A weak and frail Pope Fran­cis re­turned home to the Vat­i­can from the hos­pi­tal on Sun­day af­ter sur­viv­ing a five-week, life-threat­en­ing bout of pneu­mo­nia, mak­ing a sur­prise stop at his favourite basil­i­ca on the way home be­fore be­gin­ning two months of pre­scribed rest and re­cov­ery.

The mo­tor­cade car­ry­ing the 88-year-old pope en­tered the Pe­rug­i­no gate in­to Vat­i­can City, and Fran­cis was seen in the front pas­sen­ger seat wear­ing nasal tubes to give him sup­ple­men­tal oxy­gen.

Dur­ing the trip home from Gemel­li hos­pi­tal, Fran­cis took a slight de­tour to bring him to the St. Mary Ma­jor basil­i­ca, where his favourite icon of the Madon­na is lo­cat­ed and where he al­ways goes to pray af­ter a for­eign vis­it. Fran­cis didn’t get out of the car, but hand­ed a bou­quet of flow­ers to the car­di­nal to place in front of the Salus pop­uli Ro­mani icon, a Byzan­tine-style paint­ing on wood that is revered by Ro­mans.