The modest tomb attracts huge queues the first day of public visualization one day after tens of thousands attended their funeral.
Thousands of Mourters have gathered in Rome to lend their respect for the tomb of Pope Francis, a day after his funeral attracted the world leaders and sinks of thousands of faithful.
On Sunday, queues were seen in the grave, which opened to the public in the second of nine days of official mourning, with a conclave to select their expected successor between May 5 and 10.
Outside the main basilica of St Mary, Usher’s urged visitors to continue moving to allow the constant flow of people to be the opportunity to say goodbye.
The Argentine pontiff, who died on April 21 at the age of 88, was buried in a modest white marble tomb near an icon of the Madonna that venerated deeply.
“For me, Pope Francis was an inspiration, a guide,” said Elias Caravalhal, a resident of Rome who lost the State in the State in the Basilica of San Pedro, but came to offer the tomb, told the news agency Associated Press.
The Polish pilgrim Maria Brzezinska, reflecting on the simplicity of the site, said: “It is exactly the path of the Pope. It was simple, and also her place now.”
![Cardinal Kevin Joseph Farrell (L), Camerlengo of the Sacred Roman Church, presiding over the funeral of the late Pope Francis in the Basilica of Santa María Maggiore in Rome, Italy. [File: Vatican media handout/EPA-EFE]](https://www.aljazeera.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/12996864-1745756876.jpg?w=770&resize=770%2C513&quality=80)
Breaking with a centenary tradition, Francis chose to be buried outside the Vatican, selecting the multicultural heart of Rome as his final resting place.
Earlier on Sunday, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Secretary of State of the Vatican and a probable contender to become the next Pope, directed a special mass in St Peter’s Square.
Speaking to an estimated crowd in 200,000, many of them young pilgrims who initially met for the planned Canonization of Carlo Acutis, Parolin paid tribute to Francis.
“The pastor whom the Lord gave his people, Pope Francis, has finished his earthly life and has left us,” he said. “The complaint to its departure, the feeling of sadness that assails us … we are experiencing all this.”
Among those of mourning was its Murphy of Kerala, India. “It’s amazing that I am no longer with us,” he said. “It’s sad. We don’t have potatoes like this very often.”
The cardinals who have arrived in Rome will meet during the week to draw the future course of the Roman Catholic Church of 1.4 billion people.