Pope Francis was buried on Saturday in the basilica of St. Mary Major in Rome after died at 88 on April 21.
More than 250,000 people said goodbye to the 266th Pope of the Roman Catholic Church. The crowd in the Plaza de San Pedro in the Vatican included many young people and world leaders, giving us some important snapshots of our political moment.
Here are some key moments of the historical event:
Francis remembered as ‘Pope among the people’
At his funeral, Pope Francis was remembered and revered as a pontiff with “strength and serenity” that modeled his pontificate in San Francisco de Asís. The dean of the Cardinals College, Giovanni Battista Re, delivered to the homily against the mourners in the Plaza de San Pedro.
General view of the deceased coffin of Pope Francis during the funeral ceremony in the Plaza de San Pedro, in the Vatican, on April 26, 2025.
Alberto Pizzoli/AFP through Getty Images
“He established direct contact with individuals and peoples, anxious to be close to everyone, with a marked attention to those who are in difficulty, giving themselves without measure, especially those marginalized, at least among us,” Re.
“He was a Pope among the people, with an open heart towards everyone. He was also an attentive Pope to the signs of time and what the Holy Spirit was waking up in the Church.”
Young people play an outstanding role at Pope Francis’s funeral
The reach of Pope Francis resonated with the younger generations, thousands of which were present in the Plaza de San Pedro to cry to the late Pontiff during his funeral on Saturday morning.
About 80,000 teenagers had Registered for adolescent jubileeA special event for worshipers between the ages of 12 and 17 during the year of the Jubilee of the Catholic Church of 2025, according to the Dicastery for Evangelization, a department of the Roman Curia, the central government body of the Catholic Church.
People meet through the street of the Conciliazione during the ceremony of the funeral of Pope Francis, near the Vatican in Rome, on April 26, 2025.
Henry Nicholls/AFP through Getty Images
Some changes were made in the event, scheduled for Friday and Sunday, due to Francis’s death. The Canonization of Carlo Acutis, who died in 2006 at the age of 15 years of leukemia, was postponed. Acutis, an Italian teenager known for his devotion to the Eucharist, will become the first “millenary” in his canonization, which was formally approved by Francis in July 2024.
The crowd applauds when Pope Francis’s coffin is removed from the basilica
The mourners gathered in the Plaza de San Pedro applauded when the carriers carried the coffin of Pope outside. It was the site of Pope Francis’s last act, when he celebrated Easter Sunday one day before he died on April 21.
American Reporter offers the first reading
Some young adults even played an outstanding role in funeral procedures. The American Kielce Gusta, 28, made the first reading in English, several verses of the Apostles’ events.
The president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, meets President Donald Trump outside Pope Francis’s funeral in the Basilica of San Pedro in the Vatican, on April 26, 2025.
Ucranan Presidential Serviceoffp through Getty Images
Gusie works as a journalist in Vatican News and completed his degree in Theology at Mount St. Mary University. It also has a degree in Communication of the Church of the Pontifical University of Rome of the Santa Cruz.
The crowd applauds the Ukrainian President Zelenskyy
The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, present with his wife Olena Zelenska, obtained applause from the crowd in the Plaza de San Pedro appeared on the screens around the area.
Zelenskyy has led Ukraine during the country’s war with Russia, which intensified in 2022 after the Russian invasion of the country of Eastern Europe.
President Donald Trump met privately with Zelenskyy before the funeral and had a “very productive session,” said White House communications, Steven Cheung, to the press pool that travels with Trump.
The American Kielce Gillsie, who works as a journalist in Vatican News, made the first reading in English during the funeral of Pope Francis, in the Vatican, on April 26, 2025.
ABC News
It was the first meeting between the two men since their contentious February meeting at the Oval Office, in which Trump and vice president JD Vance rebuked Zelenskyy for their war management.
The first lady Melania Trump joined the president at the funeral. Former President Joe Biden and former First Lady Jill Biden also attended the funeral, sitting about four rows behind the Trumps.
Pages of the Book of Gospels blow in the wind
It is one of the most moving moments and iconic in papal funerals: the simple but deep image of the breeze that blows the pages of the book of the Gospels that rest on the Pope’s coffin in the Plaza de San Pedro.
A page of the book of the Gospels that reads ‘in the passion and death of the Lord’ is seen in the coffin of the late Pope Francis during the funeral ceremony in the Plaza de San Pedro in the Vatican, on April 26, 2025.
Tiziana Fabi/AFP through Getty Images
The book opened to reading, “in the passion and death of the Lord.”
Bell campaign when the coffin returns to the basilica
The coffin that transported Pope Francis was taken by the sacred door of the Basilica of San Pedro for the last time while the bells ran for the Pope throughout the Vatican.
The funeral, which lasted more than two hours, concluded with bells playing for the pontiff. His coffin was taken to the Basilica of Rome of Santa María Major, where he was buried.
Thousands of streets online of Rome for the funeral procession of Pope Francis
The four -mile route between the Basilica of San Pedro and the last resting place of Pope Francis, the basilica of St. Mary Major in Rome, was bordered by tens of thousands of mourners after his funeral on Saturday morning.
You could see people crying and applauding when Francis’s coffin passed.
Pope Francis’s coffin looks in front of the Colosseum, since it is transported from the Basilica of San Pedro to Santa Maria Maggiore Basilica, during the funeral ceremony in Rome, on April 26, 2025.
Mauro Scrobogna/LaPresse through AP
Francis’s coffin was placed in the bed of a white van, where he was visible to the thousands that border the streets. The procession led the Pope’s body beyond some of the historical milestones of Rome, such as the Roman forum and the Colosseum.
When Pope Francis arrived at the Basilica of Santa María Major, it was the last time he was seen in public before his burial. The Basilica will open again to visitors on Sunday.
Alexandra Hutzler of ABC News, Kevin Shalvey, Jon Haworth, Hannah Demissie, Molly Nagle, Alex Ederson, Phoebe Natanson and Thomas Dunlavey.
