Pope and Salus Populi Romani, the love of a son for his mother

Isabella Piro – Vatican City

The last visit. The most beautiful, because it exceeds all barriers of time and space and becomes an expression of faith in resurrection. It is the one that Pope Francis will do tomorrow, Saturday, April 26, at the foot of Salus Populi Romani, the Marian icon who, according to tradition, was painted by San Lucas and is preserved in the papal basilica of Santa María la Mayor. Here the late Pontiff will be buried, after the exequial mass chaired in the Vatican Basilica PARVIS by Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, Dean of the Cardinal College.

Francisco’s will

As indicated in his will, Jorge Mario Bergoglio chose as the last earthly abode the basilica built according to the tradition in the fourth century, during the Pontificate of Liberio. In a dream, the Mother of God had asked her to build a church in a place marked by a prodigious event. And on the morning of August 5, 358, in the middle of summer, a snow bleached the hill of the Esquilino, marking the perimeter of the place of worship.

One hundred twenty -six visits in twelve years of pontificate

One hundred and twenty -six visits made by Francisco to Salus Populi Romani in twelve years of pontificate: the first on March 14, 2013, the day after his choice as 265th successor of Peter; the last last April 12, on the eve of Holy Week; In the middle, the innumerable tributes before and after each apostolic trip and the four income at the “Gemelli” hospital, which took place in 2021, twice in 2023 and finally the longest stay, the 38 days passed from February 14 to March 23 of this year. The same Marian icon that the Pontiff wanted to have by his side in the San Pedro Paravis on March 27, 2020, during the status Orbis chaired on the occasion of the Covid-19 pandemic.

At the crossroads of a road

At the feet of the Virgin, therefore, the Pope will return tomorrow, in that Liberian temple that is the smallest of the four papal basilicas, the only one dedicated to the Virgin, the only one who has never been destroyed and the oldest dedicated to her in the Christian West. It is also the closest to the termini station, crossing of people in incessant movement. A metaphor, in a way, of the Pontificate of Bergoglio, always “leaving” to meet the neighbor and decentralized, near the geographical and existential “peripheries”.

The “Gold of Gold” of 2023

Here, in the Church where San Ignacio de Loyola, founder of the Society of Jesus, to which the Pope belonged, celebrated his first Mass on Christmas night of 1538; Here where the relic of the Holy Cuna that welcomed the Child Jesus is preserved at birth; Here, from now on, Jorge Mario Bergoglio will rest. He had said it in December two years ago, in an interview with the Mexican Vaticanist Valentina Alazraki: «I want to be buried in Santa María la Mayor. The place is already prepared, ”he had said, underlining his great devotion to the Virgin Mary from before being chosen to the throne of Pedro. «when I came, I always went there on Sundays that I was in Rome, I stayed there for a while. There is a very large link, ”he said. A filial devotion also specified through a “gold rose” with which Francisco wanted to honor the Salus Populi Romani in 2023.

May 13, 2022

The Pontiff’s decision had matured over time: as Cardinal Rolandas Makrickas, an coadjutor arciprest of the Liberian Basilic, told the media “everything started from an encounter that we had with the Holy Father in May 2022, when among the many issues was that of an intervention to the structure of the Pauline chapel.” The date of that meeting is a marian date par excellence, on May 13, memory of the Blessed Virgin of Fatima. “On that occasion,” said the Cardinal, “I said, seeing that the basilica came so often, if I didn’t think about establishing her tomb here.” At first, the pontiff, “he said no, remembering that the potatoes are buried in San Pedro. A week later, however, he called me again and said: “The Virgin has told me ‘prepare the tomb’. And later he added that she was happy because” the Virgin has not forgotten me. “”

Near the altar of San Francisco

The Pontiff had explained from the beginning that he did not want to be buried inside the Paulina chapel, which houses the Salus icon, “because the faithful who come here must pray to the Lord, venerate the Virgin, not to look at the tomb of a Pope,” said the purple. For this reason, the tomb prepared in the niche of the side nave between the Paulina chapel and the Sforza chapel, one of the first built in the basilica. “This place also seemed more appropriate for another reason,” said Cardinal Makrickas, “because San Francisco’s altar is next.” Thus, the place seemed really perfect.

Under Maria’s love view

The late Pontiff, who at that time was Monsignor and extraordinary commissioner of the Liberia chapter, also instructed the place of the burial, the same as those given in his will: «He wanted his grave size. Another detail: the tomb is of stone of Liguria, of the land of their ancestors », by the mother.