Pope Francis died content and grateful after a busy day tending to his beloved flock, the Vatican said Tuesday in an account of the pontiff’s final hours and last words.
“Thank you for bringing me back to the Square,” Francis whispered to Massimiliano Strappetti, his personal health care assistant since 2022, who had encouraged him to make the outing, the Vatican recounted.
Working till the end, Francis had already met briefly with U.S. Vice President JD Vance on Easter morning. But he wasn’t done.
Ailing after a life-threatening bout of double pneumonia, the 88-year-old pontiff wanted to bestow the Apostolic Blessing “and embrace the faithful once more,” the Vatican said. “The late pope wanted to offer one last, meaningful surprise to the 50,000 faithful with a ride in the popemobile on Sunday after the blessing on the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica façade.”
So it was that on Easter morning, Francis was wheeled onto the Central Loggia of St. Peter’s Basilica, the very spot where he had begun his papal journey 12 years earlier, to give the traditional Urbi et Orbi, a blessing “to the city and the world.” He then handed the mic to the Vatican’s master of liturgical ceremonies, Archbishop Diego Ravelli, to deliver his full Easter speech.
Then Francis was driven around the piazza and back and forth along the main avenue that feeds into the square in the popemobile, blessing babies and kissing children as he went.
“Brothers and sisters, happy Easter,” he told the cheering crowd.
It would be his last public act.
Afterward, “tired but content,” the pope spent Sunday afternoon resting, then had a “quiet dinner,” the Vatican said.
Around 5:30 a.m. Monday “the first signs of the sudden illness appeared,” the Vatican stated. Pope Francis had suffered a cerebral stroke. “Around an hour later, after making a gesture of farewell with his hand to Mr. Strappetti, lying in bed in his second-floor apartment at the Casa Santa Marta, the Pope fell into a coma.”
Soon after came the final blow — irreversible heart failure. The end, at 7:35 a.m., Monday was subdued and pain-free.
“According to those who were with him in his final moments, he did not suffer. It all happened quickly,” the Vatican noted. “His was a discreet death, almost sudden, without long suffering or public alarm.”
With News Wire Services
