Carmelite friars to Syria in order to evangelize and spread the faith in the Middle East. As a show of support for the Syriac Rite, the pope also created the Archdiocese of Aleppo in 1659. Death Last moments and death Alexander VII died at age 68 from kidney failure and whose health initially began to fail around March, with his ailment consistently causing him great pain. He kept his coffin in his bedroom, and a skull (carved by famed sculptor Bernini) on his writing table, because he was always aware that he would someday die. Suddenly taken by a fever on 18 May, he died on 22 May. A seventeenth-century pamphlet credited to Ayres, titled A short Account of the Life and Death of Pope Alexander VII, contains many fascinating details about Alexander's passing. According to this pamphlet, Alexander, although bedridden, wanted to celebrate the Passion to ready himself for his impending death. Neither his surgeon nor his confessor was able to persuade him to save his strength. He blessed the large crowd of people on Easter, the last time they would ever see him alive. A precise and detailed account of the pope's last days is given in the Diary of the principal Master of Ceremonies, Msgr. Fulvio Servantio, an official eyewitness to all the proceedings. Alexander VII died in 1667 and was memorialised in a spectacular tomb by Bernini, however, Pope Innocent XI ordered that the naked Truth be covered up with a drapery colored in white. It is famous for the skeleton holding a gilded hourglass, just above the doors. He was succeeded by Pope Clement IX (1667–69). As the pope lay dying, he said to the cardinals gathered at his bedside: "We never aspired to the tiara, nor took any steps to reach it. We have employed the moneys of the apostolical chamber solely in the service of the Catholic religion, and the embellishment of Rome and the building of churches. We were a whole year pontiff before we summoned any relative of ours to Rome, and we only at length did so because the Sacred College vanquished our unwillingness. We exhort you to elect a successor qualified to repair any errors we have committed in our pontificate". Memory The poet John Flowre wrote a poem about the tomb of Pope Alexander (in 1667). See also Cardinals created by Alexander VII References Acknowledgments External links Monument