Pope Francis’s funeral timeline: What happens today as world pay tribute to pontiff

Huge crowds are expected to gather in St Peter's Square for the funeral of Pope Francis today, with Prince William and Donald Trump among attendees of the globally significant ceremony. Tens of thousands of tourists and pilgrims paid their respects as the late pontiff's body lay in state in St Peter's Basilica after he died on Easter Monday. They continued to be admitted into the Basilica until 7pm on Friday, when preparations for the funeral got underway, including the Rite of Sealing of the Coffin, overseen by Cardinal Kevin Farrell, acting Camerlengo of the Vatican.

While the pope's deteriorating health became the subject of rampant speculation earlier this year, Francis himself expressed a wish to be buried in the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore as far back as 2015 - bucking papal tradition in favour of a humbler resting place at a Roman church with personal significance to him. Many of his predecessors were buried in centuries-old crypts near St Peter's Basilica, but the 88-year-old's request means today's procession across Rome will lead to the city's largest Marian church following a ceremony in the Vatican.

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The proceedings are expected to begin at 10am local time (9am BST) and will largely take place outside in St Peter's Square, where seats and a large screen have been set up to invite hundreds of thousands of well-wishers inside the traditional Catholic service, which will also be televised around the world.

The mass will last for around two hours and be held mostly in Latin - essentially comprising a traditional funeral, with added papal rituals. The Vatican said the ceremony, and the rituals observed throughout today will be in line with the “Ordo Exsequiarum Romani Pontificis", a liturgical text detailing the historic procedures for papal funerals, published in 2000.

Archbishop Diego Ravelli also said Francis had asked for his funeral rites to be simplified and emphasise his status as "that of a pastor and disciple of Christ and not of a powerful person of this world". The service's liturgy will be given by 91-year-old Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, dean of the College of Cardinals, and members of the Swiss Guard, who are responsible for the pope's safety, will kneel for the consecration ritual, in which bread and wine is blessed to become the body and blood of Jesus Christ.

When the funeral finishes, at around 12pm local time (11am BST), the pope's body will be transported to its final resting place outside the walls of the Vatican.

In a final testament released after his death, Francis said he wanted to buried "in the ground ... without particular ornamentation", specifying that the only word on the tomb should be his papal name in Latin, "Franciscus".

The funeral will also involve a large-scale security operation in Italy's capital city - with around 8,000 security workers deployed to Rome.

After today's proceedings, a nine-day period of official mourning known as Novemdiales will begin, including masses for the repose of Francis's soul each day at 5pm in St Peter's Basilica, except for the mass on the second Sunday of Easter on April 27, which will take place at 10:30am in St Peter's Square.