Pope Francis' funeral will take place this Saturday, April 26, the Vatican said in a statement. The pope's casket will be moved into St. Peter's Basilica on Wednesday for public viewing. DW has the latest.
A rosary prayer has been held at the Vatican presided by Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, the day after the death of Pope Francis, reports the Deutsche Welle.
Worshippers gathered at St. Peter's Square to pay their respects to the late pontiff, with similar services set to take place each evening until Saturday's funeral.
Battista Re, as the dean of the College of Cardinals, will also preside over the final farewell ceremony.
Earlier, the square saw believers and tourists alike gather to pay their respects on Tuesday, some bearing flowers or candles and with many lost in their thoughts.
Among them was Slovenian priest Bastian Dolinsek.
"When a church is left without its head we are all a little disoriented," he told the AFP news agency.
Sister Maria Guadeloupe Hernandez Olivo, from Mexico, said it had been "very hard, very sad" to hear news of the death of Francis, the world's first Latin American pope.
With so much attention focused on the Holy See, the world's media was also camped out in force in the iconic square.
And as darkness fell, an image of Francis was projected on a giant screen next to St. Peter's Basilica.
Meanwhile, the official media of the Holy See, Vatican News, has released details about the last hours of Pope Francis.
It said the pontiff started feeling ill at about 5:30 a.m. on Monday — less than 24 hours after he greeted a crowd of faithful in St Peter's Square on Easter Sunday.
He had had a quiet dinner the evening before.
Before falling into a coma, Francis waved to his personal nurse Massimiliano Strappetti from his bed. Vatican News described it as "a gesture of farewell."
He had thanked Strappetti the previous day for encouraging him to take what would become his last tour of St Peter's Square in his popemobile. "Thank you for bringing me back to the square," Francis was quoted as saying.
Francis had doubts about the ride, the first among the throngs of faithful after surviving a near-fatal case of double pneumonia. "Do you think I can manage it?" Vatican News reported him as having said. Once in the square, he embraced the crowd, especially the children, it added.
He was pronounced dead at 7:35 a.m. "He did not suffer. It all happened quickly," the outlet said, citing people with the pontiff in his final moments.
The pope died in the Casa Santa Marta, the Vatican residence where he lived during his 12-year papacy.
