UPDATE: |Pope Francis cause of death, health battle and 38-day hospital stay in month before News

The Pope’s cause of death has been confirmed

Pope Francis died on Easter Monday following a period of ill health that saw him spend several weeks in hospital.

The leader of the Catholic church died aged 88 at 7.35am on Monday morning, a day after he made a public appearance at St Peter’s Square in Vatican City in front of thousands of worshippers.

Pope Francis had recently resumed some of his official papal duties following his hospital stay.

The cause of Pope Francis’s death was a cerebral stroke that led to a coma and irreversible heart failure, the Vatican has said. His passing comes after a long health battle.

The Pope suffered from chronic lung disease. When he was a young man at the age of 21, he had to have part of one of his lungs removed due to a severe bout of pleurisy.

On February 14 this year, he was admitted to Gemelli hospital in Rome for a respiratory crisis. He was admitted with a severe case of bronchitis, which developed into double pneumonia.

During his stay, the Pope was in a critical, life-threatening condition, but days later the Pope started to show signs of recovery, with slight improvements in his respiratory and motor functions, as well as in his speech.

Doctors said his condition was complex, even once stable, due to his age, lack of mobility and the loss of part of his lung.

Francis spent a total of 38 days in hospital, which was his longest hospital stay of his 12-year papacy.

Upon leaving hospital, Francis was ordered to sharply cut back his workload. Doctors told him to undertake two months of convalescence and respiratory therapy to improve his lung function.

On April 6, he made his first public appearance since leaving hospital two weeks earlier, appearing in St Peter’s Square in a wheelchair during a special jubilee mass for the sick.

He then emerged on Easter Sunday – a day before his death – to bless the thousands of people gathered in St Peter’s Square. Francis also treated them to a surprise Popemobile tour of the piazza, which drew wild cheers and applause from the crowd.

The 88-year-old stopped occasionally to bless babies taken up to him, and said: “Brothers and sisters, Happy Easter”.

Earlier in the day, he also met with US vice president JD Vance, who was spending Easter in Rome with his family. Before Sunday, his biggest outing had been a visit to Rome’s central prison to spend Holy Thursday with inmates.

His brief public appearances made it was clear that it was an effort for him to project his voice, and his breathing was laboured.