The final call lasted 30 seconds. Just enough time to say hello and ask if everyone was okay. But for Gaza’s tiny Christian population, the phone call from Pope Francis was a ray of hope that shone through the horrors of war.

For months, the pontiff spoke by telephone almost every night with people sheltering in a Catholic church in the battered enclave. “The evenings became known as the pope’s time,” a priest in Gaza said.

Pope Francis died on Monday, April 21, after being released from hospital on March 23, following a five-week stay which saw him struggle with double pneumonia and its various complications. He was 88.