Pope Francis’s open coffin was transferred Wednesday to St Peter’s Basilica for three days of lying in state, with thousands of people gathering to pay their respects to the leader of the world’s Catholics.
Bells from the basilica rang out as the wooden coffin was carried in procession past packed crowds in St Peter’s Square, accompanied by red-robed cardinals and the Vatican’s Swiss Guards.
Pilgrims and tourists snapped photos, with some applauding as the procession passed on its way from the Santa Marta residence, where the 88-year-old Argentine pontiff died Monday after a stroke.
Francis’s body had been held in the chapel of the Santa Marta, where he lived during his 12-year papacy, but will now lie in state at the basilica until Saturday’s funeral.
Anna Montoya, 33, from Mexico, was among those who arrived early to catch a glimpse of a man she said was like “a family member” to her.
“I had to come… it feels like I knew him,” she told AFP. “He was a good man. He represented what the church needs to be, what Jesus wanted to teach us.”
Francis’s coffin was placed before St Peter’s Altar of the Confession, where Bernini’s bronze baldacchino soars up towards Michelangelo’s famous dome. It was placed on a low bier, unlike the higher, more ornate platforms of his predecessors.
The funeral is expected to draw hundreds of thousands of pilgrims as well as world leaders, including US President Donald Trump and Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky, as well as Britain’s Prince William.
Afterwards, Francis’s coffin will be taken to his favourite church, Rome’s papal basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore, where it will be interred in the ground and marked by a simple inscription: Frasiscus
Italy is preparing a major security operation for the funeral, with the weekend already due to be busy because of a public holiday on Friday
