Pope Francis’ burial place about piety, but also identity
In life, Pope Francis seemed to enjoy upsetting conventions and thwarting expectations. He went about in a used Fiat. He took his meals in a cafeteria. He slept in Spartan quarters.
In death, he continued to surprise. One of several curiosities about his funeral was his choice to be buried outside the Vatican — in the Basilica of St. Mary Major on Rome’s Esquiline Hill.
The last pope to be buried outside the Vatican was Pope Leo XIII, who died in 1903 and was buried in the Basilica of St. John Lateran.