By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS and VATICAN MEDIA

Nuns wait before a rosary prayer outside the Santa Maria Maggiore Basilica, where the late Pope Francis will be buried, in Rome, Thursday, April 24, 2025. (AP Photo/Andreea Alexandru)

VATICAN CITY (AP/Vatican Media) — Heads of state and royalty have started converging on Rome on Friday for the funeral of Pope Francis in the Vatican's St. Peter's Square, but the group of poor people who will meet his casket in a small crosstown basilica are more in keeping with Francis' humble persona and disdain for pomp.

U.S. President Donald Trump and Argentine President Javier Milei were among the leaders who were expected to arrive on Friday, the last day the Argentine pope would lie in state in St. Peter's Basilica before his coffin would be sealed in the evening in preparation for his funeral on Saturday.

The Vatican said 130 delegations are confirmed, including 50 heads of state and 10 reigning sovereigns.

Paying respects

Tens of thousands of mourners have waited hours in line to bid farewell to Francis, who died Monday after suffering a stroke at the age of 88. A higher-than-expected turnout prompted the Vatican to extend the basilica's opening hours overnight.

By Thursday evening, more than 90,000 mourners had filed past Francis' open coffin placed in front of the basilica's main altar — at times praying, at times holding smart phones aloft for a photo of the late pontiff laid out in red robes, a bishop's pointed miter and a rosary entwined in his hands.

Emanuela Bisco took the day off work to pay her last respects to Francis, as she had 20 years ago for St. John Paul II.

Francis "was the pope of the forgotten, who was close to the simplest people, the homeless who were not pushed away,'' Bisco said. "I hope that the next pope will be at his level, and continue his struggles, his openness, everything that he did."

Cardinals meet

The work of the conclave to choose a new pope won't start until at least May 5, after nine days of public mourning.

Cardinals have been also been arriving in Rome, with 113 meeting Thursday morning to discuss church business. They will meet again Friday before taking a break for the weekend.

"We are getting ready, but we still have not entered into the more intense phase. We are in the organizational phase,'' Italian Cardinal Fernando Filoni said Thursday.

Papal burial

In keeping with Francis' embrace of the marginalized, the Vatican said a group of poor and needy people will meet the pope's coffin to pay homage to him when it arrives at St. Mary Major Basilica for burial on Saturday.

The tomb is being prepared behind a wooden barrier within the basilica that he chose to be near an icon of the Madonna that he revered and often prayed before.

Photos released by the Vatican on Friday show the marble tombstone flat against the pavement, with the simple engraving in Latin that he requested in his last testament: "Franciscus"

Delegations

Trump, who is traveling with first lady Melania Trump, was scheduled to arrive Friday, after Francis' coffin has been sealed.

Among the other foreign dignitaries confirmed for the papal funeral are: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and first lady Olena Zelenska, French President Emmanuel Macron, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, Prince William, Spain's King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and first lady Janja Lula da Silva of Brazil, King Philippe and Queen Mathilde, and Prime Minister Bart De Wever of Belgium,  Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, Council President Antonio Costa, and Parliament President Roberta Metsola of the European Union, President Jose Ramos-Horta and Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation Bendito Freitas of East Timor, President Frank-Walter Steinmeier and outgoing Chancellor Olaf Scholz of Germany, President Tamas Sulyok of Hungary, President Sergio Mattarella and Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni of Italy, President Edgars Rinkevics of Latvia, Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda, President Andrzej Duda of Poland, Romania’s Interim President Ilie Bolojan, President Karin Keller-Sutter of Switzerland, and Philippine President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr and First Lady Liza Araneta Marcos.

Sealing of the coffin

Cardinal Kevin Farrell, Camerlengo of the Holy Roman Church presided at the Rite of Sealing of the Coffin of the late Pope Francis during a liturgical rite at the St. Peter’s Basilica on Friday, April 25, at 8:00 p.m. ahead of the papal funeral on Saturday morning.

The liturgical rite will be attended by several Cardinals and Holy See officials.

It will mark the end of public viewing in St. Peter’s Basilica, which has seen tens of thousands of people pay their respects to the late Pope.

St. Peter’s Basilica remained open until 5:30 a.m. on Thursday, closing for an hour and a half before reopening at 7:00 a.m.

Pope Francis’ funeral Mass will take place on Saturday, April 26, at 10:00 a.m. in St. Peter’s Square, marking the beginning of the Novemdiales, an ancient tradition of nine days of mourning and Masses for the repose of the late Pope’s soul.

The Novemdiales Masses will be held each day at 5:00 p.m. (GMT +2) in St. Peter’s Basilica, except for the Mass on Divine Mercy Sunday, April 27, which will take place at 10:30 a.m. in St. Peter’s Square.

Pope’s tomb

Pope Francis’ tomb in the Basilica of St. Mary Major has been made with materials from the Italian region of Liguria. It is a simple tomb bearing only the inscription “Franciscus” and a reproduction of the late Pope’s pectoral cross.

The tomb is located near the Altar of St Francis, in the niche of the side nave between the Pauline Chapel (Salus Populi Romani Chapel) and the Sforza Chapel.

Co-Archpriest of the Basilica, Cardinal Rolandas Makrickas, announced Pope Francis’ desire to be buried in a tomb made from the “stone of Liguria, the land of his grandparents.”

The people’s stone

There is a deep connection between slate and the late Pope.

Franca Garbaino, the President of the Slate District, which includes 18 quarries and 12 companies in the Ligurian hills, described it as “not a noble stone” but rather as “the people’s stone," and one that “gives warmth.”