"The place is already prepared," revealed Pope Francis on the subject of his future tomb in St. Mary Major, in an interview with the Mexican reporter Valentina Alazraki, broadcast on the Noticieros Televisa channel on December 12, 2023, the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe.
The Pontiff spoke extensively about his bond with the Virgin Mary, and it was the icon of her at Mary Major that drew him over and over again. Before and after his trips, he would stop to see her. He brought her the flowers that he had spotted from the Gemelli balcony the day he finally got out of the hospital after his 38-day stay battling double pneumonia. He was back again last week, as he began to venture out among the public, and give brief greetings and blessings in his still-strained and breathless voice.
Confessing his desire to "simplify" the liturgy of papal funerals, the Pontiff said that he wishes to be buried in Santa Maria Maggiore, a papal basilica located in the center of Rome.
"The place is already prepared," he assures us, explaining that he made this promise to the Virgin Mary, with whom he has "a very deep bond."
Pope Francis will thus depart from the contemporary tradition of burying pontiffs near the first pope, in St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican. However seven other popes have been buried in St. Mary Major, the last being Clement IX, who reigned from 1667 to 1669.
Read the details of where he will be laid to rest:
