By Malgorzata Wojtunik and Marissa Davison
ROME (Reuters) – Clutching a bouquet of yellow roses, 79-year-old Carmela Vittoria Mancuso makes her way to Rome’s Gemelli hospital each morning and later heads to St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican in the evening to pray for the ailing Pope Francis.
The pontiff, who is 88 and has been battling double pneumonia, was admitted to Gemelli on February 14 and has not been seen in public since. The Vatican said on Thursday that he had spent another “tranquil” night and was resting.
The diminutive Mancuso, who has attended daily mass in the hospital chapel since Francis was admitted, travels by train to join the faithful in St. Peter’s Square for a rosary prayer.
“I have been on a continuous pilgrimage,” said Mancuso, noting that February 28 was particularly moving as she heard that the Pope had an “isolated breathing crisis.”
“I heard from others that (the Pope) had got worse. It was a moment of discouragement. I took part in the rosary where I was almost crying,” she said.
Mancuso first encountered Pope Francis in December 2017 at Santa Marta House, his residence in the Vatican City. She shouted, “Greetings, Holy Father” as he greeted staff, and recalled that “as he made the toast, he turned around and said ‘Thank you.'”
Since then, Mancuso has attended weekly Wednesday audiences with Francis, offering him yellow roses that symbolically match the Vatican flag.
Originally from Calabria in the south but now living in the Rome neighbourhood of Monteverde, Mancuso walks down the cobblestones of St. Peter’s Square for the evening prayer.
Wrapped up in a coat and scarf against the late winter chill, she takes a seat in the front row to pray for the pope and the “tenderness, joy, and exultancy” that, in her view, made him special.
(Editing by Keith Weir and Bernadette Baum)
