The body of Pope Francis has now entered St Peter’s Basilica after being carried across St Peter’s Square.
There will be a prayer service before the public is allowed to enter to pay their final respects to the late pontiff.
​Pope Francis passed away on Easter Monday, April 21, 2025, at 7:35 a.m. local time in Vatican City, at the age of 88. The Vatican announced that he died from a stroke followed by irreversible cardiac arrest.
This morning, April 23, his body was transferred to St. Peter’s Basilica, where it will lie in state for three days, allowing the faithful to pay their final respects. A prayer service is being held prior to the public viewing, with elderly cardinals and church officials already gathered inside the basilica awaiting the placement of the late pontiff’s coffin. ​
ope Francis had previously approved a simplified version of the papal funeral rites, opting for a single zinc-lined wooden casket instead of the traditional three coffins. He also chose to be buried in the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome, near the icon of Salus Populi Romani, making him the first pope since Leo XIII to be interred outside the Vatican.
His funeral Mass is scheduled for Saturday, April 26, at 10:00 a.m. CEST in St. Peter’s Square, to be presided over by Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, Dean of the College of Cardinals.
