As the blessing was given, aides were observed assisting Francis drink water through a straw and arranging his papal vestments.

Cardinal Angelo Comastri, the retiring archpriest of St. Peter’s Basilica, said Easter Mass yesterday instead of him in the piazza.

Following an illness that progressed to pneumonia in both lungs earlier this year, Francis was released from the hospital on March 23 under “protected discharge.”

Francis celebrated the highest Catholic holiday on social media just 20 hours before the Vatican announced his death.

“Christ is risen! These words capture the entire meaning of our existence, for we were not made for death but for life,” he tweeted, also sharing his full Urbi et Orbi blessing, which his aide had read aloud at at Saint