As many obituaries have noted, Pope Francis, who passed away on Easter Monday, broke with tradition often throughout his papacy. In December 2023, for example, he announced his intention to be buried in the Basilica of Saint Mary Major. This means that he is about to become the first pope in over a century not to be buried in St. Peter’s Basilica. His decision to make his final resting place in the oldest Marian church in Rome was also one of many moments throughout his papacy that signaled his longstanding devotion to the Virgin Mary, whom he affectionately referred to as his “mama.”
One of the four major basilicas in Rome, Mary Major is the largest church dedicated to the Virgin Mary in the world, and also the oldest Marian church in Rome. Pope Celestine I consecrated it on August 5, 434. It was one of the first churches built after the Council of Ephesus, which proclaimed Mary as “Theotokos” or Mother of God: the first Marian dogma of the Catholic Church.
Mary Major is also referred to as Sancta Maria ad Praesepem (“Saint Mary of the Crib”) because it houses the relic of the manger in which the infant Jesus was laid. The four pieces of sycamore wood were brought to Mary Major in the seventh century and later encased in a golden reliquary that is now under the high altar of the basilica, known as the Crypt of the Nativity or the Bethlehem crypt. Though this relic is one of the most visited sites within the basilica, a different object connected to Mary of Nazareth is a major reason for Pope Francis’s special devotion to Mary Major.
The Byzantine icon Salus Populi Romani (“Salvation of the People of Rome”) was brought to Rome in 590, during the papacy of Gregory I. This large (117 × 79 cm) painting on cedar panel depicts Mary as Queen of Heaven; she holds the Christ child in her lap. It is often referred to as one of the “Luke images,” attributed to St. Luke, who became known as “the painter of the Virgin Mary.” According to legend, “While applying his brush and paints, St. Luke listened carefully as the Mother of Jesus spoke of the life of her son, facts which the Evangelist later recorded in his Gospel.” Thus, the colorful words of Luke’s gospel were illuminated in this sacred image.
The Salus Populi Romani was used in medieval religious processions throughout Rome on the Feast of the Assumption (August 15) and has been regarded as a miraculous image since the fifteenth century. Pope Pius V invoked Mary’s aid via the icon to pray for victory at the Battle of Lepanto in 1571, and the Jesuit Order has used it to promote devotion to Mary through the Sodality of Our Lady movement. Given the Society of Jesus’s ties to the venerable image, it is not surprising that Francis, the first Jesuit pope, was drawn to the icon.
Throughout his papacy, Pope Francis repeatedly affirmed his personal relationship with the Virgin Mary. Francis added several Marian feast days to the General Roman Calendar, including the obligatory memorial of Mary, Mother of the Church, and the optional memorial of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Loreto. In a general audience at St. Peter’s Square in 2024, Pope Francis said, “The Mother of God is an instrument of the Holy Spirit in his work of sanctification…. Mary is the one who said ‘yes’ to God and, with her example and by her intercession, pushes us to say ‘yes’ to him too.”
Pope Francis visited the Basilica of Mary Major throughout his papacy, including after every international trip. In 2017, Francis tasked the Vatican Museum with overseeing the restoration of the Salus Populi Romani, which took over a year to complete. A special Mass was said upon its restoration in 2018, and the Byzantine icon is now kept in the Borghese Chapel at Mary Major.
Although the pope typically makes the Urbi et Orbi speech (“To the City and to the World”) only at Christmas and Easter, Pope Francis made an extraordinary Urbi et Orbi blessing on March 27, 2020, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Standing in an empty St. Peter’s Square, Pope Francis preached next to the Salus Populi Romani icon: “I would like this evening to entrust all of you to the Lord, through the intercession of Mary, Health of the People and Star of the Stormy Sea.” In a moment of global uncertainty, Francis solidified the icon’s importance to both his personal devotion and as a point of contact for a world stuck in lockdown.
More than half of the 266 deceased popes are buried in the grottoes underneath St. Peter’s Basilica. Francis will be the first to be buried outside of St. Peter’s since Pope Leo XIII in 1903, and the first in over 350 years to be buried at Mary Major (Pope Clement was the most recent, in 1669). Announcing his burial wishes, he noted that he wanted to be buried in Mary Major because of his “great devotion” to the church and its patron. He constructed a plain burial vault near the Salus Populi Romani icon and instructed that his funeral and burial at Mary Major be “simple” and that his tomb be unadorned. His 2022 last will and testament, which was made public following his passing, noted, “I wish that my last earthly journey conclude precisely in this ancient Marian sanctuary where I went for prayer at the beginning and end of each Apostolic Journey to confidently entrust my intentions to the Immaculate Mother and thank Her for her docile and maternal care.”
Following his discharge from a month-long hospitalization in February, Francis visited Mary Major on March 23. Too sick to approach the icon, he entrusted Cardinal Rolandas Makrickas with a bouquet of flowers to lay before Salus Populi Romani. Having regained more strength, Pope Francis made one final visit to Mary Major on April 12 to pay tribute to the sacred icon of Our Lady—his 126th visit during his papacy.
Pope Francis often discussed his personal devotion to Mary in interviews and public appearances, in which he routinely framed her as a guiding force for both himself and the Church. “Mary is always the mother that brings us to Jesus,” the Holy Father said in a 2024 public address. “Mary does not only point to herself. She points to Jesus.” Francis humbly entrusted the Church to his mama, believing that she would lead the way to her son.
