PHOTOS: Pope Francis presides as Pope Benedict XVI is laid to rest

Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI has been laid to rest at St. Peter’s Basilica, Vatican City. 

The former pope died on December 31 in the Mater Ecclesiae Monastery inside the Vatican. 

The papacy of the late pope lasted eight years from April 2005 to February 2013 when he resigned due to ill health – making him the first pope to resign in 600 years. 

Pope Francis who presided over the funeral asked that the angels lead the late pope into paradise and grant him eternal rest.

He further asked that God grants unto the living faithful the assurance of hope and faith. 

“Benedict, faithful friend of the Bridegroom, may your joy be complete as you hear his voice, now and forever,” Pope Francis said. 

“The Lord quietly bestows the spirit of meekness that is ready to understand, accept, hope and risk. It is the source of an unseen and elusive fruitfulness, born of his knowing the One in whom he has placed his trust.”

“Holding fast to the Lord’s last words and to the witness of His entire life, we too want to follow in His steps and to commend our brother into the hands of the Father.

“God’s faithful people now accompanies and entrusts to Him the life of the one who was their pastor. Like the women at the tomb, we too have come with the fragrance of gratitude and the balm of hope, in order to show Him once more the love that is undying”  

See photos below:

Photos: Vatican Press