The body of Pope Francis has been dressed in sacred liturgical vestments and placed in an open wooden coffin for his lying in state which will see the faithful from around the world flock to Vatican City to pay their respects.

Francis died on Easter Monday, aged 88, after suffering a stroke that led to a coma and irreversible heart failure. He had been recovering in his apartment after being hospitalised for five weeks with pneumonia. 

The Vatican released the first photographs of the late pontiff this morning, showing his coffin laid out in the chapel of the Santa Marta residence where he lived during his 12-year papacy. 

Swiss Guards stood at attention on both sides of the casket as it awaited transfer to St. Peter’s Basilica, where the pope will lie in state for three days.

Francis was dressed in a red chasuble, which symbolises love, passion and the blood of Christ, and is traditionally worn on Palm Sunday, Good Friday, the Feast of the Cross and Pentecost.

A pallium, a white stole featuring six black crosses, was draped around his body. The garment is typically placed on a priest’s shoulders when they handle the monstrance – the sacred golden vessel used to display the Eucharist – during mass.

In accordance to Vatican traditions, the pallium was made with wool from two lambs held by the Tre Fontane Abbey monks and woven by nuns of the Basilica of St. Cecilia in Trastevere, Corriere della Sera reports. Both abbeys are located in Rome.

Francis will be buried wearing a white mitre on his head, which represents the holiness, dignity, authority and splendor of the pontiff. The two-pieced, stiffened headdress is ornamented with golden trim.

A rosary was also placed in his hands, paying tribute to Francis’ known devotion to the Virgin Mary. 

His right ring finger was outfitted with a silver ring that the pontiff has worn since he served as the archbishop of Buenos Aires. As is also traditional, his papal Fisherman’s Ring was destroyed after his death was confirmed by the Vatican camerlengo.

The pontiff’s funeral will be held on Saturday in St. Peter’s Square, the Congregation of Cardinals decided today, setting the stage for a solemn ceremony that will draw leaders from around the world.

Francis, in a break from tradition, confirmed in his final will and testament that he wished to be buried away from St Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican, where many of his predecessors were laid to rest.

He asked to be buried ‘in the earth, simple, without particular decoration’ in Rome’s Basilica of Saint Mary Major – four miles from the Vatican – and with the only inscription on his tomb being that of his papal name in Latin: Franciscus.

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.

The pontiff 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.

Francis specifically asked that his final resting place be ‘in the niche of the side nave between the Cappella Paolina and the Capella Sforza’.

In exactly that location a large area has been sectioned off behind twelve-foot-high chipboard and a door leading to it is heavily padlocked. Above is the marble memorial plaque of Paul V who died in 1621.

His will also states that the expenses associated with his burial will be covered by an anonymous benefactor.

Francis, 88, died on Monday ending an often turbulent reign in which he repeatedly clashed with traditionalists and championed the poor and marginalised.

He had reflected on death just two months ago as he penned a preface for Cardinal Angelo Scola’s new book, titled ‘Awaiting a New Beginning. Reflections on Old Age’.

‘Death is not the end of everything, but the beginning of something,’ the pontiff wrote in the preface on February 7, which released by the Vatican today.  

The Holy Father 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.’

Francis spent five weeks in hospital earlier this year suffering from double pneumonia and had appeared to be slowly recovering, but the Vatican today recounted his last moments, saying death came quickly and he had not suffered.

He started to feel unwell at around 5.30am local time (3.30am BST) yesterday and was promptly attended to by his team. More than an hour later he made a gesture of farewell to his ever-present personal nurse, Massimiliano Strappetti, and slipped into a coma. His time of death was given as 7.35am.

‘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.’

His body will be taken into the adjacent St. Peter’s Basilica tomorrow morning at 9am, in a procession led by cardinals, allowing the faithful to pay their last respects. 

Francis, in what were some of his final words, thanked Strappetti for encouraging him to take a final ride in the popemobile so he could greet the crowds in St Peter’s Square on Sunday, the Vatican has revealed.

‘Thank you for bringing me back to the square,’ Francis told Strappetti. 

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. 

Officials said the ‘first signs of illness’ appeared the next morning around 5.30am.

More than an hour later, he waved to Strappetti from his bed in what was described as ‘a gesture of farewell’ before falling into a coma. He was declared dead at 7.35 am.

Vatican officials were allowed to start saying their goodbyes after the Confirmation of the Death of the Pontiff ceremony yesterday evening.

The ceremony, which lasted just under an hour, saw Irish-born Cardinal Kevin Farrell, the Vatican camerlengo, read the official declaration of death aloud and Francis’ body was placed in an open wooden casket in the Chapel of Santa Marta. 

Seals were also placed on the papal apartment in the Apostolic Palace and on the apartment in Chapel of Santa Marta, where Francis had resided. 

Per tradition, the camerlengo broke his Fisherman’s ring with a special hammer and destroyed his lead seal, used in his lifetime to seal documents, before sealing the apartment. These items will be buried with Francis.

His funeral service will be held in St. Peter’s Square, in the shadow of the Basilica, on Saturday at 10am and will be presided over by Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, the 91-year-old dean of the College of Cardinals.

UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron will be among world leaders and dignitaries to attend the funeral this weekend. 

US President Donald Trump, who clashed repeatedly with the pope about immigration, said he and his wife Melania Trump would fly to Rome for the service.

Among other heads of state set to attend were Javier Milei, president of Francis’ native Argentina, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

A Kremlin spokesman said today that Russian President Vladimir Putin, whose foreign travel is limited by an International Criminal Court arrest warrant, ‘has no plans’ to attend the funeral.  

As Catholics worldwide mourned Francis, all cardinals in Rome were summoned to a meeting today to decide on the sequencing of events in the coming days and review the day-to-day running of the Church in the period before a new pope is elected.

A conclave to choose a new pope normally takes place 15 to 20 days after the death of a pontiff, meaning it should not start before May 6. The exact date will be decided by cardinals after Francis’ funeral.

After the funeral, there are nine days of official mourning, known as the ‘novendiali.’ 

During this period Cardinal-electors will move into the accommodation within the Vatican, shutting out contact with the outside world. Once the conclave begins, the Cardinals will gather in the Sistine Chapel to vote in secret sessions. 

They will vote by writing the name of their preferred candidate in disguised handwriting on a card that is then folded in half and placed into a large chalice.  

A scrutineer will remove the cards, reading them out one-by-one, before another cardinal links them together with a needle and thread. 

Four rounds of balloting are taken every day until a candidate receives two-thirds of the vote. The result of each ballot is counted aloud and recorded by three cardinals.

If no-one receives the necessary two-thirds of the vote, the ballots are burned in a stove near the chapel with a mixture of chemicals to produce black smoke.

The process can go to multiple rounds with the same people theoretically getting the same number of votes each time as cardinals wait to see who loses support first.

But slowly, cardinals who voted for someone who only received a very small number of votes are likely to add their vote to one of the stronger candidates in the next round.

Factions may be able to make their views known during informal chats between votes, with key parts of Berger’s film showing heated discussions among cardinals in the canteens and cinemas of the Vatican.

When a cardinal receives the necessary two-thirds vote, the dean of the College of Cardinals asks him if he accepts his election.

If he accepts, he chooses a papal name and is dressed in papal vestments before processing out to the balcony of St Peter’s Basilica. 

The ballots of the final round are burned in a special stove, with chemicals producing white smoke to signal to the world the election of a new pope.

Black smoke indicates that no pope has been elected, while white smoke indicates that the cardinals have chosen the next head of the Catholic Church. 

The newly elected Pope will then greet the world on the balcony of St Peter’s Basilica where he will make an address. 

The senior cardinal deacon will announce ‘Habemus Papam’ – ‘We have a pope’ – from the balcony before the new pope proceeds out and imparts his blessing on the city of Rome and the world.

Some 135 cardinals are eligible to participate in the secretive ballot, which can stretch over days before white smoke pouring from the chimney of the Sistine Chapel tells the world that a new pope has been picked.

At present there is no clear front-runner to succeed Francis.

Francis inherited a Church in disarray and worked hard to overhaul the Vatican’s central administration, root out corruption and, after a slow start, confront the scourge of child abuse within the ranks of the priesthood.

He often clashed with conservatives, nostalgic for a traditional past, who saw the pope as overly liberal and too accommodating to minority groups, such as the LGBTQ+ community.

Francis appointed nearly 80 per cent of the cardinal electors who will choose the next pope, increasing, but not guaranteeing, the possibility that his successor will continue his progressive policies.

One of the hallmarks of Francis’ reign was his decision to appoint cardinals to far-flung regions – places where Roman Catholics make up a tiny minority or where the Church is growing faster than in the mostly stagnant West.

While Europe still has the largest share of cardinal electors, with about 39 per cent, it is down from 52 per cent in 2013, when Francis became pope. The second largest group of electors is from Asia and Oceania, with about 20 per cent.

Many of the cardinals are little known outside their own countries and they will have a chance to get to know one another at meetings known as General Congregations that take place in the days before a conclave starts and where a profile of the qualities needed for the next pope will take shape.