Church to become Pope Francis’ rest

Each time Pope Francis returned to Rome after a trip abroad, he necessarily visited the church of Santa Magira.

It was a suitable choice: Francis was especially devoted to the Virgin Mary, and Santa -Major was the first church dedicated to her when it was built in the 4th century.

This is one of the four major basil in Rome and one of the oldest in the city.

On Saturday, it will also be the last place of Francis.

This is a short walk away from some of the most recognizable attractions in Rome, such as the Colosseum, and in the step of Stone from the infinitely fussy and chaotic central station of the city. A diverse Esquilino neighborhood is nearby.

Santa -Major Major feels imbued with a “real” Rome – despite the fact that it is technically part of the Vatican state.

On the square on which it stands – lined with stops, coffee shops and shops – it seems, a world far from the admiration of St. Peter’s area and its obsessive basilica, under which the pope is usually buried in centuries -old crystals.

And yet the chapels, mosaics and the gilded forest of Santa -Majira’s Majira remain stunning. Seven more popes are buried here.

The Basilica also holds what is said to be the relic of Jesus crib and the icon of Mary, to whom Pope Francis pray to ask for protection before the journey.

Senior priest Santa Magoria Majiore, Lithuanian Roland Macrickas, gave the Italian newspaper Ile Mesager, how the Pope’s decision had taken place.

He said, “In May 2022, I asked him if I was accidentally thinking about the funeral in (Basilica), given how often he came.”

Francis smiled and said that the Pope was buried in St. Peter – “and it was,” Macricas thought.

The priest continued: “A week later he called me and said,” The Virgin Mary ordered me to prepare the grave. ”

“Then he just said to me,” Find a place for this because I want me to be buried in this basilica and you were a little prophet. “

The place that Macricas found is near the icons of Mary, which the Pope loved so much. Now it is cordoned off and covered with plywood.

The guard who wished to remain anonymous told BBC News News about Pope Francis, who visits the church many times.

“Yes, we used to see him all the time when he came here,” he said, interrupting himself to strictly invite tourists to postpone his phones or close his shoulders.

“After seeing him several times, he looked at me once and asked me, ‘Why are you always here? ”

“And I said,” Holy Father, I work the way you are. “

When the guard spoke, people continued to spend from the burning sunlight into a quiet shade of the basilica.

A few in the queue outside the wooden booths, each of which was a sign that shows what languages ​​the priests could hear the confessions inside.

Every few minutes the chatter would be an instantly quiet voice, hissing over the speaker: “Silence.”

Outside, the woman, called Pat from Manchester, stuck in the sun and collected her thoughts.

“I came here because it was here that the Pope came to any journey,” she said the BBC, lifting her voice for the sound of the midday bells.

“That’s why I always wanted to come and it’s not disappointed.”

After a pause, she said, “Beautiful is not a word. It’s just huge, it’s huge.”

Sorry for the fact that she could not express her emotions with words, she said that “especially impressed” that many of the six chapels at different times keep different masses, “so when you are late, you can go to another.”

Pat heard the news of the Pope’s death when her UK’s plane landed in Rome on Monday morning.

It didn’t look at her visit. As a pious Catholic, she said that Santa -Major “was always a place where I wanted to come” because Francis loved so much.

“I came without any thoughtful idea, and I made the point not to read about it, I just wanted to take the atmosphere and feel it.”

“And I did,” she said, looking at the basilica. “I’m full of spirit.”

On Saturday afternoon, after the opportunity to say goodbye to him, Pope Francis made his last journey from the Vatican to Santa Majiora, as he did.

The church will be closed for several hours, then the stream of visitors will recover.

Some, like Pat, will still come to the basilica and try to put something intangible into the words. Others just admire mosaics.

And on the left side, which is the icon of the Virgin Mary, the newest resident of Santa -Majira will start his vacation.