ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:
After his funeral on Saturday, Pope Francis will not be buried in the frescoed grottoes of the Vatican, the traditional papal resting ground. Instead, he chose St. Mary Major, a basilica on the other side of Rome. It's the first time in more than a century that a pope will be buried outside the Vatican walls. Throughout his papacy, Francis went there to pray to an icon of the Virgin Mary holding baby Jesus. In death, he'll lie in a simple tomb beside her chapel. NPR's Ruth Sherlock takes us there.
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RUTH SHERLOCK, BYLINE: This Church of St. Mary Major is alive with visitors. Every room, every chapel is filled with people coming to see the place where Pope Francis will be buried.
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SHERLOCK: For 16 centuries, Agnes Crawford, a longtime tour guide, tells me this basilica, with its colonnades of Cipollino marble and intricate statues, has stood sentinel.
AGNES CRAWFORD: We're really on the summit of the Esquiline Hill, which is one of the seven of the ancient hills on which Rome was founded.
SHERLOCK: The church has special resonance for Pope Francis, who visited before and after every trip out of Rome. It was first built in the 4th century.
CRAWFORD: Following a rather wonderful, miraculous tale, which involves a snowfall on the 5 of August.
SHERLOCK: The story goes that the Virgin Mary appeared to an aristocrat, Giovanni, and to Pope Liberius in a dream, asking for a church in her honor, in a location that would be miraculously revealed. And then it snowed, just on this hill in Rome, in the height of summer.
And that was seen as a kind of sign that a church should be built on this hill?
CRAWFORD: It was seen as an indication of the place where the church should be built.
SHERLOCK: And in this century, it still has great importance.
CRAWFORD: It houses the icon which was especially dear to Pope Francis.
SHERLOCK: The icon, called the Salus Populi Romani - health of the Roman people in Latin - is a painting on cedar wood that shows the Virgin Mary holding baby Jesus. Tradition holds it was made by St. Luke the Evangelist, whose written narratives became large parts of the New Testament. We go to look.
Here we are in front of the icon of Mother Mary in the St. Mary Major church. People are gathered in this side chapel.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: Sorry (ph).
SHERLOCK: (Whispering) Oh.
UNIDENTIFIED CHOIR: (Singing in non-English language).
SHERLOCK: Beside the chapel where people are praying is the nave where Pope Francis will be buried. When we visited, the area was shielded by chipboard panels. The Vatican later released a photo showing a simple marble tomb on the ground with one word engraved - Franciscus.
UNIDENTIFIED CHOIR: (Singing in non-English language).
SHERLOCK: This icon is said to have saved Rome from a plague in the year 590, when Pope Gregory the Great organized a procession with her through the city streets. So it took on special resonance during the coronavirus pandemic in 2020, when Pope Francis had the icon brought to him to the Vatican. He prayed with her beside him for an end to the modern-day plague, standing in an empty, rain-soaked St. Peter's Square.
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POPE POPE FRANCIS: (Speaking Italian).
SHERLOCK: The Virgin Mary icon seemed to become an ally for Francis in his papacy. On his first day as pope in 2013, he slipped out of the Vatican to visit the shrine, and he returned to St. Mary Major church 126 times. It was the first place he went after he was discharged from Gemelli Hospital in March, and he returned to pray there just days before he died on Easter Monday. Cardinal Rolando (ph) Makrickas, archpriest of the basilica, told NPR that Francis often spoke of his devotion.
ROLANDAS MAKRICKAS: He was telling that, I want that Mary looks at my life - at me - and I want her protection and her help.
SHERLOCK: Francis will be the first pope in centuries to be buried at St. Mary Major. Cardinal Makrickas explains why.
MAKRICKAS: The intervention was, I would say, divine - from Mary directly. It was very special, his experience.
SHERLOCK: Just as legend says the Virgin Mary appeared to Pope Liberius in the 4th century asking him for this church, so Francis told Makrickas she appeared to him one day, asking him to be buried at the St. Mary Major.
MAKRICKAS: He told, I am very - I am so happy that Mary didn't forget me.
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SHERLOCK: And so, after his funeral on Saturday, Pope Francis will be laid to rest beside her. Ruth Sherlock, NPR News, Rome.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELLS TOLLING) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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