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  •   Home > News > International

    The deep symbolism and ancient rituals surrounding the death of a pope

    Despite Pope Francis opting for a simpler, humbler papacy compared to his predecessors, his death is not without ceremony. Let's unpack some of the symbols and rituals that come with farewelling the leader of the Catholic Church.


    The death of a pope is significant event, steeped in tradition.

    And despite Pope Francis opting for a simpler, humbler papacy compared to his predecessors, his death is not without ceremony.

    Let's unpack some of the symbols and rituals that come with farewelling the leader of the Catholic Church and electing a new one.

    Sealing the doors

    On the evening of Francis's death, two doors were sealed.

    The first was the door to the papal apartments in the Apostolic Palace, which acted as a the administrative centre for the pope.

    The second was the door to the apartment were Francis lived in the Vatican's guesthouse, Casa Santa Marta.

    Typically, popes live in the Apostolic Palace but when Francis was elected in 2013, he chose to live in the humbler, more communal quarters of the guesthouse.

    A Vatican worker sealed the doors by tying a red ribbon around the handles, melting red wax, and stamping it.

    It's a tradition that reportedly has its origins in preventing looters.

    In 2005, when Pope John Paul II died, a candle was used during the sealing ritual.

    But this time a more mechanical method was used:

    This was witnessed by Cardinal Kevin Farrell, Cardinal Pietro Parolin and Archbishop Edgar Peña Parra.

    Part of this ritual involved the trio "validating" the seal, which you can see in the video below.

    You can see them testing to make sure the doors are locked and inspecting the seal.

    A temporary coat of arms

    The wax was stamped with a special coat of arms indicating the Vatican was in caretaker mode — which is also known as "interregnum".

    This coat of arms differs from the one used when a pope is alive. Instead of a crown above the crossed keys, it features an umbrella — a symbol of the temporary papal vacancy:

    Destroying of the Fisherman's Ring

    Another important symbolic ritual is the destruction or defacement of what's known as the Fishermen's Ring.

    This is the ring a pontiff is presented with when he is inaugurated as pope.

    It's tradition for the pope's Fisherman's Ring to be destroyed or defaced after their death so no-one else can use it.

    Because of this, each time a new pope is elected, they are given a different ring to the pope before them.

    So a Fisherman's Ring was also given to Francis's predecessors Benedict XVI and John Paul II, but they looked different to Francis's — which looked like this:

    But Francis didn't wear this ring much.

    He would sometimes wear it during ceremonial events, but was more often seen wearing this oval-shaped silver ring with a cross on it:

    It's a ring he used to wear as a cardinal, before he became pope, CNN reports.

    Here he is wearing the ring in 2007, greeting people during a mass in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

    While the Vatican published video of the apartments being sealed, there was no such video of what happened to his Fisherman's Ring.

    In photographs of the late pope's body lying in state, he appears to be wearing a silver ring.

    Black smoke

    Let's fast forward now to the conclave — the process by which cardinals choose the next pope.

    The cardinals participating in the election write the name of their preferred candidate on a piece of paper.

    But it often takes a few votes until a winner is declared.

    So if a vote is held and there's no winner, the ballot papers are burned and the chimney sends up black smoke to signify to people watching on from outside that a vote has been unsuccessful.

    White smoke

    Once a winner has been declared, the ballot papers are burnt like before.

    However, this time, white smoke billows out of the chimney.

    This is a way of communicating to onlookers that a new pope has been elected.


    ABC




    © 2025 ABC Australian Broadcasting Corporation. All rights reserved

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