Pope Francis Meets Spider-Man During Weekly Service at The Vatican

Pope Francis had an extra special visitor at his weekly general audience meetings at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican on Wednesday afternoon (June 23).

The religious figure got to meet Spider-Man, aka Mattia Villardita, during the event, which is held each week as The Pope gives visitors a chance to see and interact with the Pope as he delivers small teachings, readings and prayers.

Mattia actually performs in hospitals for sick children, and sat next to another priest as he listened to the Pope’s service, according to a report from Reuters.

During his meeting with the Pope, Mattia even passed along a spare Spider-Man mask.

Mattia was invited to the audience as a VIP guest for his work of dressing up as Spider-Man and visiting sick children in the hospital.

Later that day, he was set to visit the Vatican’s pediatric hospital to bring smiles to the children’s faces.

He shared with Reuters that he gifted the mask “as a sign, to tell him that through these eyes, I daily see pain from sick children in hospitals. It was very exciting because Pope Francis immediately understood my mission.”

Speaking of Spider-Man, here’s what we know about the upcoming live action movie so far.