Home
+
Published : 23 Apr 2025, 10:05 AM
Pope Francis died little more than half an hour after being taken ill, Sky News reports, citing sources in the Vatican.
The pope woke at 6am on Monday, and was fine for at least an hour, sources said, as they revealed details of the pontiff's final moments.
Around 7am, the Vatican's medical unit received an emergency call from his Casa Santa Marta apartment.
The options considered included an urgent transfer to the Gemelli hospital, where he was treated for pneumonia earlier this year.
Rome police received a request for an urgent escort from the Vatican after 7am, sources there said, but, given how quickly his condition worsened, it was cancelled by Vatican officials before 7:35am.
Francis died at the age of 88, a day after making his final public appearance at St Peter's Square, where he greeted crowds on Easter Sunday, one of the most important days of the Christian calendar.
The Vatican said he died from a stroke that led to a coma and irreversible heart failure.
He is currently lying in state in the Santa Marta Domus in a private viewing for Vatican residents and the papal household.
Francis will be laid to rest Saturday, the Vatican announced on Tuesday, after lying in state for three days in St Peter's Basilica, where the faithful are expected to flock to pay their respects.
The funeral will take place outside, in the square in front of St Peter's Basilica, and will start with a procession led by a priest carrying a cross, followed by the coffin and ordained clergy.
Unlike his predecessors, Francis will be buried in the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore (St Mary Major), as per his final burial wishes, announced on Monday.
The basilica is dedicated to Mary, the mother of Jesus, and is where Francis traditionally went to pray before and after foreign trips.
He will be the first pope to be buried outside the Vatican in more than a century.
In another change from tradition, he will be buried in a simple wooden casket, forgoing the centuries-old practice of burying the late pope in three interlocking caskets made of cypress, lead, and oak.
