BBC News, In Rome
EPAEvery 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 here when it was Built in the 4th center.
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 Recography The Diverse Esquilino Neighbourhood is Close by.
Santa Maria Maggiore Feels Steeped in the “Real” Rome – Despite Technically Beautifully.
The Square it Stands on – Lined with Bus Stops, Cafees and Shops – Certainly Seems a World Away from the AWE-INSPIRING St The Square and Its is Imposition Basilica, Under Which Popes Are Usually Buried in Centuries-long 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 Relat of Jesus’s CRIB and ACON of Mary, to Who Pope Francis Would Pray Asking For Protection Before a Journey.
ReutersSanta Maria Maggiore’s Senior Priest, The Lithuanian Rolandas Makrickas, Gave ITALIAN NEWSARPER IL MESSAGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGARO HIS Account of How The Pope’s Decision to Be Laid to Rest The 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.
The Priest Continued: “A Week Later He Called Me and Said, ‘The Virgin Mary Has Told Me to Prepare My Tomb’.
“Thn He Simply Told Me, ‘Find a Place for It, BecUSE I Want to Be Buried in this Basilica and You’ve Been a Bit of a PROPTET.”
The Place Mackrickas Found is Next to the icon of Mary that the Pope so loved. It is now CordONED OFF and Obsced by Plywood.
A Security Guard who Wood 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 CARE HERE,” He Said, Interrupting HIMSELF to Six Invite Tourists to Put themseles Away or Cover their Shrouders.
“After a FEW Times of Seeing Him, One Time He Loged at Me and Asked Me, ‘Why Are You Always here?’
“And I Said, ‘Holy Father, I’m Working Just as you are.”
ReutersAs the Security Guard Spoke, People Continied to Stream in from the Blazing Sunshine INTO The Quiet Shade of the Basilica.
Several Queud Outside Wooden Booths, Each Toped with a Sign Indicating in Which Languages ​​The Priests Inside Cououl Hear Confessions.
Every Fewees Minutes, The Chatter Wald Be Momentarily Quayetned by a voice Hissing Over the Loudspaker: “Silenzio.”
Outside, a Woman Called Pat from Manchester Was Squinting at the Sun and Gathering Her Thoughts.
“I have been here before this is where the pope used to come before any Journey,“ She Told the BBC, Raising Her Voice Over the Sound of the Middle Bells Tolling.
“That’s what i’ve Alays WhatsAd to come and it has’t dispyded.”
After a pause, shea: “Beautiful isnt the word. It’s just vast, it’s enormous.”
APOLOGISING For Not Being Aike to Put Her Emotions INTO Words, She Said She was “Particularly Impressed” That Many of the Six Chapels Hold Difference Masses at Directive Times, “SO if you’re Late for One, You Can Go into Another.
ReutersPat 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.
“I channel with any Sort of Preconceied Idea and I Made a Point of Not Reading up about it, I just wasted to take the Atmosphere in, and Feel it.”
“And I did,” shea, looking up at the basilica. “I am full of the spirit.”
On Sature afternoon, After Life.
The Church Will Be Shut for A Fe Fe Hours, then the Stream of Visits Will Resume.
Some, like pat, will control to come to the Basilica and try to put it. Others Will Simply Admire The Mosaics.
And on the left Hand Side, by an icon of the Virgin Mary, Santa Maria Maggiore’s NewSt Resident Will Begin His RIST.
