The record Francis set can be attributed in great part to the first such ceremony he held early in his papacy. In 2013, when he was about two months into the job, the Vatican recognized the sainthood of more than 800 people who were killed in a 1480 Ottoman invasion of Otranto, Italy, among other saints recognized that day.

The decision to recognize those killed in an attack on their coastal town in southeastern Italy was first made by Pope Benedict XVI, Pope Francis’ predecessor. But Francis was the one who ultimately saw through their sainthood when he took over and got a big jump start on his canonization count.

After that canonization ceremony at the Vatican, Francis went on to recognize more than 100 additional saints in rites at home and abroad during his papacy.

Mother Teresa, the nun who died in 1997, had already been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979 in recognition of her work over decades caring for the indigent and ill in India, and she was considered a “living saint” by many. But when she was officially canonized, Francis, who shared her respect for all religions and concern for the less fortunate, noted that she might always be best known as Mother Teresa.

“I think, perhaps, we may have some difficulty in calling her St. Teresa: Her holiness is so near to us, so tender and so fruitful, that we continue to spontaneously call her Mother Teresa,” he said.

In 2017, Pope Francis added a category for beatification and canonization, opening a path to sainthood that did not exist before. Broadly speaking, saints generally attain that honor through martyrdom or miracles, meaning they either died for the faith or performed extraordinary feats worthy of veneration (although there are some other recognized modes). The new category was created to recognize those Christians who sacrifice their life for others inspired by their beliefs, among other steps.

The category, known as “offer of life,” applies to Christians who “have voluntarily and freely offered their life for others and persevered with this determination unto death,” as Francis put it when introducing the concept. “The heroic offering of life, inspired and sustained by charity, expresses a true, complete and exemplary imitation of Christ,” he said, deeming it equally “deserving” of admiration as the other saintly behaviors the faithful recognize.

One prospective saint that Pope Francis beatified and soon intended to canonize will now have to wait just a bit longer. The first millennial set to be canonized will be Carlo Acutis, a British-born Italian teenager who died of leukemia in 2006 when he was 15. In his short life he had gained a reputation for his faith and power to perform miracles. His canonization ceremony, previously scheduled for this coming Sunday, will be delayed during the mourning period for Pope Francis, according to the Catholic News Agency.

As for the pope, he could someday be named a saint, although not all popes have qualified for this distinction. The first pope was Peter, one of Jesus’s disciples, who led the church around 30 A.D. and was declared a saint. He and most of those who followed him in the role of pope for the first 500 years of Roman Catholicism were recognized as saints, while fewer than 10 popes were named as saints in the next 1,000 years, according to Pew Research Center.

It said in 2014 said that only about 30 percent of popes over the years were ultimately declared saints.

There, Cardinal Kevin Farrell, the cardinal chamberlain — known as the camerlengo — performed a ceremony verifying that the pope was dead, with the declaration of death read aloud. The body was placed in its coffin, with only a small number of Vatican officials and members of the pope’s family present.

These photographs, which were distributed by the Vatican, capture some of the legacy of simplicity that Francis tried to create. There is the spare setting, one unlike the ornate palace rooms where other popes lived and died. And there is the less elaborate single coffin, in line with the rules Francis instituted and his insistence on leading the Roman Catholic Church through an example of humility.

At the same time, the photos make clear that however much Francis tried to shake up the status quo, he did so cautiously. And so a look at the images reveals objects and figures that embody long-held traditions of the church.

The coffin

Last year, Francis simplified the procedures for a papal funeral, specifying that only one coffin, a wooden one lined in zinc, should be used. Past popes were interred in three nesting coffins: one of wood, a second of lead and a third of wood.

Francis asked to be buried at the Papal Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome, where seven other popes are interred — and not within St. Peter’s Basilica or the Vatican Grottoes, where around 90 popes are buried. He requested a simple, undecorated tomb with only the inscription “Franciscus,” according to the Vatican. Francis visited Santa Maria Maggiore at the beginning and end of every apostolic trip he took during his 12-year papacy, and went there on his first day as pope in 2013.

In his will, Francis also specified that “the tomb must be in the earth; simple, without particular decoration.”

A miter and pallium

Francis’s body is dressed in red robes, like those of deceased popes before him. The white papal miter, the traditional headdress worn by bishops, is on his head, signifying his status as the bishop of Rome. Over his chest lies a pallium, a strip of white wool decorated with crosses that is worn like a collar. It denotes the pope’s status as an archbishop.

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The Swiss Guard

Two members of the Pontifical Swiss Guard flank Francis’s coffin, holding halberds and representing in part the pope’s role as the leader of a sovereign state. Over the five centuries since it was formed, the guard has dwindled to what is sometimes called the world’s smallest army, but it is still responsible for guarding Vatican territory and accompanying the pope on trips. (There is a separate Vatican City police force responsible for security there.)

The colors on their uniforms reflect their Renaissance origins, according to the Guard — blue, red and yellow are the traditional colors of the Medicis, the powerful Italian family that produced four popes. The halberds, too, reflect the Guard’s origins: The weapons were used by the Swiss mercenaries who were the order’s earliest members.

The ring

A rosary was draped over the pope’s hands, as one was over the hands of his predecessor, Benedict XVI, when he died in 2023.

On one of Francis’s fingers is a ring — the one he wore as a bishop, and not the one he used as pope, called the fisherman’s ring after St. Peter, the disciple who began as a fisherman and became known as the first pope. That signet ring, which was kissed by pilgrims and used by Francis to seal documents, is destroyed immediately after a pope’s death by the camerlengo in order to prevent forgeries.

A new one will be forged when the next pope is elected.

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Francis will also be buried with a bag containing coins minted by the Vatican during his papacy and a canister with a deed known as a rogito that briefly lists details of his life and papacy. The rogito is read aloud before the coffin is closed.

Since the 13th century, the embalmed bodies of popes have gone on public view on a raised pedestal.

Francis, instead, ordered a public viewing with his body in a coffin that will not be on a raised pedestal.

Over its 156-year history, the so-called pope’s hospital has grown into one of Europe’s most important research hospitals and transplant centers. And yet it’s still a place that puts a lump in the throat of most Roman parents and their children.

Francis betrayed no such qualms about the place. Throughout his papacy, he made multiple visits there, and sometimes delegations of children would visit him at events held inside the walls of the Vatican. As was his style, he often showed up with little fanfare.

“We’d get the call 10 minutes prior,” marveled Tiziano Onesti, the president of Bambino Gesù and a Francis appointee. “He could be mischievous like that.”

“He was always very informal,” recalled Dr. Pietro Bagolan, a surgeon who for years ran the hospital’s neonatal surgery unit. “Never any press,” he added.

Francis didn’t shy away from the most fragile patients. That included a visit in 2013 to the hospital’s neonatal intensive care unit. Surrounded by beeping machines, the pope met with anguished moms and dads. He did his best to console them, or just listen.

“The parents were really moved by his presence,” Dr. Bagolan said. “He spoke with them as if they were a friend, or part of the family. He had this manner of putting them at ease, giving the sense that he was suffering with them.”

Francis also had a playful side. Dr. Bagolan recalled one time when the former president of the hospital, Giuseppe Profiti, gathered the staff in a hospital playground along with a distracted Francis and a small papal delegation. After speaking a few words, Mr. Profiti had to cut short his prepared remarks because Francis had walked off to play with the children.

He had a way with children, Mr. Onesti said. He could get the shy ones to come out of their shells and share what was weighing on them. With the more boisterous ones, he let them have their say. An icebreaker: chatting about his beloved soccer.

The pope’s final official gathering organized by Bambino Gesù was held last March to celebrate the 100-year anniversary of the Holy See assuming control of the hospital. (Bambino Gesù, which has since expanded to six locations around Italy, was donated to the Holy See in 1924.)

The event was held in the Vatican’s main auditorium, Paul VI Hall. Francis looked quite frail that day and was pushed around the hall in a wheelchair by an aide.

The children didn’t hold back though. One child after another leaped from their chair to smother Francis. For more than a half-hour, the hugs continued. Francis looked far from physically comfortable, but he instructed the aide to snake through the rows, determined to greet each child.

“There were 200 children, and 200 hugs,” Mr. Onesti said