Pope Francis is in “critical condition,” the Vatican said Saturday, after a “prolonged asthmatic crisis” and a low platelet count. They said he was alert and sitting in an armchair but suffering more pain than the day before.

Doctors on Friday said the 88-year-old Francis is "not out of danger" ​and that the main threat facing him would be the onset of sepsis.

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.