“Prepare your grave,” were the words that the Virgin Mary told Pope Francis about her burial in the Basilica of Santa María la Mayor in Roma – where her remains are already resting according to her last will – according to Cardinal Rolandas Makrickas, Arcipreste Coadjuctor of the temple.
Speaking to journalists, the purple of Lithuanian origin narrated how the Holy Father shared his decision to be buried in the Basilica where the Marian icon of the Safety of the Roman people (Health or salvation of the Roman people), before which he always prayed before and after each international trip.
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The cardinal said that on May 13, 2022, the day of the Virgin of Fatima, he asked Pope Francis if he had thought to have his grave in Santa María la Mayor, for his strong link with the Safety of the Roman people And his Marian devotion, and the Holy Father replied that no, because “the potatoes must be buried in the Basilica of San Pedro” in the Vatican.
Exactly a week later, on May 20, 2022, Pope Francis called the Cardinal to Casa Santa Marta in the Vatican, where he lived the 12 years of his pontificate, and Makrickas says that the Holy Father told him:
“The Virgin has told me to make your grave‘”, Adding:“I am happy that the Virgin has not forgotten me”.
In his will, Pope Francis detailed his last desire: to be buried in a simple grave, “without particular ornamentation” and in a side nave of the Basilica of Santa María la Mayor, near the chapel dedicated to the Virgin Safety of the Roman people.
This desire of the Argentine Pope was fulfilled this Saturday, April 26, after the funeral that was followed, in the Plaza de San Pedro and in the tour of the streets of Rome, for more than 400,000 people.
Walter Sánchez Silva
I am husband since 2008. With my wife we have three children here and one who went to heaven in 2023, before birth. Since I joined ACI Press in 2005, I have had the opportunity to cover various events of the Catholic Church. Among them, the World Youth Days in Colonia, Madrid and Rio de Janeiro and the apostolic trips of Pope Benedict XVI to Mexico and Pope Francis to South Korea. I have been sent to the Vatican to cover the family’s synods, in 2015; of the Amazon, in 2019 and that of Sinodality, in 2023. I follow the situation of the Catholic Church in Nicaragua, which suffers the persecution of the dictatorship of Daniel Ortega, as well as the ecclesial news in the region.