Pope Francis wrote about his wishes and plans for his own funeral in his memoir Hope: The Autobiography, which was published in January 2025.
He specified which church he wished to be buried in and mentioned the "excessive" funeral service that he sought to pare down.
Here's what he wrote:
When it happens, I will not be buried in Saint Peter's but at Santa Maria Maggiore: The Vatican is the home of my last service, not my eternal home.
I will go in the room where they now keep the candelabra, close to the Regina della Pace from whom I have always sought help, and whose embrace I have felt more than a hundred times during the course of my papacy. They have confirmed that all is ready.
The funeral service was excessive, so I have arranged with the master of ceremonies to lighten it: no catafalque, no ceremony for the closure of the casket, nor the deposition of the cypress casket into a second of lead and a third of oak.
With dignity, but like any Christian, because the bishop of Rome is a pastor and a disciple, not a powerful man of this world.
Publisher Penguin Random House says Hope is the first autobiography published by a pope, and was initially intended to appear only after Francis' death.
But, according to the publisher, "the needs of our times and the 2025 Jubilee Year of Hope have moved him to make this precious legacy available now."
Copyright 2025 NPR