Pope wanted to work until the end, archbishop tells BBC

In an exclusive interview with the BBC, Archbishop Paul Gallagher, the Vatican's foreign minister since 2014, said the Pope was driven to carry on because he knew he had an opportunity to help the powerless.

While he describes a polite, gentle and compassionate man, Archbishop Gallagher also said Pope Francis knew his own mind and often defied the advice of those around him.

"One thing I always admired about him  though did not always agree with at first was that he didn't run away from difficult things," said Archbishop Gallagher.

He would face up to the issues and that showed remarkable courage," he added.

Pope Francis, the first ever Latin American pope, died on Monday aged 88, following a period of ill health that led to him spending five weeks in hospital with double pneumonia.

Sitting in his reception room in the Vatican, Archbishop Gallagher said even he had been stunned by the magnitude of the void he feels has been left by the Pope's death.

"He was very much the voice of the voiceless and was very aware that the vast majority of people are powerless and do not have their destiny in their hands. I think he felt that he could contribute something to make things a little bit better for them," he added.

The Vatican official, who accompanied the Pope on his foreign trips, said he was drawn in particular to the plight of migrants and of women and children caught up in conflict, saying he felt their suffering "in a very real way".

Archbishop Gallagher suggested Pope Francis's sense he could have a hand in helping alleviate suffering is what drove him to keep working at full pace even when told not to, saying he thought it had been "66 or 67 years" since the Pope had taken a holiday.

Pope Francis's very first trip outside Rome was to meet migrants on the Italian island of Lampedusa. But he then travelled extensively abroad visiting more than 60 countries, and not always ones his aides wanted him to go to..