The 88-year-old Francis, who has been hospitalised for a week with a complex lung infection, also received blood transfusions after tests showed a condition associated with anaemia, the Vatican said in a late update.

The Vatican announced Saturday that Pope Francis, 88, is in critical condition after a long asthmatic respiratory crisis.

Many who know him said that Francis, driven by a sense of mission and a discipline born of his early training, essentially worked himself into the hospital.