ROME – After a 10-day hospital stay following colon surgery, Pope Francis was discharged Wednesday to return to the Vatican, according to various Italian media reports, where he will likely spend the remainder of his summer resting and continuing his recovery.

The pope was admitted to Rome’s Gemelli hospital on July 4, where he underwent what the Vatican described as a planned surgery for “stenotic diverticulitis,” meaning a restriction of the colon with possible inflammation or infection of pouches inside the walls of the large intestine.

Francis has endured mild ailments such as colds and headaches in the past, and he also suffers from chronic sciatica and is often short of breath due the removal of part of a lung when he was a young Jesuit, this was his first hospital stay as pope.

Throughout his stay the Vatican described his condition as normal, saying in daily bulletins that the pope’s condition continued to improve post-surgery.

It was originally estimated that he would stay in the hospital for around seven days following his operation, but the Vatican on Monday said he would be there a “few more days” in order to “optimize medical and rehabilitative therapy.”

During his stay at Gemelli, where Pope Saint John Paul II was also admitted ten times for medical treatment, Pope Francis delivered his July 11 Sunday Angelus address from the 10th floor, where he his room was located, using the occasion to pray for Haiti after the assassination of its president and to advocate for universal healthcare.

On Monday night, the pope also made a brief stop by the pediatric oncology unit, located on the same floor as his own room, to spend time with sick children and their families.

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