'Potentially historic': How many people attended Pope Francis' funeral?

The era of Pope Francis has come to an end. The late pontiff, who passed away on April 21, was laid to rest on April 26 after a moving funeral attended by world leaders, including royalty, presidents, and prime ministers.

However, apart from the important people and world leaders, what made Pope Francis’ funeral ‘potentially historic’ was the presence of a wholly inclusive crowd.

For a pope who believed in building bridges, not walls – Pope Francis’ funeral saw an overwhelming turnout that paid their final tribute to the 88-year-old pontiff. Throughout his life, Pope Francis’ ideologies and outreach resonated with the younger generations so much that thousands of them flocked to St. Peter's Square to mourn the late pontiff during his funeral on Saturday morning.

In fact, about 80,000 teenagers, the section of youth that is presumed to be quite far away from religious beliefs and ideologies, had registered for the Jubilee of Teenagers, a special event for worshippers between the ages of 12 and 17 during the Catholic Church's Jubilee year of 2025, according to the Dicastery for Evangelization, a department of the Roman Curia -- the central governing body of the Catholic Church.

How many people in total attended Pope Francis’ funeral?

According to Vatican estimates, 250,000 people flocked to the funeral mass at the Vatican, marked by enchanting choral music and emotive readings.

The 88-year-old pontiff’s coffin was then transported to its burial place in the Basilica of St Mary Major, as 150,000 more onlookers lined the route through Rome for the first funeral procession for a pope in a century and to bid farewell to the first Latin-American pope.

To sum it up, the streets of the Vatican and Rome witnessed an outpouring turnout of over 400,000 people, who paid their final tribute as the ‘people’s Pope’ was on his last mortal journey.

Pope Francis’ funeral:

Heralded as the "People's Pope", Pope Francis became popular beyond the vast Catholic community he led for championing the disadvantaged and dispossessed throughout his 12-year papacy.

The first Latin American pontiff passed away at 88 after a critical health battle on April 21. The late head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State, who had been in office since 2013, died of a stroke, which led to a coma and ultimately “irreversible cardiocirculatory collapse,'' as per the Vatican. The elderly pontiff had already been suffering from declining health since earlier this year.

The world leaders like the US President Donald Trump, along with his wife and the First Lady Melania Trump, the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the French President Emmanuel Macron, along with his wife, Britain's Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, former US President Joe Bidenm along with his wife and the former First Lady Jill Biden, President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen attended the funeral of Pope Francis.

Although the Vatican witnessed the presence of the world’s heavyweights, the service itself was quite simple.

The ‘simple’ service:

While most popes are buried underneath St Peter’s Basilica, Pope Francis decided in 2022 that he should be buried away from the Vatican, in the Santa Maria Maggiore Basilica in Rome.

The Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore, dedicated to Mary, the Mother of God, held deep personal significance for Pope Francis. It was where he had traditionally prayed before and after his international journeys, as per reports.

Pope Francis' wish to be buried in Santa Maria Maggiore made him the first pope in over a century to be buried outside the Vatican.

As per his wish, the 88-year-old pontiff’s coffin was then transported to its burial place in the Basilica of St Mary Major.

Not just that, Pope Francis, in 2022, had announced his wish to forego many of the traditional and elaborate funeral customs observed for previous Popes, and the Vatican revealed the changes in a new formal rite, which was published in November last year. In 2024, Pope Francis simplified funeral rites in the Ordo Exsequiarum Romani Pontificis, opting for a single zinc-lined wood coffin.

Honoring his wishes, the 88-year-old pontiff was buried in a single, zinc-lined wooden coffin, abandoning the centuries-old tradition of interlocking caskets made of cypress, lead, and oak.