Final days of Pope who joined Vatican crowds at Easter despite doctors’ advice

At midday on Monday, church bells across Italy began to toll. Pope Francis was dead.

Not even 24 hours had passed since he had made a surprise appearance on the balcony overlooking St Peter’s Square, blessing the 35,000 people gathered to celebrate Easter at the Vatican.

The Pope was breathing on his own, without oxygen tubes, despite being told by his doctors to spend two months convalescing after 38 days in hospital with double pneumonia.

Over the past two weeks Francis had done what he had always done, received visitors and met people from every walk of life.

When he appeared on Easter Sunday, the crowd below erupted in cheers as he appeared; then it fell silent.

“Dear brothers and sisters, I wish you a happy Easter,” he said, his voice heavy with effort.

They were to be his final words in public.

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“I think people could feel something – as if they could tell it was the last time they’d see him,” said Mauro, a Rome resident who was in St Peter’s Square for Easter Mass and had now returned to pay his respects.

“Usually everyone shouts ‘Long live the Pope!’… this time it was much quieter than usual, there was maybe more respect for his suffering.”

“He blessed us but his voice was a husk,” a man called Alberto told the BBC. “I think he was giving us his last goodbye.”

Doctors who treated Francis at Rome’s Gemelli hospital had prescribed a regimen of complete rest – but it was never likely that a typically active Pope who spent much of his papacy meeting people would keep to that.

Francis had already made it clear he wanted to be back in the Vatican in time for Easter, as soon as the specialists treating him explained that his health issues would not be resolved quickly.

For Christians, Easter is even more important than Christmas as it symbolises a core tenet of their faith – the resurrection of Christ, three days after his nailing to the cross.

Before he was discharged on 23 March, Francis waved to crowds from the hospital too, and then headed back to his quarters in the Casa Santa Marta guest house he had made his home.

His medical team said all he needed was oxygen, and convalescing there was better than hospital with all its infections.

Easter was just three weeks away and, as it approached, the Pope’s schedule became increasingly busy.

He met King Charles and Queen Camilla at the Casa San Marta and then appeared on the Vatican balcony for Palm Sunday four days later on 13 April, mingling with a crowd of 20,000 people in St Peter’s Square, against doctors’ advice.

But for the Pope, Easter was most important time of all.

Last Thursday, as he had done many times previously and as he used to do in his native Argentina before becoming Pope, he made a visit to the Regina Coeli jail in Rome where he spent half an hour meeting prisoners and he was greeted by applause from staff and guards as he arrived in a wheelchair.

In previous years he had washed inmates’ feet, mirroring what Jesus is said to have done with his disciples the night before his death.

“This year I’m unable to do that, but I can and want to still be near you,” he said in a feeble voice to the dozens of prisoners who had come to see him, and who cheered him on as he toured the jail.

“We are so lucky. Those on the outside don’t get to see him and we do,” one man told Italian media.

As he was leaving the prison, Francis was asked by a journalist how he would experience Easter this year.

“Whichever way I can,” he replied.

And, on Sunday, he kept his promise.

He held a short meeting with US Vice-President JD Vance before appearing before the crowds in St Peter’s Square as the crowd below erupted in cheers.

He made his final blessing – the Urbi et Orbi address in Latin, meaning “to the city and to the world”. Then, Archbishop Diego Ravelli read out a speech written by the Pope as Francis sat silently beside him.

Then, to everyone’s surprise, he descended down to St Peter’s Square, where he was driven around in an open-top popemobile – the distinctive little white Mercedes-Benz used by popes to meet crowds.

A camera followed him around as he raised his arm to bless the faithful lining the sunny square, and a few babies were brought up closer to him. It was the last time the world saw him alive.

Watching Francis’s blessing on Sunday, Alberto from Rome felt he would not last much longer, although the Pope’s death still came as a shock.

“I didn’t feel happy seeing him, I could tell he was in pain,” he said. “But it was an honour to see him one last time.”

Francis died early on Monday in his beloved Casa Santa Marta – a residenceof 100-odd simple rooms, run by nuns and open to pilgrims and visitors.

A little over two hours later, the cardinal chamberlain, or camerlengo, stood in the Casa Santa Marta and made the news public.

The Vatican said on Monday evening he had died of a stroke and irreversible heart failure.

The Pope’s rooms were a far cry from the opulence of the Vatican quarters typically destined to pontiffs, which Francis had turned down at the start of his papacy saying he felt the need to “live among people”.

“If I lived by myself, maybe even a bit in isolation, it would be of no use to me,” he said back then.

In the coming days, cardinals from across the world will be staying at Casa Santa Marta as they gather in Rome for the conclave that will choose Francis’ successor.

Outside, in the bright sunshine in St Peter’s Square, people mingled with priests and friars under the imposing basilica.

A group of nuns clad in grey and white glared at a man who, headphones in, was dancing around the square. “No respect,” they tutted.

The same large screens that broadcast the Pope’s blessing for Easter now displayed a photo of Francis smiling and a notice that a special rosary was being held for him 12 hours after his death.

It would allow Catholics near and far to pray for their Pope – and thank him for celebrating one last Easter with them.