Alongside world leaders and reigning monarchs, an estimated 400,000 people turned out on Saturday for the Argentine pontiff’s funeral at the Vatican and burial in Rome.
The crowds were a testament to the popularity of Francis, an energetic reformer who championed the poorest and most vulnerable.
Many of those mourning the late pope, who died on Monday aged 88, expressed anxiety about who would succeed him.
“He ended up transforming the Church into something more normal, more human,” said Romina Cacciatore, 48, an Argentinian translator living in Italy.
“I’m worried about what’s coming.”
On Monday morning at 9:00 am (0700 GMT), cardinals will hold their fifth general meeting since the pope’s death, at which they are expected to announce a date for the conclave.
Held behind locked doors in the frescoed Sistine Chapel, the election of a pope has been a subject of public fascination for centuries.
Cardinal-electors will cast four votes a day until one candidate secures a two-thirds majority, a result broadcast to the waiting world by burning papers that emit white smoke.
Luxembourg Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich said last week he expected the conclave to take place on May 5 or 6 – shortly after the nine days of papal mourning, which ends on May 4.
German Cardinal Reinhard Marx told reporters on Saturday the conclave would last just “a few days”.
Francis’s funeral was held in St Peter’s Square in bright spring sunshine, a mix of solemn ceremony and an outpouring of emotion for the Church’s first Latin American pope.
More crowds are expected on Sunday when the public can begin visiting his simple marble tomb at the basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore, his favourite church in Rome.
Francis was buried in an alcove of the church, becoming the first pope in more than a century to be interred outside the Vatican.
There will also be a mass at St Peter’s Basilica at 10:30 am on Sunday, led by Pietro Parolin, who was secretary of state under Francis and is a front-runner to become the next pope.
Only cardinals under the age of 80 are eligible to vote in the conclave, with 135 currently eligible – most of whom Francis appointed himself. (AFP)
