April 26 \u2013 Pope Francis\u2019 tomb in the Basilica of St. Mary Major has been made with materials from the Italian region of Liguria. It is a simple tomb bearing only the inscription \u201cFranciscus\u201d and a reproduction of the late Pope\u2019s pectoral cross.<\/p>\n
Pope Francis\u2019 tomb in the Basilica of St. Mary Major has been made with materials from the Italian region of Liguria. <\/p>\n
It is a simple tomb bearing only the inscription \u201cFranciscus\u201d and a reproduction of the late Pope\u2019s pectoral cross.<\/p>\n
The tomb is located near the Altar of St Francis, in the niche of the side nave between the Pauline Chapel (Salus Populi Romani Chapel) and the Sforza Chapel. Speaking on television, the co-Archpriest of the Basilica, Cardinal Rolandas Makrickas, announced Pope Francis\u2019 desire to be buried in a tomb made from the \u201cstone of Liguria, the land of his grandparents.\u201d<\/p>\n
It is precisely in the small town of Cogorno that a plaque of slate \u2013 a fine-grained grey, green or bluish metamorphic rock \u2013 commemorates Bergoglio\u2019s great grandfather, Vincenzo Sivori. He travelled from Italy to Argentina in the 1800s. There, he raised his family, including his grandaughter Regina Maria Sivori: Pope Francis\u2019 mother.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Pope Francis often kept his connection to Liguria private, so the Mayor of the town, Enrica Sommariva, described her surprise when she heard that the Pope had requested stone from his grandparents\u2019 region for his tomb.<\/p>\n
Angela Sivori, who still lives in Cogorno, recounted the moment in which she found out she was Pope Francis\u2019 cousin. She described receiving a phone call from Buenos Aires, and a genealogy tree via email. She and her daughter, Cristina, said the Pope\u2019s request regarding the stone for the tomb was a wonderful gift to the family, \u201cone last surprise\u201d, Cristina said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In May 2017, Pope Francis met his family in Genova.<\/p>\n
Cristina recalled that at the time her mother was 87 and that they had no idea they would be meeting Pope Francis until the very last minute. \u201cThen, three days before, we got a call from the Vatican. Seven of us got together and he welcomed us like a cousin who had come from the \u2018end of the world.\u2019\u201d During the meeting, Pope Francis shook his cousins\u2019 hands, smiled, and exclaimed, \u201cAt last, I meet the Sivoris!\u201d<\/p>\n
So there is a deep connection between slate and the late Pope.<\/p>\n
Franca Garbaino, the President of the Slate District, which includes 18 quarries and 12 companies in the Ligurian hills, described it as \u201cnot a noble stone\u201d but rather as \u201cthe people\u2019s stone\u201d, and one that \u201cgives warmth.\u201d The District has already agreed to create slabs that will accompany Pope Francis in his eternal rest.<\/p>\n
Even before the Pope, the town of Cogorno had ties to Popes Innocent IV and Adrian V. The town, carrying this pleasant surprise, echoes how Pope Francis lived, up until the very end of his earthly journey.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
April 26 \u2013 Pope Francis\u2019 tomb in the Basilica of St. Mary Major has been made with materials from the Italian region of Liguria. It is a simple tomb bearing only the inscription \u201cFranciscus\u201d and a reproduction of the late Pope\u2019s pectoral cross. Pope Francis\u2019 tomb in the Basilica of St. Mary Major has been […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-114213","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","entry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114213","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=114213"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114213\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=114213"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=114213"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=114213"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}