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Pope placed in triple coffin
08/04/2005 16:33 - (SA)
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| Crowds pack St Peter's Square at the Vatican during the funeral mass for Pope John Paul II. (Gregoria Borgia, AP) |
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Vatican City - The body of Pope John Paul II was laid to rest in the crypt of Saint Peter's basilica on Friday, alongside many of his predecessors, after an open-air funeral mass attended by an estimated million people.
Vatican officials said the pope's body, encased in three caskets, had been buried close to the spot believed to contain the remains of Peter, the apostle chosen by Jesus Christ to found his church.
The late pontiff was to be buried at the site left vacant by the coffin of Pope John XXIII, who died in 1963 but who was transferred to a Vatican chapel when he was beatified in 2000.
John Paul II's only instruction concerning his burial was that he should be interred in the ground. The grave is marked by a simple marble slab, in contrast to the ornately sculpted tombs in which many of his predecessors are interred.
A total 62 previous popes are buried at St Peter's. Those interred in the crypt include Innocent IX, Benedict XII and Benedict XV, Pius XI and Paul VI.
The Vatican said earlier this week that two items would be placed in the coffin with him: silver and bronze medals minted during his papacy, and a copy of the eulogy, sealed inside a lead tube, that was pronounced by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger during Friday's requiem mass.
The Polish-born pope died last Saturday aged 84 after a 26-year reign, the third longest in history.
- AFP
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