We're less than half an hour away from Pope Francis' funeral mass commencing.

Let's take a look at how things have been unfolding so far this morning and what's still to come:

• 07:30 BST: Archbishops and bishops gathered in the Constantine Wing, a corridor adjacent to St Peter's Basilica - Catholic priests began congregating in St Peter's Square
• 08:00 BST: Patriarchs from the Orthodox church and cardinals congregated in Saint Sebastian Chapel, inside the basilica
• 09:00 BST: The funeral startswhen the coffin is laid in the square in front of St Peter's Basilica. The service will be led by the dean of the College of Cardinals, Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re
• Approximately 10:30-10:45 BST: The funeral ends and a slow procession carrying the Pope's coffin will make its way to his final resting place - the basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore

As we're starting to see dignitaries arrive in St Peter's Square, let's take a look at where everyone will be sitting today.

There are dozens of world leaders and members of various royal families expected to attend Pope Francis' funeral (a small sampling of that here).

They will be sitting in French alphabetical order according to the name of their country.

The exemptions to this will be Argentine President Javier Milei and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni who have their own separate spaces due to their nationalities.

The graphic below shows where they will be sat inside St Peter's Square.

We're now seeing pictures of former US President Joe Biden arriving at St Peter's Square, who is attending today's funeral with his wife Jill.

Image source, Reuters

Sarah Rainsford
Reporting from St Peter's Square

Image source, EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock

Dozens of world leaders, monarchs and dignitaries are already in town for this funeral.

We've also seen priests and nuns, and lots of young Catholics, hurrying through the streets, trying to get to the square and secure their place.

This is an important day for the church but it’s also a poignant personal moment for those gathering here.

The makeup of the crowd reflects some of the causes Pope Francis cared about: the homeless, migrants and refugees. We understand arrangements have even been made for some prisoners to attend, as Pope Francis often visited jails here, sometimes washing the feet of inmates as a mark of humility.

It’s also a really international crowd. We’ve met Americans, and a man from Cabo Verde, who came all the way here especially for the funeral mass.

Rosanna Pound-Woods
Reporting from Rome

At a cafe on the Via della Conciliazione, pilgrims queue for their morning coffee alongside emergency services, dignitaries, priests and journalists.

Among them are the Archduke Ferdinand Habsburg of Austria and his friend, Brother Gregory, who works at the Vatican and who will be taking part in the liturgy, giving communion.

"It’s my favourite thing to do, I get to hold Jesus for an hour," he tells me. (In Catholic communion the bread and wine become the body and blood of Christ.)

For Brother Gregory, whilst today will be a big day, it’s clear that his duty towards his religion is what’s most important.

"I feel a big responsibility to take this gift that has [been] given to me and look after it," he tells me. "It is a real honour."

Nick Robinson
Radio 4 Today presenter, reporting from St Peter's Square

Here in Rome, we close one of the most remarkable chapters in the papacy’s 2,000-year history.

Inside St Peter's Square below me, dozens of world leaders will be joined by those who live on the streets, and by migrants who crossed the Mediterranean to reach Italy.

We're broadcasting from the roof of a former convent which Pope Francis converted into a hostel for the homeless.

Just alongside our little pop-up studio here, a group of those homeless people are having their breakfast and watching the television, seeing images of thousands of people pouring into this square, waiting to see the cavalcades as world leaders arrive.

The funeral of the man they called the People’s Pope is bringing together many of the world's most powerful with some of the most marginalised.

Image source, EPA

For the funeral procession from St Peter's to Santa Maria Maggiore, after the funeral, Pope Francis will make his last earthly 'journey' aboard a popemobile that has been adapted.

It was the solution to have an open vehicle and allow everyone to see the Pope's coffin pass through the streets of Rome at the end of the funeral.

Laura Gozzi
Reporting from St Peter's Square

I've managed to secure a spot on top of the colonnade here in St Peter's Square.

Standing 16 metres above the throng of mourners, you can see seats filling up, with just over an hour to go until the start of the service.

Photographers from media across the world are taking snaps of the sun soaked St Peter’s Square as hymns are played on giant speakers

Laura Gozzi
Reporting from St Peter's Square

It’s a quiet, hazy Saturday morning in Rome.

Long lines of people - teenage pilgrims, Orthodox priests, nuns - file down the streets leading to the Vatican silently as the city around them wakes up.

Many of the streets around the Vatican are closed and there’s a myriad of detours even for pedestrians, but the organisation is remarkable.

Thousands of Italian police of different branches are out in force, as well as firefighters, medics, canine unit handlers, volunteers, members of the armed forces and even park guards.

They have been called in from all sides of Italy to be in Rome today and the result is a rather joyous blend of accents from across the country, from the Sicilian to the Milanese.

Two - maybe out-of-towners - even take a break from directing the traffic to sneak in a selfie with the Vatican as a backdrop.

Tens of thousands of people are now gathering in St Peter's Square in the Vatican for the funeral of Pope Francis.

The outdoor service is due to begin in less than two hours now.

Heads of state and royalty will attend - let's give you a sense of what is happening in the Vatican with some of the latest images reaching us here.

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, Reuters

Sarah Rainsford
Reporting from St Peter's Square

Image source, Getty Images

As we headed here early this morning, we saw nuns and priests, along with other Catholics, running through the narrow cobbled streets of the Vatican anxious to secure a place on St Peter’s Square for the funeral.

There are now big groups of people heading here, including lots of young people. It’s a really international crowd - reflecting the global reach of the church.

This morning, St Peter’s was bathed in gorgeous golden light as the sun climbed in the sky. Inside, Pope Francis’ coffin is now closed, ready for today’s mass.

On the streets, there’s lots of security measures in place as you’d expect. I can see river police in a speed boat on the Tiber and there are helicopters overhead.

But the mood is relaxed. Everything seems very well organised and calm.

Image source, Getty Images

Many heads of state and royals have confirmed their attendance for today's funeral, including Prince William, French President Emmanuel Macron, Spain's King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia, and Brazil's President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

There are also many political figures who are expected to be in St Peter's Square today, including:

• US President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump
• Former US President Joe Biden and former First Lady Jill Biden
• Prime Minister Keir Starmer
• European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen
• Philippines President Ferdinand Marcos Jr
• Argentine President Javier Milei

Read more about the global dignitaries who are attending the Pope's funeral.

We've just received confirmation that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has arrived in Rome.

He’s attending the funeral today with his wife, Olena Zelenska, and a Ukrainian delegation, according to Ukraine’s public broadcaster Suspilne, quoting a presidential spokesman.

Zelensky had previously said he would attend the funeral. But there was still some uncertainty on Friday whether his travel plans - disrupted by air strikes in Kyiv earlier this week - would get him to Rome in time.

Ione Wells
Reporting from Buenos Aires

Pope Francis never returned to Argentina after becoming pontiff, but his appointment was still a huge source of pride for the country.

Many people remember him for his work helping the poor in the country, for example his support of soup kitchens, and his visits to prisons to wash the feet of inmates.

Some theorise that he never returned because he did not want a visit to be politicised, given the criticism from some conservatives that he was too aligned with social justice issues and left-wing politics.

While some may have disagreed about his views, one thing that unites many Argentines is their celebration of him as 'one of them' - someone who lived in the city, rode public transport with the public, and witnessed the issues people faced with his own eyes.

Image source, Getty Images

Pope Francis' funeral mass is set to begin at 10:00 local time (09:00 BST), and thousands of mourners have been queuing outside St Peter’s Basilica for hours now.

One man, as seen below, has been captured by photographers watching the film Conclave on his laptop as he waits.

The film, made by German director Edward Berger, imagines what goes on behind the scenes during the secretive process of electing a new pope.

Image source, Getty Images

Traditionally, the pope's remains would have been enclosed the day before the funeral in three nested coffins, made of cypress, lead, and oak.

Last year, however, Pope Francis requested that he be buried in a simpler wooden coffin with a zinc interior.

This is the coffin that will be seen in the funeral service and has been on display this week in St Peter's Basilica.

Pope Francis will also be breaking with a 100-year-old tradition when he his buried. He asked to be entombed in the Santa Maria Maggiore instead of the crypt at St Peter’s Basilica.

Image source, Getty Images

Public viewing of Pope Francis' body ended on Friday evening, after the coffin carrying the late pontiff was brought to St Peter's Basilica on Wednesday morning.

Over the course of those three days of lying in state, more than 250,000 people paid their respects to the late Pope, the Vatican said in a statement on Friday.

Image source, Reuters

On Wednesday, the first day the pontiff's body was viewable, the basilica stayed open all night to accommodate the crowds.

The basilica then closed at 03:00 on Friday and reopened a few hours later before shutting for good at 18:00.

Image source, Reuters

Image source, AP

His ascension to the papacy was one that heralded many firsts.

Born Jorge Mario Bergoglio in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on 17 December 1936, he was the eldest of five children. His parents had fled their native Italy to escape the evils of fascism.

Francis was the first Pope from the Americas or the Southern Hemisphere and was also the first Jesuit to be elected to the throne of St Peter - Jesuits were historically looked on with suspicion by Rome.

Many Catholics had assumed the new pontiff would be a younger man - but Cardinal Bergoglio of Argentina was already in his seventies when he became Pope in 2013.

At the time, he presented himself as a compromise candidate: appealing to conservatives with orthodox views on sexual matters while attracting the reformers with his liberal stance on social justice.

Throughout his papacy, he was determined to favour humility over pomp and grandeur. He shunned the papal limousine and insisted on sharing the bus taking other cardinals home.

In his sermons, he called for social inclusion and criticised governments that failed to pay attention to the poorest in society.

Lebo Diseko
BBC World Service global religion correspondent, reporting from the Vatican

It’s early in the morning here in Rome but large numbers of people are already queuing to try and get spot as close as possible to St Peter’s Square to watch Pope Francis’s funeral.

“We got here around 04:15 this morning," says Caitlin, a New Yorker who now lives in Rome.

She says today is "a once in a lifetime experience" to "honour the Pope and his legacy and all that he’s done".

Catherine, from Waterford in Ireland, tells me she's prepared for "all types of weather", with cushions, blankets, sun cream and raincoats in tow.

"In Rome this time of year you never know what to expect.”

She says she's here to "honour the Pope’s legacy and the amazing work that he’s done".