But no special celebrations were planned for the leader of
the world's 1.2 billion Catholics, with Tuesday expected to
be a normal working day for him.
The pope celebrated his daily mass in the Santa Marta
chapel at 7am local time, and was preparing his speech for
his weekly audience, scheduled for Wednesday.
Francis, the Time Magazine man of the year was given a
surprise party at the weekend, when he met a group of
children at a charity office inside the Vatican.
They each sported a letter of the alphabet on their shirt, and
lined up to spell out the message Happy Birthday, Pope
Francis. There was also a cake, with candles.
Four homeless people, one of them carrying his dog, also
joined Pope Francis in celebrating his 77th birthday at the
Vatican on Tuesday.
They live on the street in the Rome neighborhood just
outside the Vatican's walls and were invited by the Holy
See official in charge of alms-giving to attend the morning
Mass, which Francis celebrates daily at the hotel where he
lives on Vatican City grounds.
The Vatican said Francis also invited his household help to
join him in a "family-like" atmosphere, and he spoke of
them one by one during his homily.
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