From the evening of Monday, April 22, 2025, until the morning of Wednesday, April 23, the body of Pope Francis lied in state in the chapel of the Santa Marta residence in the Vatican.
Vatican employees took turns to pray emotionally before the late pontiff. IMedia was among them.
We share their experience:
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In the shadow of St. Peter's Basilica, several members of the Swiss Guard and the Vatican Gendarmerie are guarding the entrance to Pope Francis' former residence. Originally built as a hotel for prelates visiting the Vatican and to accommodate cardinals during conclaves, Santa Marta was the Argentine pope's home from the beginning to the end of his pontificate. His bedroom was on the second floor, in the former suite 201, a small two-room apartment.
Around the residence, the atmosphere is one of contemplation, far from the crowds of St. Peter's Square. In religious silence, those who have had a special relationship with Pope Francis or served his ministry, slowly make their way through the white marble hall leading to the chapel.
Just to the left of the entrance, the reception room is now closed. This is where the Pontiff used to receive guests, often in the afternoon, outside of his official schedule. He liked to sit under a painting of “Mary Undoer of Knots,” a Bavarian representation of the Virgin Mary to which he had been devoted since his stay in Germany in the late 1980s.
In the chapel, bathed in soft twilight, an icy cold reigns. On the benches, a few priests, nuns, and anonymous lay people pray, while a short line stretches to the deceased pontiff.
Guarded by two Swiss Guards in uniform, the Pope's coffin is slightly inclined. The deceased Pontiff holds a dark rosary in his hands. His face is marked by the last weeks of illness. To his left, the Paschal candle is lit. For Christians, it represents the presence of the risen Christ.
On February 14, the pope was admitted to Rome's Gemelli Polyclinic with a serious respiratory infection. During his stay at Gemelli, he had come close to death on two occasions, as his doctors later explained to the press.
When he was discharged after 38 days in hospital, the Pope appeared very weak. On Easter Sunday, the day before his death, he struggled to pronounce the Urbi et Orbi blessing, but decided to take a tour of St. Peter's Square in the popemobile.
The Pope died the next morning at 7:35 a.m. from complications of a stroke and irreversible cardiac arrest.
In the chapel of Santa Marta, the hushed world of the Vatican is gathering in private. Starting Wednesday at 11 a.m., thousands of faithful do the same in St. Peter's Basilica in Rome.
