Pope Francis thanked his personal nurse for encouraging him to take a final ride in the popemobile so he could greet the crowds in St Peter’s Square on Easter Sunday, the Vatican has revealed.
The Argentine pontiff, 88, died on Monday morning from a stroke, less than a month after returning home from five weeks in hospital battling double pneumonia.
‘Thank you for bringing me back to the square,’ Francis told his nurse, Massimiliano Strappetti, in what were some of his final words.
The pontiff appeared exhausted during Easter celebrations on Sunday, but nevertheless greeted the crowds and drove around St Peter’s Square cheered by thousands of rapt worshippers.
‘Do you think I can manage it?’ he had asked Strappetti before taking the plunge, according to the Vatican News, the Holy See’s media outlet.
The medic, whom he had previously credited for saving his life, reassured him.
Francis then spent about 15 minutes waving at the crowd and blessing babies from his popemobile, flanked by numerous bodyguards.
The Pope spent the afternoon resting in his Vatican residence, Casa Santa Marta, and had a peaceful dinner, Vatican News reported.
The pontiff appeared exhausted during Easter celebrations on Sunday, but nevertheless greeted the crowds and drove around St Peter’s Square cheered by thousands of rapt worshippers
Francis then spent about 15 minutes waving at the crowd and blessing babies from his popemobile, flanked by numerous bodyguards
‘Do you think I can manage it?’ he had asked Strappetti (pictured) before taking the plunge
Pope Francis in his open coffin in The Vatican
On Monday, at around 5.30 am, ‘the first signs of illness appeared,’ it said.
More than an hour later, he waved to Strappetti from his bed in what the media site described as ‘a gesture of farewell’ before falling into a coma.
Francis was declared dead at 7:35 am.
‘He did not suffer. It all happened quickly,’ Vatican News said, quoting people who were with the pontiff in his final moments.
‘It was a discreet death, almost sudden, without long suffering or public alarm, for a pope who had always been very reserved about his health.’
In an essay written just two months ago, the Holy Father revealed that he did not fear death.
In a preface for Cardinal Angelo Scola’s new book, titled ‘Awaiting a New Beginning. Reflections on Old Age’, he wrote that ‘we must not be afraid of old age’ and ‘must not fear embracing becoming old’, but instead strive to live life on earth with ‘grace and not with resentment’.
‘It is a new beginning,’ Francis said of death. ‘Because eternal life, which those who love already begin to experience on earth within the daily tasks of life – is beginning something that will never end.
‘And it is precisely for this reason that it is a ‘new’ beginning, because we will live something we have never fully lived before: eternity.’
Strappetti stayed by the Pope’s side throughout his stay at Rome’s Gemelli Hospital
Pope Francis credited Strappetti with once having saved his life for having persuaded him to undergo surgery for an inflammation in his intestine
Strappetti has also been praised for encouraging medics to take decisive action during the pontiff’s most recent hospital stay
The pontiff’s funeral will be held on Saturday
Francis credited Strappetti with once having saved his life for having persuaded him to undergo surgery for an inflammation in his intestine.
After the operation, Pope Francis said: ‘A nurse, a man with a lot of experience, saved my life.
‘He told me: “You have to have surgery”.
‘There were other opinions: “Better with antibiotics…” but the nurse explained it to me very well.
‘He is a nurse from here, from our health service, from the Vatican hospital.
‘He has been here for thirty years, a very experienced man.
‘It is the second time in my life that a nurse has saved my life.’
He noted that Strappetti’s intervention was the second time a nurse had saved his life.
In 1957, a nurse in his native Argentina decided to double the amount of drugs he was prescribed after part of his lung was removed due to a respiratory infection.
The nurse, who stayed by the Pope’s side throughout his stay at Rome’s Gemelli Hospital, was appointed in 2022 as the pontiff’s personal healthcare assistant.
His promotion was announced days after he and a doctor accompanied Francis on his weeklong ‘penitential pilgrimage’ to Canada to atone for the Catholic Church’s role in the country’s residential schools for Indigenous children.
The late pontiff always travelled with a doctor and nurse who are on call in case he suffered from any health problems.
At the time of his promotion, the Pope was dealing with pain in his right knee caused by strained ligaments, forcing him to walk with a cane or use a wheelchair.
The late pontiff always travelled with a doctor and nurse who are on call in case he suffered from any health problems
Pope Francis arrives at St. Peter’s Square in a wheelchair for a mass on Palm Sunday
The day before his final public appearance, the two men had gone to St. Peter’s Basilica to review the ‘route’ he would take the following day when he was to appear on the Central Loggia.
Strappetti has also been praised for encouraging medics to take decisive action during the pontiff’s most recent hospital stay.
At a critical moment on February 28, when the Pope suffered a bronchospasm attack and was struggling to breathe, doctors were deciding whether to intervene or allow nature to take its course.
But he told them: ‘Try everything, don’t give up.’
Dr. Sergio Alfieri, the coordinator of his medical team, said Pope Francis had ‘delegated all kinds of health care decisions to his nurse, and so his wishes were granted.
Prior to serving Pope Francis, Strappetti had experience dealing with both Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI while working for the Vatican Health Service.
Before that, he spent eight years working in the intensive care unit at Gemelli Hospital, the same facility where Pope Francis has been treated multiple times.
The Pope’s funeral will be held on Saturday after lying in state for three days in St. Peter’s Basilica, where the faithful are expected to flock to pay their respects to history’s first Latin American pontiff.
The Congregation of Cardinals met in the Vatican’s synod hall for the first time today to chart the next steps before a conclave begins to choose Francis’ successor.
The cardinals set his funeral for Saturday at 10am local time (9am BST) in St. Peter’s Square, outside St Peter’s Basilica, which can fit about 300,000 people.
The funeral mass will be celebrated by the dean of the College of Cardinals, Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re.
The ordinary faithful will have an opportunity to pay their respects beginning tomorrow morning when Francis’ casket is moved into St. Peter’s Basilica.
The Pope’s funeral will be held on Saturday after lying in state for three days in St. Peter’s Basilica
The ordinary faithful will have an opportunity to pay their respects beginning tomorrow morning when Francis’ casket is moved into St. Peter’s Basilica
Vatican officials were allowed to start saying their goodbyes yesterday evening after the Confirmation of the Death of the Pontiff ceremony.
The ceremony, which lasted just under an hour, saw Irish-born Cardinal Kevin Farrell, the Vatican camerlengo, read the official declaration of death aloud.
Photographs released by the Vatican today show the pontiff lying peacefully, dressed in red liturgical vestments with the papal mitre on his head and a rosary in his hand, as the Vatican secretary of state prayed over him.
There will now be nine days of official mourning, but the historic process of the conclave – where cardinals will gather in the Sistine Chapel at the Vatican to choose the next pope – will not begin for at least 15 days from the date of Francis’ death.
In his final will, Francis confirmed he would be buried at St. Mary Major basilica, which is outside the Vatican and home to his favourite icon of the Virgin Mary.
Francis would go to the basilica to pray before the Byzantine-style painting that features an image of Mary, draped in a blue robe, holding the infant Jesus, who in turn holds a jewelled golden book.
Francis stopped by the basilica on his way home from the Gemelli hospital on March 23, after his 38-day hospital stay, to deliver flowers to be placed before the icon. He returned April 12 to pray before the Madonna for the last time.
The pontiff’s funeral will be presided over by the dean of the College of Cardinals or, if that is not possible, by the vice dean or another senior cardinal.
Tributes poured in from around the world on Monday, including from the King and other world leaders, with many praising the Pope for his advocacy for the marginalised, moral leadership and compassion.
Photographs released by the Vatican today show the pontiff lying peacefully, dressed in red liturgical vestments with the papal mitre on his head and a rosary in his hand, as the Vatican secretary of state prayed over him
There will now be nine days of official mourning, but the historic process of the conclave – where cardinals will gather in the Sistine Chapel at the Vatican to choose the next pope – will not begin for at least 15 days from the date of Francis’ death
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said Pope Francis had been ‘a Pope for the poor, the downtrodden and the forgotten’.
He was described by the King, whom he met in recent weeks, as someone who had ‘profoundly touched the lives of so many’.
China’s foreign ministry expressed condolences today following the death of Pope Francis.
‘In recent years, China and the Vatican have maintained constructive contact and carried out friendly exchanges,’ foreign ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun said, adding: ‘China is willing to make joint efforts with the Vatican to promote the continued improvement of China-Vatican relations.’