Images of Pope Francis’ grave at Santa Maria Maggiore church in Rome were published.
A single white rose was represented lying on the stone tomb which bears the name he was known during his pontificate, under a crucifix lit by a single projector.
The late Pope was buried in the church – one of the four large basilicas of the Italian capital, and he would regularly return to his time as a cardinal and pontiff – during a private ceremony after his public funeral at the Vatican on Saturday.
Thousands of mourning people have exceeded the tomb since the opening of the church to the public on Sunday morning to pay tribute to Pope Francis, who died on Monday at the age of 88.
Among them was Rosario Correale, an Italian, who said it was “very emotional” to see the tomb. “He really left us a brand,” he told the Associated Press.
Polish pilgrim Maria Brzezinska felt that the resting place would be suitable for man. “I have the impression that it is exactly in the Pope’s path. It was simple, just like its place now,” she told the Reuters news agency after his visit.
Francis was particularly devoted to the Virgin Mary, and Santa Maria Maggiore was the first church to be dedicated to her during her construction in the 4th century.
The basilica is located near the Colosseum, a stone throwing of the endless central termini station of the city – far beyond the limits of the Vatican, where the popes are traditionally buried.
But it was one for which the South American pontiff had a longtime affinity.
He was previously a priest told an Italian newspaper that Pope Francis said he wanted to be set up there in 2022, citing the inspiration of the Virgin Mary.
“I thought it was incredible that he wanted to be buried here in this basilica,” said Amaya Morris, another pilgrim, at AP.
“Of all (churches), he chose this one. So I thought it was really incredible. It’s really humiliating to be able to be here.”
Francis’ funerals attended heads of state, heads of government and monarchs from around the world – as well as hundreds of thousands of Catholics who bordered the streets leading to the Vatican to pay tribute.
Hymns played on giant speakers, sometimes drowned by the sound of helicopters flying above the head, before Cardinal Giovanni Battista of 91 years old gives a homily on the Pope’s heritage.
The cardinal stressed that Pope Francis had repeatedly urged the world to “build bridges, not walls”.
The funeral was also the place of a meeting between the American president Donald Trump and the Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine, who, according to the latter, had “the potential to become historic”.
Trump then questioned the will of Russian President Vladimir Putin to end the war now three years in Ukraine, a conflict that Pope Francis had regularly called for peace during his papacy.
After the public funeral, the coffin of Pope Francis was transported by Rome in a slow procession.
The authorities said that 140,000 people had bordered the streets, applauding and waving while the hearse – a reused white friend – crossed the Tiber river and passed some of the most recognizable sites in Rome: the Coliseum, the Forum and the Altare Della Patria National Monument on Piazza Venezie.
After a period of mourning, attention will soon turn to the selection of the next pope.
A date has not yet been set, but we think that it could start on May 5 or 6, with 135 cardinals to attend, which makes it the biggest conclave in modern history.
