Pope Francis missed a step and fell to the ground on Thursday as he walked on an open-air platform to celebrate mass at Poland’s holiest shrine of Jasna Gora.
In a dramatic moment, the 79-year-old Francis, walking in his long robe with an incense holder in his hand, did not notice a step down from the platform and fell to the ground before the altar. Francis braced his fall with his left hand and priests around him rushed to help, with Monsignor Guido Marini, an aide, helping him back to his feet.
The mass proceeded as planned and the pope delivered a long homily before tens of thousands of faithful gathered at the foot of the Jasna Gora monastery in Poland’s southern city of Czestochowa.
Asked if Francis had suffered any ill effects from the fall, a Vatican spokesman, Greg Burke, said “the pope is fine”.
