POPE FRANCIS’ funeral will take place this weekend, the Vatican has confirmed.
The service will take place outside St Peter’s Basillica in the Vatican at 9am on Saturday, April 26 and will be presided over by His Reverend Eminence Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, Dean of the College of Cardinals.
Pope Francis will be taken to the Basilica at 9am local time tomorrow morning, April 23 (8am BST).
The coffin will remain there until the burial for the public to pay their respects.
Pope Francis’ body is currently laid out in a coffin in the chapel of the Santa Maria residence where he lived during his 12-year papacy.
Pope Francis died at home at 7.25am yesterday morning.
The 88-year-old pontiff's death was officially announced by Cardinal Kevin Farrell, the Irish-born Camerlengo of the Holy Roman Church, during a televised statement from the Vatican.
The Vatican will now begin the traditional nine-day mourning period known as the novemdiales.
During this time, daily Masses will be celebrated in memory of Pope Francis, and his body will lie in state in St. Peter's Basilica, allowing the faithful to pay their respects.
In accordance with his wishes, Pope Francis will not be buried in the grottoes beneath St. Peter's Basilica, as is customary for his predecessors.
His Holiness has requested to be buried in the Papal Basilica of Saint Mary Major.
“I wish that my final earthly journey conclude precisely in this ancient Marian shrine, where I go to pray at the beginning and end of every Apostolic Journey to faithfully entrust my intentions to the Immaculate Mother and to give thanks for her gentle and maternal care," he said in his final testament.
“I ask that my tomb be prepared in the burial niche in the side nave between the Pauline Chapel (Chapel of the Salus Populi Romani) and the Sforza Chapel of the aforementioned Papal Basilica, as indicated in the enclosed plan.
“The tomb should be in the ground; simple, without particular ornamentation, and bearing only the inscription: Franciscus.”
In the testament the Pope goes on to confirm that the cost of preparation of his burial “will be covered by a sum provided by a benefactor, which I have arranged to be transferred to the Papal Basilica of Saint Mary Major”.
