Pope Francis died of cerebral stroke and heart failure: Vatican doctor

Vatican publishes death certificate, pontiff’s request to be buried at Basilica of St Mary Major in Rome.

Pope Francis died of a cerebral stroke and irreversible heart failure, Vatican doctor Andrea Arcangeli says in a death certificate.

The certificate released on Monday for the 88-year-old pontiff said the pope had fallen into a coma before his death on Monday morning.

Francis died of “cerebral stroke, coma, irreversible cardiocirculatory collapse”, the death certificate said. It added that the first Latin American pontiff in the history of the Roman Catholic Church died at 7:35am (05:35 GMT) in his apartment at the Santa Marta residence in the Vatican.

Just a day earlier, the pontiff made what would be his final major appearance as he greeted thousands of Easter worshippers from an open-top popemobile in St Peter’s Square and delivered a blessing through an aide.

Francis had suffered various ailments during his 12-year papacy with life-threatening complications in recent weeks during a bout of double pneumonia, for which he spent 38 days at Rome’s Gemelli University Hospital in February and March.