'A signal of simplicity' Funeral will be final humble gesture

When the late Pope Francis stepped onto the balcony of St Peter's Basilica to give his first speech as leader of the Catholic Church in March 2013, he cast away formality by dressing in simple white robes instead of the regal ermine-trimmed cape usually worn by newly elected pontiffs.

- Angela Giuffrida

The next day, Francis - a name chosen in honour of Francis of Assisi, the Italian saint who renounced a life of luxury to help the poor - returned to the Rome hotel in which he had stayed before the conclave to pick up his luggage and pay his bill. He substituted a plush apostolic apartment for a simple room within the Vatican walls and, unlike his predecessors, did not spend his summers in Castel Gandolfo, an opulent 12th-century fortress close to Rome.

These humble gestures set the tone for much of Francis's 12-year papacy, with one of his final acts being to simplify papal funeral rites, breaking with longstanding Vatican tradition.

"If you think back to just a few years ago when Pope Benedict was buried, we saw all the pomp and circumstance of the Vatican on display," said Chris White, the Vatican correspondent for National Catholic Reporter. "But Francis has done away with all of that."