With his death April 21, Pope Francis marked yet another first in the history of the Catholic Church: he became the first pope to open the Holy Door of St. Peter’s Basilica without living to close it.

Calling Pope Francis “a modern-day prophet,” Kerry Alys Robinson said the late pope “read the signs of the times and awakened us to meaningful change in our behavior — within the Church and within the world.”

In his brief final testament, Pope Francis asked to be buried at Rome’s Basilica of St. Mary Major and said he had offered his suffering for peace in the world.

Pope Francis, history’s first pope from the global south and a maverick who often delighted the world, died April 21 after fighting pulmonary disease for the last few months.

Just as hundreds of people had gathered at the Vatican each night to recite the rosary when Pope Francis was hospitalized, throngs returned to recite the Marian prayer for the repose of his soul after his death.

Pope Francis died April 21 after suffering a stroke and heart attack, said the director of Vatican City State’s department of health services. The pope had also gone into a coma.

Centuries of experience dealing with the death, or occasional resignation, of a pope has left the Catholic Church with thorough instructions detailing who has responsibility for planning the funeral, preparing for the election of a new pope and taking care of essential business in the meantime.

President Donald Trump, officials in his administration and other U.S. political leaders issued statements expressing condolences for Pope Francis after the pontiff’s death April 21 at age 88.

Pope Francis’ funeral rites, like those for any pope or any Christian, are meant to “reinforce the hope and witness to the faith” that those who have been baptized in Christ “will rise with him to new life.”

Pope Francis, who died April 21 at age 88, “will long be remembered for his outreach to those on the margins of the Church and of society,” Archbishop Timothy P. Broglio, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, said in a statement shared in the first hours after the pope’s death.