Mass rank in Santa Maria Maggiore: tens of thousands of people want to see Pope grave

In Rome, tens of thousands of people stood on Sunday to visit the grave of Pope Francis (1936-2025) and to say goodbye to the late head of the Catholic Church. According to the Vatican, according to media reports, 30,000 people visited the grave just six hours after the Basilica Santa Maria Maggiore was opened. If over 70,000 people are said to have been in line on Sunday.

According to the reports, the visitors were sometimes more than two hours to spend a few minutes at the grave. The snake had formed at 7 a.m. long before opening the basilica. The authorities asked people to leave the church again quickly after seeing the simple grave. The coffin with Pope Francis’ Leichnam was brought there on Saturday after the funeral fair on St. Peter’s Square, around 150,000 people lined the streets of Rome.

Due to his funeral outside of the Vatican, Pope Francis broke with a long tradition after his death. For over a century, no Pope had been buried outside of the city state in Rome. However, Franziskus is now buried in Santa Maria Maggiore according to his own will – a place where only seven popes were buried in front of him. The last of them was released there more than 300 years ago.

Before his death, he was very connected to the basilica with the Byzantine Mary icon “Salus Populi Romani” because of his veneration for the mother of God. Most recently, he visited the 432 church, which was the only basilica, which has preserved its early Christian structure, on April 12 with a bouquet of white roses.

Franziskus’ coffin was buried in a simple marble grave in a side aisle of the basilica. Only his Latin name “Franciscus” is engraved above. A replica of its silver breast cross hangs over the niche.

The tomb is manufactured from a white marble from Liguria according to Francis’s wish. The family of the native Argentine comes from the region in north -westitals. His mother’s grandfather emigrated to Buenos Aires.