How Pope Francis's funeral will unfold

Pope Francis/FILE

After lying in state for the past three days, Pope Francis's coffin will soon be removed from St Peter's Basilica and carried out to St Peter's Square - located just outside the front doors.

The funeral mass will be held outdoors, with heads of state and tens of thousands of mourners expected to gather in the public square.

The ceremony will begin at 10:00 local time (09:00 BST) and is expected to last for around an hour and a half.

After the mass has ended, Francis's body will be transported to the basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome for burial.

A nine-day mourning period will then begin.

A hushed Rome reckons with the Pope's death

The seat at the Vatican had been vacant for two days when a group of grey-clad nuns stood on St Peter's Square and started to sing.

Softly at first then louder, as if to encourage those who joined in timidly, the nuns broke into Ave Maria.

Every so often they shuffled a few inches forward, following the queue for Pope Francis's lying in state. And all the while they sang, their faces turned to St Peter's Basilica to their left, their white veils glistening under their large sun hats.

It was a fitting sight for an extraordinary week in which Rome has seemed to regain its reputation as the "capital of the world" – and St Peter's Square as the centre of the Catholic universe.

There is mourning, but also recognition that the Pope, who lived to 88, died quickly and peacefully.

Yet this isn't the time for celebration either - that will have to wait until after today's funeral, when the conclave will spark the usual frenzy of excitement, intrigue and inevitable speculation.