Across Vatican City on Saturday morning, hundreds of thousands of people lined the streets, spilling outside the city walls into Rome, to mourn Pope Francis as his funeral took place at St. Peter's Basilica.
Under a warm sun, the seated audience was a sea of red cardinals' and bishops' robes, as well as world leaders and delegates who converged on St. Peter's Square, where the late pontiff was presented in a humble wooden coffin.
Many arrived as early as dawn to secure a spot along the Via della Conciliazione, a long, straight avenue running through Vatican City all the way to St. Peter's Basilica, and watched the funeral on large screens.
Pallbearers carried Pope Francis in a wooden coffin lined with zinc. Throughout his papacy, Francis broke with the often gilded traditions of the Catholic Church to choose humbler accoutrements, and his coffin was no different.
While previous popes had been buried in three coffins — one made of cypress, one of lead and one of elm — nested into each other, Francis decided to be entombed in a simple, single coffin.
World leaders took their seats in the front row during the service. President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump, Argentine President Javier Milei, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Britain’s Prince William were in the crowd.
Farther from the main event, crowds lined the Via della Conciliazione.
Cardinals, nuns and members of the clergy made up a large portion of the audience for the funeral service at the Vatican.
Outside the Basilica of St. Mary Major, a smaller venue where Francis was to be laid to rest, a banner read "Thank you, Francis" in Italian.
While the funeral at the Vatican was attended by heads of state and monarchs, there was great symbolism in the fact that, according to the pope's last wishes, his coffin was greeted on the steps of St. Mary Major by the poor and dispossessed, who remained at the forefront of Francis' ministries until his death.
