The Vatican on Thursday released of photo of Pope Francis meeting King Charles III and Queen Camilla during a surprise private visit at the Casa Santa Marta residence where he lives on Wednesday.

Buckingham Palace had said plans for the British royals to have an official meeting with the head of the Catholic Church during their ongoing State visit to Italy had been cancelled due to the pope’s health.

The 88-year-old is convalescing after spending 38 days in hospital with bilateral pneumonia.

In the photo the pope was sitting in a chair shaking hands with Camilla, smiling and, unlike in the surprise appearance he made at Sunday’s Mass in St Peter’s Square for the Jubilee of the Sick and Healthcare Workers, he was not wearing nasal cannulas for oxygen.

“Pope Francis met privately with their majesties, King Charles and Queen Camilla, this afternoon,” the Vatican said on Wednesday.

“In the course of the meeting, the pope expressed his best wishes to their majesties on the occasion of their wedding anniversary and reciprocated his majesty’s wishes for a speedy recovery of his health,” it continued, referring to the the royal couple’s 20th anniversary on Wednesday and the king’s hospitalisation at the end of March due to the side effects of treatment for cancer.