Nicknamed “Vatican III” by Pope John Paul II, who stayed there many times, the Agostino Gemelli Hospital is once again the center of media attention with the hospitalization of Pope Francis since February 14, 2025. The medical team is treating the 88-year-old pontiff for a “polymicrobial infection” that has been afflicting him for about two weeks.
The Papal Suite
It was thanks to John Paul II’s multiple stints at the Gemelli Hospital (mentioned below) that the Vatican worked with the hospital to arrange a papal suite there on the top floor. It allows the heads of the Catholic Church to be hospitalized in conditions of high security and serenity. The papal suite has a bedroom, a bathroom, and a chapel where the pontiff can pray or celebrate Mass.
According to a diagram published by the Italian daily Corriere della Sera dating from the 1980s, the apartment also has two small lounges and a room for security guards, a meeting room for his doctors, and a room for his secretaries. Although it has been restructured several times since, the apartment has remained much the same, a well-informed source told I.Media. And it has been used exclusively for the popes, both John Paul II and Francis, she added.
Here is a look at the history of the health care facility and the Holy See.
Pope Pius XI
1934:Pope Pius XI donated 37 hectares (91 acres) of land on Monte Mario, north of the Vatican, to the theologian and physician Agostino Gemelli for the foundation of the Faculty of Medicine of the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart.
Pope John XXIII
1961: The Faculty of Medicine was inaugurated by John XXIII.
Pope Paul VI
1964: The hospital complex received its first patients and was inaugurated by Paul VI.
1976: Paul VI celebrated a Mass in the hospital, hailing it as a “citadel of health studies, of treatments proper to medical science, of human suffering.”
Pope John Paul II
1981: After the attack in St. Peter’s Square, John Paul II was rushed to the hospital where he was operated on. Miraculously saved, according to his doctors, he contracted a cytomegalovirus during a blood transfusion. This forced him to return to the hospital to remain there for several weeks.
1992: Doctors successfully operated on Pope John Paul II for an intestinal tumor.
1993: The Polish pontiff stayed briefly in hospital after dislocating his shoulder when he fell down some stairs.
1994: The institution once again welcomed the 264th pope a few days after he broke his hip in another fall.
1996: The Polish pontiff underwent successful surgery for appendicitis.
2005: After a week in the hospital for the flu, John Paul II entered Gemelli Hospital again on February 24. He remained there for two weeks. He died at the Vatican on April 2 at 9:37 p.m.
Pope Benedict XVI
2012: Pope Benedict XVI comes to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the institution of the Agostino Gemelli Faculty of Medicine and Surgery.
2014: Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI visits his brother, hospitalized at Gemelli. The elder Ratzinger sibling will die in 2020 in Germany.
Pope Francis
2021: Pope Francis is hospitalized on July 4 for the first time since his election in 2013, for a major colon operation. He will stay there for a total of 10 days, longer than originally planned.
2023: On March 29, 2023, the Holy See announces that Pope Francis is at Gemelli to be treated for infectious bronchitis. “They told me, ‘We caught it in time, and if we had waited a few more hours, it would have been more serious,'” he will say a few weeks later on Mexican television. After a course of antibiotics, he leaves the hospital on April 1, rejoicing at being “still alive.”
On June 7 of the same year, the Vatican announces that the Pope has been admitted to Gemelli Hospital to undergo surgery for an intestinal hernia with risk of obstruction. Detailed and regular press releases and post-operative press conferences with the surgeon Sergio Alfieri mark these 10 days of hospitalization. He is discharged from the hospital on June 16.
On November 25, suffering from lung inflammation, the pope makes a brief trip to and from Gemelli Hospital, where he undergoes a CT scan “to rule out the risk of pulmonary complications.”
His latest hospitalization
2025: On February 14, the Holy See Press Office announces that Pope Francis has been admitted to the Gemelli Hospital for tests after suffering from bronchitis for about 10 days. He initially suffers from a mild fever and is diagnosed with a polymicrobial respiratory infection. He has to cancel a variety of appointments, including his participation at the usual Sunday Angelus and Wednesday audience, as well as Jubilee events. However, he sends written messages to be read on his behalf.
And today we celebrate...