Within the St. Mary Major Basilica, the final resting place of the Pope Francis: NPR

Pope Francis welcomes the participants in the living nativity scene in the basilica of St. Mary Major on December 14, 2024 in Rome, Italy. He will rest in the basilica in the basilica after his funeral in the Vatican on Saturday.

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Rome – Pope Francis has been the first Pope for more than a century that is buried outside the Vatican grotto. After his funeral On Saturday he will rest in the basilica of St. Mary Major, which is located in the district of Esquilino throughout the city of Sentinel.

Pope Francis’s decision to do this told Cardinal Rolanda’s Makrickas to NPR the result of a “divine intervention”.

Legend says that this church was built from the fourth century after the Virgin Mary appeared in a dream of an aristocrat, Giovanni and Pope Liberius and applied for a house of worship.

Pope Francis told Mackrika, coadjutor arch priest from the basilica of St. Mary Major that the virgin Mary appeared in front of him and asked to be relaxed in her church.

“The intervention, as I would say, was directly from Maria,” said Makrickas. Francis told the history of the Jungfrau Mary’s appearance in front of him during a meeting in his residence, in which the Pope Makrickas asked to take the necessary precautions for his grave in the basilica. “He told me, ‘I am very happy that Mary didn’t forget me.’ “

During his pope, Pope Francis visited St. Mary Major Basilica – with his colonnades of Cipollino Marble and complicated statues – 126 – times. He mainly went there to pray for Salus Populi Romani, health or protector of the Roman people in Latin, a painting on cedar wood that shows the virgin Mary, who holds Jesus of Jesus. This icon was brought from the east to Rome in the fifth century when Maria 431 was declared the Mother of God in the Council of Ephesus. Tradition of the tradition that it was painted by St. Lukas, the evangelist, whose written stories became the gospel that bears his name and the book of actions in the New Testament.

The icon of the Virgin Mary seemed to be almost an ally for Francis in his papacy. He visited her on his first day as a Pope in 2013 and prayed before and after every trip from Rome to her. It was the first place where he was released from the Gemelli Hospital in March to take over from the double pneumonia in the Vatican. And he returned there just a few days before death on Easter Monday.

People visit St. Mary Major basilica on Friday, where Pope Francis will be buried in Rome after his funeral in the Vatican.

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The Salus Populi Romani is said to have saved Rome from a plague in 590 when Pope Gregory organized a procession with her through the streets of the city.

Pope Francis’ grave consisted of marble with the inscription “Franciscus” and is located in a niche in the aisle between the Pauline chapel and the Sforza chapel of the basilica St. Mary Major.

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And during the Coronavirus pandemic in 2020, Pope Francis was brought into the base of St. Peter, where he prayed in the rain in the rain and was almost alone on an empty Peter Square.

“We know that they can take care of us,” said Francis during his prayers.

Seven other popes are buried in St. Mary Major. “But the vast majority of these popes were buried here in the more than 120 years to build St. Peter Basilica,” says Agnes Crawford, a long -time leader in Rome. “So for a kind of logistical reason as for the necessary preference.”

In the days of Francis’ funeral, the basilica was alive with the visitors, which is curious about the church in which he is buried. The chapel in which the Salus Populi Romani was housed was full of prayer. Her words and songs ran into the high ceiling basilica.

And next to the chapel was the nave, in which Francis is buried. At the time when NPR visited this week, it was covered by chipboard cladding when the work on Francis’ grave vault was continued. The Vatican later published a photo that shows the grave that was ready to receive it after the funeral. A replica of Francis’ breast cross hangs on the back wall of the nave. And on the floor there is a simple marble stone that contains a single word: Francis.

The simplicity of his resting place follows the express request of Francis in his will. Pope Francis avoided a large part of the pomp and the lacing of the papacy – the selection of a simpler dress, my chauffeur or, if he had to be driven, appeared in a modest Fiat car (if he did not drive in popemobile).

Popes are traditionally buried in three nested coffins: one from Cypress Wood, one of Elm and one of lead. Francis has selected a single wooden coffin with zinc.

“The message we thought of Francis’ simplicity is that he tried to understand people that we are all the same,” says Giuseppe Cipolla, who had visited St. Mary Major with his wife and two children. “And that this planet is for everyone – there shouldn’t be the privileged and the poor.”

Francis will be the first Pope for more than 350 years, which is buried in the basilica of St. Mary Major. (The last was Clement IX.)

This basilica has been in Sentinel for 16 centuries. Today, the district of Esquilino, in which it is housed, has a large population with a migration background and the city’s main railway. Historically, however, The area – the Esquiline Hill – was one of the seven old hills on which Rome was founded.

The basic story is a miraculous story. After the virgin Mary appeared to the aristocrat Giovanni and Pope Liberius in a dream in their honor after a church, she told them that they should build them in a place that would be miraculous. Then it snowed on this hill in Rome on August 5th.