Pope Francis' cause of death revealed: Pontiff died of stroke and heart failure, says Vatican

Pope Francis died of a stroke and irreversible heart failure, the director of health of the Vatican City State, Andrea Arcangeli, said in a death certificate released on Monday (Apr 21). The 88-year-old Catholic leader died on Monday morning, after he was discharged from a five-week stay in hospital for double pneumonia.

Pope Francis died at 7:35 am in his apartment at the Santa Marta residence in the Vatican. According to the certificate published by the Vatican, the pope had fallen into a coma before passing away early on Monday. 

The pontiff died of “cerebral stroke, coma, irreversible cardiocirculatory collapse”, the death certificate said. It added that he had already been affected by a previous episode of acute respiratory failure during his hospital treatment for double pneumonia.

Pope had also suffered from multiple bronchiectases, arterial hypertension, and Type 2 diabetes, which were not known earlier.

In his final testament, Pope Francis stated that he wished to be buried in Rome’s Basilica of Saint Mary Major and not at St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican, where many of the previous pontiffs were buried.

In his final will, released by the Vatican, Francis specified that he wanted to be buried “in the ground, without particular decoration”. His will had an inscription of his papal name in Latin: Franciscus.

Just a day before his demise, the Pope made a public appearance on the occasion of Easter on Sunday (Apr 20), where 35,000 gathered in St. Peter’s Square to hear his message. As per tradition, he delivered the “Urbi et Orbi” blessing, which means “to the city and the world.”

Pope Francis’ last message was read aloud by Archbishop Diego Ravelli, in which he called for peace in war-torn regions like Gaza, Ukraine, Congo and Myanmar.