Cardinals are meeting today for the first time to decide when Pope Francis’s body will be moved to St Peter’s Basilica – and when the funeral will take place.
According to the apostolic constitution, the Universi Dominici Gregis – meaning the Lord’s whole flock – the service should happen “between the fourth and sixth day after death”.
That would put the date of the funeral between Friday 25 April – Liberation Day in Italy, a national holiday – and Sunday 27 April.
Multiple Italian outlets are reporting the service is likely to be scheduled for Saturday.
In his final testament, Pope Francis expressed his wish to be buried in the Papal Basilica of Saint Mary Major in Rome.
“I wish my final earthly journey to end precisely in this ancient Marian sanctuary, where I would always stop to pray at the beginning and end of every Apostolic Journey,” he said.
The pontiff, who has come to be known for favoring simplicity over pomp, also asked for a tomb “without ornamentation” and with only the inscription “Franciscus”.
Pope Francis died on Easter Monday at the age of 88 from a stroke and subsequent irreversible heart failure, the Vatican said in a statement.
