The church to become Pope Francis’s resting place

Every time Pope Francis came back to Rome after a trip abroad, he made sure to pay a visit to the church of Santa Maria Maggiore.

It was a fitting choice: Francis was particularly devoted to the Virgin Mary, and Santa Maria Maggiore was the first church to be dedicated to her when it was built in the 4th Century.

It is one of Rome’s four major basilicas and one of the oldest in the city.

On Saturday, it will also become Francis’s final resting place.

It is a short walk from some of Rome’s most recognisable landmarks like the Colosseum, and a stone’s throw from the city’s endlessly bustling and chaotic central Termini station. The diverse Esquilino neighbourhood is close by.

Santa Maria Maggiore feels steeped in the “real” Rome – despite technically being a part of the Vatican state.

The square it stands on – lined with bus stops, cafes and shops – certainly seems a world away from the awe-inspiring St Peter’s Square and its imposing basilica, under which Popes are usually buried in centuries-old crypts.

And yet the chapels, mosaics and gilded wood of Santa Maria Maggiore remain stunning. Seven other popes are buried here.

The basilica also hosts what is said to be a relic of Jesus’s crib and an icon of Mary, to whom Pope Francis would pray to asking for protection before a journey.

Santa Maria Maggiore’s senior priest, the Lithuanian Rolandas Makrickas, gave Italian newspaper Il Messaggero his account of how the Pope’s decision to be laid to rest there came about.

He said: “In May 2022… I asked him if he wasn’t by any chance thinking about being buried in [the basilica], given how often he came.”

Francis smiled and said that Popes are buried in St Peter’s – “and that was that”, Makrickas thought.

The priest continued: “A week later he called me and said, ‘the Virgin Mary has told me to prepare my tomb’.

“Then he simply told me, ‘find a place for it, because I want to be buried in this basilica and you’ve been a bit of a prophet’.”

The place Mackrickas found is next to the icon of Mary that the Pope so loved. It is now cordoned off and obscured by plywood.

A security guard who wished to remain anonymous told BBC News stories of Pope Francis visiting the church on many occasions.

“Yes, we used to see him all the time when he came here,” he said, interrupting himself to sternly invite tourists to put their phones away or cover their shoulders.

“After a few times of seeing him, one time he looked at me and asked me, ‘why are you always here?’

“And I said, ‘Holy Father, I’m working just as you are’.”

As the security guard spoke, people continued to stream in from the blazing sunshine into the quiet shade of the basilica.

Several queued outside wooden booths, each topped with a sign indicating in which languages the priests inside could hear confessions.

Every few minutes, the chatter would be momentarily quietened by a voice hissing over the loudspeaker: “Silenzio.”

Outside, a woman called Pat from Manchester was squinting at the sun and gathering her thoughts.

“I came here because this is where the Pope used to come before any journey,” she told the BBC, raising her voice over the sound of the midday bells tolling.

“That’s why I’ve always wanted to come and it hasn’t disappointed.”

After a pause, she said: “Beautiful isn’t the word. It’s just vast, it’s enormous.”

Apologising for not being able to put her emotions into words, she said she was “particularly impressed” that many of the six chapels hold different masses at different times, “so if you’re late for one, you can go into another”.

Pat heard the news about the Pope’s death when her plane from the UK landed in Rome on Monday morning.

It did not scupper her visit. As a devout Catholic, she said Santa Maria Maggiore “was always the place I wanted to come” because Francis loved it so.

“I came without any sort of preconceived idea and I made a point of not reading up about it, I just wanted to take the atmosphere in, and feel it.”

“And I did,” she said, looking up at the basilica. “I am full of the spirit.”

On Saturday afternoon, after the world has had a chance to bid farewell to him, Pope Francis will make his final journey from the Vatican to Santa Maria Maggiore, as he did so often in life.

The church will be shut for a few hours, then the stream of visitors will resume.

Some, like Pat, will continue to come to the basilica and try to put something intangible into words. Others will simply admire the mosaics.

And on the left hand side, by an icon of the Virgin Mary, Santa Maria Maggiore’s newest resident will begin his rest.