This coming Holy Week, Pope Francis will mark the tradition of Holy Thursday by washing the feet of prison inmates.

The pontiff will visit the maximum security Paliano prison on April 13, imitating the Last Supper practice begun by Jesus, according to Catholic Online.

Paliano prison's chaplain Father Luigi Paoletti says the prisoners, of which there are 74, were moved and excited by the news of the visit.

'The inmates have asked me for years for the pope to visit them,' he said. 'They have written to him many times.'

According to Paoletti the inmates are 'are in love with this pope and want to hear his comforting words to them and their families', and promise to give the pontiff an 'extraordinary reception'.

Francis begun his own foot-washing tradition early on in his papacy, travelling to the Casal del Marmo youth detention centre and washing the feet of women and Muslim inmates. He has continued the practice in different locations every year.

Last year he visited asylum seekers near Rome, and washed the feet of refugees from different religions including Orthodox Copts, Hindus and Muslims.

The tradition, imitating Christ's humility in serving the 12 disciples soon before his death, became part of the Catholic Holy Thursday Mass in the 1950s.