From the moment it began, Pope Francis’s funeral Mass was, fittingly, as somber as any other — even if the near-400-year-old venue itself was unrivalled.
But before prayers started to echo around the historic Italian Baroque basilica, bouncing off the colossal Tuscan colonnades embracing the piazza below from about 9.30am, you could have been forgiven for thinking the hundreds of thousands arriving were actually heading to a concert.
All the singing, cheering, laughing, and general merriment lent a carnival atmosphere to proceedings.
Souvenir shops did a roaring trade, their doors and walls heaving with everything from fridge magnets to two-foot-high Virgin Marys.
Across St Peter’s Square, countless couples and groups of friends posed for photos or pulled out selfie sticks to mark the occasion with the basilica as a backdrop.
At times, it felt less like a funeral and more like just another stop on the Vatican tourist trail.
On Friday, for example, after seeing the Pope lying in state, many visitors took the chance to admire the splendour of St Peter’s Basilica: its giant doors, marble columns, stunning sculptures, and priceless works of art.
In some corners of the square, where bags were scanned at small, airport-style kiosks, an unseemly scramble broke out as some tried to push past others to ensure a spot inside.
Yet as the service began, the singing stopped, the laughter faded, and the selfie sticks disappeared.
A respectful hush fell over the vast crowd almost instantly.
When it came time to kneel, people knelt on the concrete beneath them without hesitation.
The square and the surrounding areas were packed, with the crowd spilling down the Via della Conciliazione — the grand boulevard leading to the Christian world’s biggest basilica — twenty deep in places, filling the road as far as the eye could see.
Undeterred by their distance from the altar, tens of thousands made do with large video screens relaying the ceremony.
Even as you moved further away into the city, the service remained ever-present: prayers and hymns floated through the open windows of nearby houses, while screens and speakers broadcast the Mass across other major squares.
In fact, between St. Peter’s Basilica and the Basilica of Saint Mary Major — a distance of 4km — the sounds of the service were all you could hear.
At Saint Mary Major, where the Pope was later interred, large screens and speakers allowed waiting crowds to say a quieter, more personal goodbye.
Both locations drew people of all ages, though there was a particularly strong presence of young people, including large groups of scouts in uniform.
No doubt, when those young visitors begin attending their first concerts as teenagers, they’ll remember the extraordinary “gig” they witnessed in Rome this weekend — one unlike any other.