By 8pm today, Pope Francis’ coffin will finally be sealed during a liturgical rite at St Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican, hours before his funeral April 26.
Cardinal Kevin Farrell, the Camerlengo of the Holy Roman Church, will preside at the Rite of Sealing of the Coffin of Pope Francis, ahead of the papal funeral, a rite that will be limited to only Cardinals and Holy See officials. This will also mark the end of public viewing at St Peter’s Basilica, which has seen tens of thousands of people pay their respects to the late Pope Francis.
The Vatican yesterday, April 24 announced on Vatican News that the funeral Mass for Pope Francis will take place tomorrow from 10am at St Peter’s Square. This will mark the beginning of the Novemdiales, an ancient tradition of nine days of mourning and Mass for the repose of the late Pope’s soul.
The unique and elaborate burial process of a pope remains a key tradition in the Roman Catholic Church, starting with the three-coffin ritual, dressing, including other special regalia along which the pope is laid in the coffin.
Popes are traditionally buried with a death certificate, a broken fisherman's ring, and wearing a rosary around their hands. The ring, another item of papal regalia, destroyed immediately after the Camerlengo confirms and announces his death, is a gold ring decorated with a depiction of St Peter in a boat casting his net, with the name of the reigning pope surrounding it.
The ring, which is a unique signet ring presented to each pope during his papal inauguration, is destroyed before the burial, marking an end to the pope’s reign.
In his open casket on Wednesday, once his body was transferred from his deathbed to the Casa Santa Marta Cathedral, he wore the significant red chasuble, which symbolises love, passion and the blood of Christ, with a black rosary strapped around his fingers.
Since the first centuries of the Christian era, the symbolic red remains the liturgical colour of a funeral in the city of Rome, described as the city of martyrs.
A pallium, a white stole featuring six black crosses, was draped around his body, a garment typically placed on a priest’s shoulders when they handle the monstrance – the sacred golden vessel used to display the Eucharist during Mass.
Under Vatican traditions, the pallium was made with wool from two lambs held by the Tre Fontane Abbey monks and woven by nuns of the Basilica of St Cecilia in Trastevere. Both abbeys are said to be located in Rome.
Pope Francis will also be buried wearing a white mitre on his head, which represents the holiness, dignity, authority, and splendour of the pontiff. The two-piece, stiffened headdress is ornamented with golden trim, the UK-based Daily Mail reported on Wednesday, April 23.
His right ring finger was also outfitted with a silver ring that the pontiff has worn since he served as the archbishop of Buenos Aires, the report stated. Among other symbolic items to be placed inside his casket and buried with him are his mitre, and the liturgical headdress worn by Roman Catholic bishops, including cardinals, archbishops, and popes.
His body will be accompanied by his hat, a papal ferula - a pastoral staff used in the Catholic Church by the pope, a rod with a knob on top surmounted by a cross, together with the rogito or death certificate, a legal document as records of Pope’s life.
In 2023, Pope Francis declared his wish to be buried at the Basilica of St Mary Major, not at the Vatican’s St Peter’s Basilica. The basilica is said to hold personal meaning to the deceased pope who always held prayers there before and after every international trip.
A year later, he again approved major changes to papal funeral rites, including the elimination of the three-coffin burial.
