An ecstatic Maureen Saguna can’t disguise her elation as Pope Francis agrees to pose for a ‘selfie’ with her during the 37-year-old Gozitan singer’s trip to perform with the Vatican’s own Sistine Chapel Choir.

Gozitan choir singer Maureen Saguna thought she was going to have a heart attack when Pope Francis agreed to pose for a selfie with her.

“It was all a blur – I don’t even remember asking him to take the photo with me but apparently I asked him in Italian, ‘Your Holiness, could I take a selfie with you?’” Ms Saguna, 37, said.

Still under shock after her own daring request, Ms Saguna said she grasped the moment when she met the much loved Pontiff in a private audience together with other singers from the Gozitan choir Laudate Pueri.

They had the honour of being the first female choir in history to sing with the Vatican’s own Sistine Chapel Choir.

The selfie – a self-portrait that is usually taken with a hand-held camera or phone – was taken the day before, last Sunday, when the choir, from the parish basilica of St George in Victoria, were in the courtyard of the Pope’s private residence.

“We just expected to see him drive past and bless us but he stopped and came out. We were in a line and, as he walked past us, everyone kissed his hand,” Ms Saguna, of Xagħra, said.

Feeling “giddy”, Ms Saguna and the other singers broke into a hymn, T’Adoriam Ostia Divina, also known as Nadurawk ja Ħobż tas-Sema, by Maltese national poet Dun Karm.

“Little did we know that it has a special meaning for Pope Francis – he had walked up the aisle for his First Holy Communion to that hymn.”

Meanwhile, a small group of young boys ran into the courtyard and one of them walked up to Pope Francis, holding up a skull cap – known as a zucchetto – and asked him to bless it.

I was mortified – I just never expected him to accept but he didn’t bat an eyelid

“He just put it on his head a bit and gave it back to the boy – who was stunned and kept on saying ‘look, look’ to his friends”.

With the Pope next to her but with his back to her, Ms Saguna gave her iPhone to a friend to take a photo with him. “Then I just asked him if he wanted to take a selfie. I was so excited…my heart was about to explode.”

The Pontiff just smiled at her and said “Yes, of course” and smiled at the camera lens. “I was mortified – I just never expected him to accept but he didn’t bat an eyelid.” In shock after taking the photo, Ms Saguna kept repeating “oh my God” over and over again to her friends.

They laughed – especially since it had been a running joke since the beginning of the trip that she was going to ask him to pose with her.

She was impressed by his humanity. “He wasn’t high and mighty – he just kept telling us to pray for him. It was so amazing,” she said.

Once her heart rate had slowed down to normal, Ms Saguna was in for another “terrifying” but “magical moment” when the entire choir sang during the Pope’s Epiphany Mass in St Peter’s Basilica on Monday.

“It was overwhelming and nothing can replace those moments when we sang with the Pope’s personal choir, just behind him in front of the whole world,” she said.

The Laudate Pueri choir, which has sung on international and high profile platforms, had been invited to take part in the Mass by the Sistine Chapel Choir.

“It was something else – we, a tiny choir from a tiny parish, were treated like VIPs in the centre of all that security and were part of all that set-up – it’s a hard experience to beat.”

The choir also received a personal “thank you” from Pope Francis after the weekly midday Angelus prayer. The concert can be viewed on the Vatican’s You Tube channel.