Status: 08.01.2023 11:04 a.m
Numerous popes have found their last resting place in the Vatican grottoes under St. Peter’s Basilica – recently the late Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI. Now visitors can descend again.
The Vatican has unveiled the tomb of the late retired Pope Benedict XVI. made available to the public. Today, visitors to St. Peter’s Basilica were able to descend back into the grotto where the 95-year-old was buried on Thursday. A stone sculpture is mounted on the wall above his tomb, covered by a stone plaque bearing his name.
The tombs of numerous popes are located in the caves. Joseph Ratzinger – Benedict’s real name – lies in the tomb of his Polish predecessor, Pope John Paul II. Years ago, his remains were brought upstairs in the basilica near Michelangelo’s Pietà.
Benedict died on New Year’s Eve morning at the Vatican’s Mater Ecclesiae Monastery, where he lived in the years following his 2013 resignation. Born in Bavaria, he was the head of the Catholic Church from 2005 to 2013. He headed the Catholic Church from 2005 to 2013. His voluntary resignation was historic as popes commonly die in office.
Almost 200,000 people came to the basilica during his three-day laying out in St. Peter’s Basilica. On Thursday, the Catholic Church said goodbye to Benedict XVI. taken. The requiem for the Pope Emeritus in St. Peter’s Square was conducted by Benedict’s successor Francis. According to the Vatican, an estimated 50,000 believers attended.
Among the numerous international representatives of church and politics, Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, Bundestag President Bärbel Bas and Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz had traveled from Germany. A separate delegation came from Benedikt’s Bavarian homeland, including Prime Minister Markus Söder and his predecessor Edmund Stoiber.
The former pontiff was then buried in a small ceremony in St. Peter’s Basilica, closed to the public.