The wake has been arranged in which in its 12 years of pontificate It was his residence, then The Apostolic Palace did not want to inhabit: The Santa Marta house, a simple and more lively building within the Vatican State, next to the Basilica apse.
He coffin is made of wood, simpleand has been installed in its private chapel, located on the ground floor, as he himself wanted to simplify what would be his funeral.
The body of the Pontiff, who died on Monday, April 21 with 88 years because of a stroke and after months with serious respiratory problems, will be transferred on April 23 to the Basilica of San Pedro for his exhibition before the faithful.
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Meanwhile, its chapel runs privately, reserved only to Curia membersreligious or employees of the Holy See who must show their accreditation before crossing the walls of the hermetic papal state, in the center of Rome.
Already inside, those who want to say goodbye to the pontiff must wait under the sun to a guard lIt is allow to access Santa Martaprotected by a security protocol.
Then they parade through the halls of their ground floor, between saints, virgins and some plants, until they reach the chapel, which enters small groups.
Inside, several Vatican Police agents and the Swiss guard Civil dresses control that nobody gets out of the line: the sign is maximum respect.
The residence has already begun to arrive first ecclesiastical and also political authoritiesas the president of Italy, Sergio Mattarella.
Inside the wake
The chapel is a small room with triangular roof, As a cement cabin, supported by a row of four columns and in which, on the one hand, natural light enters, with a narrow gallery of crystals that give the Leoninas walls.
Francisco rests in the apse of the chapel, under a wooden crucifix and an inscription in golden letters that runs through the triangular roof: Veni Sancte Spiritus Replet Tuorum Corda Fideliuma prayer: “Come Holy Spirit and fill the heart of your faithful. ”
In the box, lined with red fabric, the Pope appears dressed in purple walls, a sign of maximum distinction and dignity, with A white bishop miter on the head and a rosary in the hands.
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The coffin It is guarded day and night by two Swiss guards With its colorful uniform, metallic and red pen and praise in hand, but also by the faithful of the Pope who have reached the enclosure.
In the middle of the morning, just after Mattarella’s visit, there are about 45 faithful in the chapel, some sitting in chairs and others standing: there are several archbishops, as indicated in the middle of a sepulchral silence.
Cardinal Camerlengo Kevin Farrell Pressing Over The Rite of the Ascertainment of Death and the Placement of the Late Pope Francis’ Body in the Coffin, Which Took Place on Monday Evening in the Chapel of the Casa Santa Marta. pic.twitter.com/63apktw9nd
– Vatican News (@vaticannews) April 22, 2025
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A woman commits the imprudence of getting the phone out of her pocket, but one of the guards who watch everything, with heat, catches her attention and requires the device, despite the reticence of the lady. It is the only case. The rest says, meditate or shut up, ignoring the scene.
Others are only passing through the hallway, reach the coffin, make the sign of the cross and bow their heads before the inert body of the Pope as a sign of respect.
At his feet, on a carpet, someone has left branches of white and yellow flowers, the colors of the Vatican flag.
Towards the funeral
In this chapel, Cardinal Camarlengo, Kevin Joseph Farrell, practiced the rite of the verification of the death of the Popeand then seal your apartments as the old protocol dictates to prevent the documents of the deceased from touching.
From the morning of April 23 the body of the Pontiff will be exposed to the faithful in the Basilica of San Pedro and on Saturday 26 its funeral will take place, before Francisco rests forever in a simple crypt of the Roman temple of Santa María la Mayor.