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The tomb of Pope Benedict XVI is now accessible to the public in the grottoes beneath St. Peter’s Basilica.
The pontiff was buried on January 5 after a burial service in St. Peter’s Square. The tomb of Benedict is located in the grottos beneath the basilica’s main floor.
The Vatican said Saturday that the tomb will be open to the public beginning Sunday morning.
Benedict had served as pope emeritus since 2013 after retiring from the papacy, becoming the first Pope in 600 years to do so. On December 31, at the age of 95, he passed away at the Vatican monastery where he spent his final years.
On Thursday, his longtime secretary, Archbishop Georg Gaenswein, pronounced a final blessing after Benedict’s body was lowered into the floor in three coffins: a cypress coffin exhibited in the plaza during the funeral presided over by Pope Francis, a zinc coffin, and an exterior oak coffin.
Benedict died on Dec. 31, 2022. AP
The remains were interred at the previous tomb of St. John Paul II, Benedict’s predecessor. Following his 2011 beatification, John Paul’s remains were relocated to a chapel on the main floor of the basilica.
Following three days of Benedict’s remains lying in state in the basilica, which attracted about 200,000 spectators, approximately 50,000 individuals attended his funeral.
The Vatican announced that the name of Benedict, the 265th pontiff of the Catholic church, was etched on a white marble slab.
Benedict resigned as Pope on February 28, 2013.
The Vatican did not disclose if Pope Francis privately visited the completed tomb of Benedict before public viewing was permitted, or whether he might do so in the future.
On Sunday morning, Francis presided over the baptism of thirteen infants in the Sistine Chapel. The chapel, which Michelangelo frescoed, is the traditional location for the Vatican’s year-end baptisms.
»St. Peter’s Basilica now has Benedict’s tomb open to the public«