Overview
- Pilgrims are lining up at Rome’s Santa Maria Maggiore as the April 21st anniversary approaches, with free entry to the tomb from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.
- Vatican authorities continue a large security operation to guide crowds and keep the flow of visitors safe inside and around the basilica.
- Francis died on April 21, 2025 at age 88 after a reported stroke, one day after his final public appearance at Easter Mass in St. Peter’s Square.
- The Vatican followed his written testament by placing him in a plain, underground tomb of Ligurian marble marked only “Franciscus,” with a reproduction of his pectoral cross and a niche between the Paulina and Sforza chapels.
- The interment outside St. Peter’s is the first for a pope since Leo XIII in 1903, reflecting Francis’s long devotion to this UNESCO‑recognized Marian shrine, which he visited more than 115 times and linked to his Jesuit roots.