Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI was buried Thursday, January 5 in a crypt of St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome, at the Vatican. “The coffin of the sovereign pontiff emeritus will be carried to St. Peter’s Basilica and then to the Vatican grottos (which house the papal tombs) to be buried there”, had specified the press service of the Holy See in a press release published on December 31, the day of the death of Benedict XVI. If Benedict XVI rests alongside 90 popes in the Vatican crypt, his coffin occupies an unusual place.
>> Death of Benedict XVI: follow the live
Indeed, the pope emeritus now rests in the first tomb of his predecessor, Pope John Paul II, who died in 2005. Benedict XVI, who had been a close collaborator of John Paul II, had expressed the wish to be buried in his first tomb, which had been empty since the transfer of John Paul II’s coffin to a side chapel of the basilica, on the occasion of his beatification in 2011.
These symbolic objects in his coffin
In keeping with tradition, Benedict XVI’s coffin, made of oak, cypress and zinc, contains coins and medals minted during his pontificate, his pallium – his liturgical vestment – as well as a text briefly describing his pontificate , placed in a metal cylinder. Moreover, when a pope dies, his pontifical ring, a ring made especially for each new pope and which was once used as a seal for documents, is also destroyed. For Benedict XVI, the ring had until then only been crossed out with an “X” on the papal arms after his renunciation, to make it unusable.
Usually, the death of the sovereign pontiff triggers the rapid convocation of a conclave during which the cardinals elect his successor. A scenario necessarily excluded in the case of Benedict XVI, since the pope francis already succeeded him in 2013. This funeral of a pope emeritus presided over by the current pope marks a milestone in the recent history of the Catholic Church. In 1802, Pius VII had celebrated the funeral of Pius VI, who had died in exile in France three years earlier, but the latter had not renounced his charge.
50,000 people made the trip this Thursday to attend the funeral of Benedict XVI, in the presence of many heads of state and crowned heads. In the crowd, several faithful waved a banner bearing the Latin inscription “Santo Subito” (“Holy immediately”), a slogan chanted during the funeral of John Paul II to demand his canonization.