The doors opened to St. Peter’s Basilica at 5:40 a.m. on Friday, and people immediately began to trickle in to pay their last respects to Pope Francis, whose body lay in a simple wood coffin beneath the vast dome designed by Michelangelo. A couple of hours later, the trickle was a river, as thousands moved through the basilica on the last day they could say goodbye to the pontiff.
Francis’ funeral is set for Saturday. Afterward he will be buried across town in the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore, a place dear to his heart.
St. Peter’s has been open nearly round-the-clock since Francis’s body was moved here on Wednesday from the Vatican guesthouse where he had lived and died. The Vatican said that by 8 a.m. Friday, 128,000 people had passed through.
Depending on the time of day, the wait to pass by the coffin could take hours. “It’s normal because so many people loved him,” said Daniela Sirigu, who lives in Rome and paid her respects on Friday. She said she’d heard dozens of languages, as well as Italian dialects, while waiting for her turn to say goodbye. “It meant a lot to me to see him, he gave us so much,” she said.
Outside the basilica, national and local agencies began to rev their operations in preparation for the funeral. Security measures were tightened. The roads surrounding Vatican City began to be closed off in anticipation of the 130 government delegations expected for the funeral. They include 50 heads of state and 10 reigning monarchs, the Vatican said on Thursday.
Lining the streets around the Vatican were volunteer workers in lime green vests, civil protection workers, and red-vested Red Cross workers, ready to deal with immediate emergencies or offer directions to flustered tourists. Garbage collectors changing plastic bags in trash cans said their work had increased substantially during the past few days.
Francis died on Monday, at 88, in a Jubilee year during which millions of faithful are expected to make a pilgrimage to the Vatican. This weekend, the Jubilee of Teenagers is scheduled, and will proceed as usual, though the beatification of Carlo Acutis, a teenager nicknamed God’s influencer, has been postponed. So, it wasn’t unusual to see groups of teenagers among those filing past the coffin.
“We came for the Jubilee. Instead we found ourselves involved with another event,” said Giulia Marchelli, from Ovada, a town in Piedmont, in northern Italy, who had come with a church group.
Francisco Martins, the leader of the group, said, “It was important to be here, even in mourning, it’s a historical moment too. The dynamics may have changed but we’re here, too.”
Many parishes also organized trips for a final glimpse of Pope Francis.
Mattia Palumbo was with a group of faithful who took a bus from Deliceto, in Puglia, in southern Italy, to pay his last respects. Mr. Palumbo teaches religion, and said Francis had inspired him to study the subject. “I felt I had a duty to come,” he said.
For the businesses near to the Vatican, the influx of faithful was a blessing, even if tempered by grief for the pope’s passing.
“It’s been great, Rome’s full of people and there’s work for everyone,” said Roberto Vaccini, the owner of Antica Vineria, a restaurant and wine bar near the Vatican. “I wish it could be like this every day, not that a pope dies of course, but Rome is a tourist city after all.”
