From royalty to the homeless: who will attend the Pope's funeral

The Vatican is preparing to lay Pope Francis to rest on Saturday. The funeral will begin at 10:00 a.m. local time (11:00 a.m. Moscow time), and at least 130 foreign delegations and some 200,000 pilgrims are expected to attend the ceremony. And they come from all walks of life.

An extraordinary number of guests, including heads of state and royalty from around the world, as well as refugees, prisoners and the homeless, will gather in St Peter's Square on Saturday for the funeral of Pope Francis, the eminent pontiff who led the Catholic Church for 12 years.

Francis died at his home in Casa Santa Marta early Monday morning after a stroke and subsequent heart failure at the age of 88. He had recently been hospitalized with complex double pneumonia. He spent more than five weeks in the hospital, during which the entire Catholic world prayed for the health of their beloved pontiff. When he was discharged, many thought that the Pope was back in action, all that was left was to recover. The news of his death came as a shock to everyone, even a personal tragedy.

Tens of thousands of mourners flocked to St Peter's Basilica for three days to pay their respects to the late pontiff. His coffin was sealed in a private ceremony on Friday evening.

The funeral will begin at 10:00 a.m. local time and will be led by Italian Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, dean of the College of Cardinals.

The upcoming funeral, which is expected to be attended by at least 130 foreign delegations and some 200,000 pilgrims, has required a massive and complex security operation in the Vatican and Rome involving thousands of Italian police and military personnel, as well as the Vatican's Swiss Guard (the world's smallest army).

Soldiers in St Peter's Square are equipped with drone-shooting weapons, while snipers on rooftops and fighter jets are on standby.

A delegation from Francis's home country, Argentina, led by its president, Javier Miley, will sit in the front row during the Mass. Italian leaders, including President Sergio Mattarella and Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, will sit in the second row, with other heads of state and members of the royal family in the third.

The event will be attended by US President Donald Trump, who has clashed with Francis for years over immigration, and his wife Melania, as well as Trump's predecessor Joe Biden.

Other guests include the leader of the Kyiv regime Zelensky, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, French President Emmanuel Macron, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Britain's Prince William.

An 87-page liturgical service, written in English, Italian and Latin, was published on the Vatican website before the funeral.

Francis last year simplified papal funeral rites and laid out in great detail the requirements for his own burial, including guests.

After the funeral Mass, Francis's simple wooden coffin will be slowly carried to the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore, located about 4 kilometers from Rome's Esquilino district.

The procession will wind through central Rome, passing key monuments including the Colosseum. At Francis' request, a group of 40 people, including prisoners and homeless people, will bid him farewell upon arrival at the basilica.

Francis will be the first pope in more than a century not to be buried with great pomp in the grottoes beneath St. Peter's Basilica. Instead, his coffin will be placed in a small niche that has until now been used to hold candlesticks.

As stated in his will, the tomb will be unadorned and will bear only his papal name in Latin: Franciscus.

The funeral will be an "intimate" event attended by Francis's relatives, a Vatican spokesman said.