Inside the Royal Family's First Easter Without Queen Elizabeth: Her Faith Meant 'So Much to Her'

The royal family will be missing Queen Elizabeth on the first Easter Sunday since her death

Easter will be particularly poignant for the royal family this year as it marks their first without Queen Elizabeth.

The history-making monarch died in September 2022 at age 96, and her eldest son Charles immediately succeeded her as King. As Buckingham Palace prepares for his coronation on May 6, the Easter holiday provides a chance for members of the royal family to get together. It's also an opportunity to reflect on her remarkable life, as she would have turned 97 on April 21.

King Charles, 74, is expected to continue his mother's tradition and lead the family at Easter mass at St. George's Chapel at Windsor Castle on Sunday. Prince William and Kate Middleton will be in attendance, but it remains to be seen whether their three children — Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis — will join them. Inside, a special prayer will likely be said for Queen Elizabeth, who is buried in the adjacent King George VI Memorial Chapel.

During the Christmas season, a former palace staffer shed light into how difficult it would be for the royal family to mark holidays without their beloved matriarch.

"It will be hard, as the Queen was all they knew, like most of Britain," the insider told PEOPLE, adding, "The first year is most difficult, as it is always the first of everything that you notice."

Queen Elizabeth faithfully served as the ceremonial head of the Church of England since 1952, a power vested upon her after her accession to the throne. She was a devout Christian throughout her life and attended services regularly, turning to online worship in her later years when she couldn't go in person.

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Though the Queen didn't attend church at St. George's Chapel on Easter Sunday last year, other members of the royal family including Prince William, Kate Middleton, Prince George, Princess Charlotte, Prince Edward, Sophie, Duchess of Edinburgh and Princess Eugenie continued in her stead. It was likely that the monarch welcomed some special visitors, as she spent the holiday at her apartments in Windsor Castle. Family members likely stopped by after church to wish her a happy Easter.

On Sept. 9, the day after her death, Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby appeared on BBC Radio 4's Today show to talk about what he took away from his last meeting with the Queen, and said he felt like the sovereign had "no fear of death."

"I came away thinking there is someone who has no fear of death, has hope in the future, knows the rock on which she stands and that gives her strength," Welby said of their conversation in June 2022, The Guardian reported.

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"You felt that history was in front of you, but it was history with those piercingly blue eyes twinkling, that extraordinary smile and the relishing of a quick dry comment," the church leader added.

As Queen Elizabeth navigated the difficulties of life during a global pandemic in her nineties, those who knew her told PEOPLE that while she truly missed the community feeling of church.

"Her Christian faith means so much to her, and those rituals of going to church on Sunday and praying in chapel are not happening," a close insider told PEOPLE in May 2020.

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However, the sovereign saw with the wisdom of her years — and decades on the throne.

"She feels the poignancy, but that does not turn into depression or defeat," royal historian and biographer Robert Lacey told PEOPLE. "She sees it in the bigger context of her religious faith and of a God who holds her and her family in his hands. It is the solid and simple faith that sustains the Queen."

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