message came straight from the heart.
‘The idea was to give my mum a present for her 73rd birthday and we planned to go and see the Pope today (Sunday) for the blessing but sadly he had died.
‘We decided to come all the same and it’s been a pilgrimage for us, his lying in state, the funeral and now we will see his tomb.’
Pope Francis said in his will he wanted to be ‘buried in the earth’ at Santa Maria Maggiore with just a simple tombstone carrying his name in Latin, Franciscus and a black cross for decoration.
A lone light also shone on a silver cross set in the wall above the tomb and crowds jostled to take a picture as mass was celebrated in the background.
On Sunday when the tomb was opened to pilgrims, a single white rose was on the stone, it was left by one of 40 mourners from a group of transgender, homeless and migrants who had greeted the Pope’s coffin on Saturday when it arrived.
The Vatican said the Pope had expressly asked that ‘poor and marginalised people’ be among those to pay their respects.
It added:’The poor held a privileged place in God’s heart and therefore also in the heart and teachings of the Holy Father, who chose the name Francis so as never to forget them. ‘
Pope Francis said in his will he wanted to be ‘buried in the earth’ at Santa Maria Maggiore with just a simple tombstone carrying his name in Latin, Franciscus and a black cross for decoration
A barrier had been set up to prevent people from getting to close and those with flowers were told they couldn’t leave them by the tomb and instead had to hand then to an usher
A barrier had been set up to prevent people from getting to close and those with flowers were told they couldn’t leave them by the tomb and instead had to hand then to an usher.
At one point mid morning at Santa Maria Maggiore, as Sunday mass was being said the priest briefly halted the service as crowds trying to visit the tomb were too big.
He said: ‘There are too many of us, there is a security problem, the basilica is small, we invite those who have already visited the Pontiff’s tomb to leave.
‘The security rules must be respected, so we ask you to leave immediately. Outside there are thousands of people trying to enter.’
For a few minutes pilgrims were stopped from entering because so many were trying to get in and made to wait in a long line that snaked along the outside of the church.
Those that were lucky enough to make it were quickly ushered past by Vatican police officers known as Gendarmes and lingering for photos was not encouraged.
Inside his wooden coffin are medals and coins minted during his 12 years as Pope and also ‘deed of life’ known as a rogito, which is written in Latin and a form of obituary.
It describes how Jesuit trained Francis was the 266 pope and details his life from his installation as Archbishop of Buenos Aries where he was a ‘much beloved pastor…travelling everywhere, even by subway and bus.’
It describes how he took the name Francis, in honour of St Francis of Assisi, because he wished above all to ‘care for the poorest in the world’.
The document ended: ‘Francis left to all a marvelous witness of humility, of holy living and of universal fatherhood.’
Cardinals who celebrated his funeral mass on Saturday are due to arrive for a vespers service at 3pm on Sunday and the church will remain open until 6.30pm so pilgrims can pay their respects.
The British boss of one of Pope Francis favourite charities was among mourners at his moving funeral service.
Alistair Dutton, secretary general of Caritas International, was among VIPs with a close-up view of the service and had met Pope Francis several times in the course of his work.
Mr Dutton, who was wearing Isle of Man tartan, also had a brief chat with PM Sir Kier Starmer ahead of the service and, described the funeral as ‘profoundly moving’.
Pope Francis is seen lying in state in a simple wooden coffin lined with zinc at the St Peter’s Basilica ahead of his funeral
He added: ‘To be there and just to see the immense fondness that was in the square, it was actually quite incredible, an event on that scale, that still had humility to it.
‘You could see that Pope Francis had pared back a lot of the pomp and circumstance because he didn’t want it to be like that.
‘The funeral mirrored the humility of the man, and it was such a privilege to be in the square and so close.
‘For me personally the most moving bit was watching him going into the Basilica and thinking that’s him leaving the square for the last time.
‘It was wonderful to be there, and I had worked with Pope Francis quite a bit and I thought the eulogy summed him up perfectly.’
Caritas is known for its humanitarian work and in the UK works with CAFOD, the Catholic Fund for Overseas Development.
Mr Dutton, who is from Oxford, added:’ From the words I the sermon he repeated the messages that just came so naturally to Francis.
‘He said time and time again that war is a failure and people are always worse off because of it, when elephants fight its always the grass that gets damaged.
‘It’s always the poorest people, those on the margins that are affected the most and Pope Francis was always an advocate for them.
‘The eulogy was an essence of what Pope Francis said, and he was a great friend of ours, visiting homeless shelters and working with us on food poverty and migration.’
Mr Dutton added:’Pope Francis had a very real and urgent faith that really understood the urgency of the Gospel message.’
Besides Sir Kier, Mr Dutton also met with Scottish First Minister John Swinney and Northern Ireland First Minister Michelle O’Neill.
In his will Pope Francis specifically asked that his final resting place be ‘in the niche of the side nave between the Cappella Paolina and the Capella Sforza’.
Above his, is the marble memorial plaque of Paul V who died in 1621 and who was Pope at the time of the Gunpowder Plot.
The Cappella Paolina holds the Salus Populi Romani icon, which according to tradition was painted by St Luke and shows the Virgin Mary holding the baby Christ and which was also brought to the altar for his funeral yesterday.
Before each international trip Pope Francis would visit the chapel and spend time in quiet prayer and he is said to have visited the Basilica 100 times in 2023 alone.
Pope Francis is not the first Pope to be buried in Santa Maria Maggiore but he was the first to be buried outside the Vatican in more than 100 years.
In his will Pope Francis specifically asked that his final resting place be ‘in the niche of the side nave between the Cappella Paolina and the Capella Sforza’
According to tradition those that pass through the Basical’s Porta Santa (Holy Door) on the left-hand side of the building, will have ‘redemption and forgiveness’
The last Pope not to be buried in the traditional ‘papal cemetery’ under St Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican was Leo XIII who lies in in St John the Lateran church.
Several other Popes are buried at Santa Maria Maggiore and the last to be laid to rest there was Pope Clement IX who died in 1669.
In his autobiography Pope Francis wrote:’ I’ve always had a great devotion to Santa Maria Maggiore, even before I became pope.’
He visited the church more than 120 times and returned there on his way back from the Gemelli hospital on March 23, after his 38-day stay, to lay flowers and he was there on April 12 to pray one final time.
The Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore is particularly significant to Catholic faithful this year as Pope Francis had decaled 2025 to be a Jubilee year.
According to tradition those that pass through the Basical’s Porta Santa (Holy Door) on the left-hand side of the building, will have ‘redemption and forgiveness.’
Santa Maria Maggiore means St Mary Major in Italian, and the church is a spectacular building with a ceiling covered in gold, brought back by from the Americas by the explorer Christoper Colombus.
It is one of the oldest in the city of Rome and dates to AD358, where according to tradition the Virgin Mary told Pope Liberius in a dream to build a church where snow would fall.
The story goes that the following day, despite the searing August heat, snow fell at what is the city of Rome’s highest point and the church was duly built.
To mark the event every year white flower petals flutter down onto the altar from the ceiling above.
