Pope Benedict XVI was laid to rest in a tomb below St. Peter’s Basilica on Thursday in a private ceremony.
The deceased pontiff, carried in a simple wooden coffin, was buried after a funeral mass celebrated in his honor by his successor, Pope Francis.
After the funeral Mass in St. Peter’s Square, the body of Pope Benedict was brought to the basilica and taken under a crypt where he was buried. The final ceremony was held in private with only his personal secretary, Archbishop Georg Gänswein, and several high-ranking cardinals of the Catholic Church.
Thursday’s ceremony will cap a multi-day memorial for the late pope, as tens of thousands of people paid tribute to his life and legacy Monday through Wednesday.
POPE BENEDICT’S VISION ON CATHOLICISM, VATICAN II AND THE FUTURE OF THE CHURCH ENDURES THROUGH HIS TEACHINGS
Cardinals arrive for the Funeral Mass for Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican, Thursday, Jan. 5, 2023. Benedict died at age 95 on Dec. 31 at the monastery on Vatican grounds where he had most of his decade of retirement has passed.
(AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)
June 22, 2020, Bavaria, Freising: Archbishop Georg Gänswein and Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI at the Munich airport on June 22, 2020.
(Sven Hoppe/Image Alliance via Getty Images)
The Vatican said nearly 160,000 people had passed through the basilica during that time.
Archbishop Georg Gänswein, who cared for Benedict until his death, told Vatican News that a nurse told him the pope made a final profession of love to the Lord in his final words.
THE LAST WORDS OF POPE BENEDICT, ACCORDING TO HIS NURSE
Pope Benedict XVI appears on the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican after being elected by the conclave of cardinals, on April 19, 2005.
(Arturo Mari/AFP via Getty Images)
“With only a whisper of voice, but in a clearly distinguishable manner, [Benedict] said in Italian: ‘Lord, I love you!’ He wasn’t there at the time, but the nurse told me soon after,” Gänswein said.
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And he added: “These were his last understandable words, because later he could no longer express himself.”
Lawrence Richard of Fox News contributed to this report.
