Today, amidst the attendance of presidents and royalty at the mass in St. Peter’s Square, prisoners and migrants also honored him at the basilica where he will be laid to rest.

Crowds waited hours to bid farewell to Francis

Approximately 250,000 individuals gathered for the funeral on a bright spring day, originally intended as a special Holy Year event for young people. Throughout this week, more than 250,000 mourners waited for hours to say goodbye while Francis’ body was placed in state in St. Peter’s Basilica.

The Vatican kept the basilica open through the night to accommodate them, but it wasn’t enough. When the doors closed to the general public at 7pm yesterday (3am today AEST), mourners were turned away in droves.

By dawn Saturday, they were back and ready to say a final farewell, some recalling the words he uttered the very first night of his election and throughout his papacy.

“We are here to honour him because he always said ‘don’t forget to pray for me,'” said Sister Christiana Neenwata from Biafrana, Nigeria.

“So we are also here to give to him this love that he gave to us.”