The end came quickly for Pope Francis on Easter Monday.

He blessed the faithful in the morning of Easter Sunday and went to bed in the night.

He passed away peacefully less than two hours after his health irreversibly deteriorated.

The Vatican yesterday gave a graphic account of his last moment.

He started to feel unwell at about 5:30 a.m. (0330 GMT) on Monday and was promptly attended to by his team.

More than an hour later, he made a gesture of farewell to his ever-present nurse, Massimiliano Strappetti, and slipped into a coma, the Vatican?s official media channel said.

His time of death was given as 7:35 a.m.

The cause of death was given as cerebral stroke and subsequent heart failure.

The pontiff was 88.

He spent five weeks in hospital earlier this year diagnosed with double pneumonia and appeared to be slowly recovering.

Yesterday, the Vatican released photographs of Francis body dressed in his vestments and holding a rosary, lying in an open coffin placed in the chapel of the Santa Marta residence, where he lived during his 12-year papacy.

Swiss Guards stood on either side of the casket as dignitaries, including Italian President Sergio Mattarella, paid homage to the first Latin American pope.

The body was taken into the adjacent St. Peter?s Basilica in a procession led by cardinals.

He will lie in state there until Friday evening at 7:00 p.m.

His funeral service will be held at 10:00 a.m. on Saturday in St. Peter?s Square, in front of the 16th-century basilica.

It will be presided over by Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, the 91-year-old dean of the College of Cardinals.

Leaders expected at the funeral include United States President Donald Trump, Italian President Sergio Mattarella and Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, Argentine President Javier Milei, Belgian King Philippe and Prime Minister Bart De Wever.

Also expected are Prince William of England and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer; Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, European Union Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, and East Timor President Jose Ramos-Horta,.

French President Emmanuel Macron, German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier and outgoing German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Hungarian President Tamas Sulyok, Latvian President Edgars Rinkevics, President Gitanas Nauseda (Lithuania), Polish President Andrzej Duda and Romanian Interim President Ilie Bolojan have confirmed their attendance.

King Felipe and Queen Letizia (Spain), President Karin Keller-Sutter (Switzerland), and President Volodymyr Zelenskiy (Ukraine) have also signified their intentions to attend the funeral.

Rome prepares for influx

It is not just the politicians ? thousands of pilgrims are expected in Rome to pay their respects.

Authorities have been preparing for a huge influx of people.

Already, Rome has been inundated with pilgrims and the faithful streaming into the majestic square of St Peter?s Basilica to pay their respects.

Italy announced five days of national mourning during which flags will be flown at half-mast.

Paddy Agnew, a reporter with Catholic news outlet The Tablet, said the pope wanted a funeral that would ?play down the pomp and circumstance, and play up the spirituality?.

Speaking to Al Jazeera, Agnew explained that while there are ?huge? logistical challenges to organising a papal funeral, ?the Vatican has been through this before?.

There were three million people or thereabouts who attended John Paul II?s funeral,? he said, noting that Pope Francis?s funeral also comes during the Vatican?s Holy Year.

?So lots of security preparations are already in place, and nothing has to be done, other than direct the traffic of all the pilgrims.?

Pope was ?comforting? figure for Palestinians

The Latin patriarch of Jerusalem, Archbishop Pierbattista Pizzaballa, hailed Pope Francis?s support for people in Gaza and engagement with the small Catholic community in the war-battered Palestinian territory.

The Catholic Church?s highest authority in the region and a potential successor to the late pontiff, Pizzaballa told reporters in Jerusalem that ?Gaza represents, a little bit, all what was the heart of his pontificate.?

Pope Francis advocated peace and demonstrated a ?closeness? to the world?s poor and neglected, the patriarch said ? positions that became particularly evident in Francis?s response to the war in Gaza.

Pope Francis repeatedly called for an end to the war.

The day before his death, in a final Easter message on Sunday, he condemned the ?deplorable humanitarian situation? in the besieged territory.

How Pope Francis will be remembered

Pope Francis broadened the church?s appeal at a time of growing disenchantment towards the institution, which was embroiled in financial and sexual scandals when he was elected to the job in 2013.

Throughout his papacy, Francis stripped the Vatican of some layers of opacity and brought the poorest and the most marginalised back to the centre of the church?s focus.

Overall, he was excellent at infuriating conservatives.

But he also frustrated liberals because, while he opened the door to debates previously unthinkable in the church, his shift never translated into fundamental changes.

Reverend Munther Isaac, a Palestinian pastor in Bethlehem, said while Pope Francis was widely respected and beloved by many around the world, he was particularly appreciated by people living in the ?context of oppression?.

?For us, as Palestinians, we truly lost a friend, someone who spoke with compassion, with full humanity about the plight of Palestinians,? Isaac told Al Jazeera.

?I would argue that his position on Palestine reflected his overall theology of solidarity with the marginalised and the oppressed.?

Francis?s position on Palestine started long before Israel bombarded Gaza, said Isaac, who pointed to the pope?s 2014 visit to Bethlehem, where he prayed at the Israeli separation wall.

It was ?a prayer that touched many, many millions of hearts; a prayer that left an impression on us Palestinians that he sees our pain, he recognised the cruelty of the situation we live in, of the oppression of the occupation?, Isaac said.

?And we truly were touched by that moment.? (The Nation)

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