For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails

       Please enter a valid email address

       Please enter a valid email address

       SIGN UP

       I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice

       Thanks for signing up to the

       Breaking News email

       {{ #verifyErrors }} {{ message }} {{ /verifyErrors }} {{ ^verifyErrors }} Something went wrong. Please try again later {{ /verifyErrors }}

       Watch as Pope Francis visits Italy’s Rebibbia prison for a foot washing Mass on Thursday 28 March.

       The pontiff looked well as he began four intense days of events leading to Easter this morning and renewed his own ordination vow on the day the Roman Catholic Church marks Jesus’s founding of the priesthood the night before the crucifixion.

       Francis, who recently curtailed his speaking engagements because of fatigue related to bouts of bronchitis and influenza, read a long homily during a Holy Thursday “Mass of the Chrism” in St Peter’s Basilica.

       Holy Thursday commemorates the day of Jesus’ Last Supper with his apostles the night before he died.

       On Thursday afternoon, the Pope presided over a traditional foot-washing ritual in the women’s section of Rome’s Rebibbia prison.

       Francis is the first pope to hold the foot-washing ceremony outside churches, usually in prisons, homes for the elderly or hospices, continuing a practice he began when he was archbishop of Buenos Aires.

       He is also the first to include women and non-Christians in the service.

       The ceremony echoes Jesus’s gesture of humility toward his apostles on the night before he died.

       More about Pope Francis Italy Roman Catholic Church jesus Prison Independent Live Streams

       Join our commenting forum Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

       Comments

       1/ 1Watch as Pope Francis visits Italian prison for foot-washing Mass

       Watch as Pope Francis visits Italian prison for foot-washing Mass

       Vatican Pope

       Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved

       ？ Subscribe to Independent Premium to bookmark this article

       Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? Start your Independent Premium subscription today.

       Subscribe

       Already subscribed? Log in