The Pope’s burial place reflects his “humble, essential” life

By Giada Zampano

Rome (AP)-Pope Francis has chosen his burial place in the Sainte-Marie-Major basilica, near an icon of the Madonna which he venerated, because she reflects his life “humble, simple and essential”, the archbishop that administers the basilica declared on Friday.

Francis, who died Monday at 88, will be buried on Saturday in a niche tomb in the basilica after his funeral in Saint-Pierre at around 4 kilometers (2½ miles).

Francis initially helpless when Archbishop Rolandas Makrickas suggested in May 2022 that he chose St. Mary Major as the last rest place. Makrickas had identified it because of the long association of the pontiff with the basilica, its links with the Jesuit order of Francis, its artistic and spiritual heritage and links with the papacy. Seven other popes have been buried there, but none since 1669.

At first, “he said no because the popes are buried in Saint-Pierre,” Makrickas told journalists on the steps of the basilica. “After a week, he called me to (his house in the Vatican) Santa Marta and he said” prepare my tomb “.

The pope later insisted that his grave remains simple, stressing that people should still come to the basilica dedicated to the Virgin Mary “to venerate the Madonna, not to see the tomb of a pope,” said Makrickas.

Liguria marble

Francis will be buried under a simple tombstone in the marble of Liguria, the Italian region of his mother’s family, engraved with his name in Latin: Franciscus. Above, he will hang a slightly widened replica of his pectoral cross, with raised images of a shepherd carrying a sheep on his shoulders and a dove, but not other ornaments.

The tomb is placed in a niche next to the chapel where the Rauli Romani Salus icon that the revered pope is located, and in a part of the basilica which was once a door of an adjacent palace where four popes lived. During its 12 -year papacy, Francis would pray before the icon before and after each foreign trip.

The basilica also has a meaning for the Jesuit pope: it is there that the founder of the religious order, Saint Ignatius Loyola, celebrated his first mass on Christmas day in 1538.

St. Mary Major is a pontifical basilica, one of the four in Rome, and has never been “destroyed, damaged or burned” through the ages, with history dating from the 5th century. Makrickas called him “a treasure chest of art and spirituality”.

Mary’s protection

Tens of thousands of faithful have flocked here since Francis’ death on Monday, and hundreds were patiently held on Friday morning to explore the place where he will be buried, now completed and obscured by the plywood.

Carlos Taborda, 39, went to Europe from Brazil with her husband and a group of friends.