Pope Francis was laid to rest in Rome Saturday after a Vatican funeral for the "pope among the people" attended by hundreds of thousands of mourners and world leaders.
Around 400,000 people packed St Peter's Square and lined the streets in Rome to say goodbye to the Argentine pontiff, a champion of the poor who had led the world's 1.4 billion Catholics since 2013.
After a solemn funeral in front of hushed crowds, Francis's plain wooden coffin – a testament to a life of humility – was driven slowly to Rome's Santa Maria Maggiore church, where he will be interred in a private ceremony. He is the first pope since Leo XIII, who died in 1903, to be buried outside the Vatican walls.
Guatemalan Maria Vicente, 52, holding a rosary in her hands, cried as she watched the coffin being carried into Santa Maria Maggiore, the pope's favourite Rome church.
"It made me very sad. It's touching, that he left us like that," she said.
Fourteen white-gloved pallbearers carried the coffin into the church, as children placed baskets of flowers at the altar and a choir sang prayers.
The marble tomb of the Catholic Church's first Latin American leader is inscribed with just one word: "Franciscus", his name in Latin.
More than 50 heads of states and governments were present at the funeral, including US President Donald Trump – who met several world leaders in a corner of the basilica beforehand, notably Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky, in their first face-to-face since their Oval Office clash in February.
Trump's predecessor Joe Biden also attended, alongside UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, Italy's Giorgia Meloni, France's Emmanuel Macron, Bangladesh’s Muhammad Yunus and Lebanon's Joseph Aoun.
China, which does not have formal relations with the Vatican, did not send any representative. Israel – angered by Francis's criticism of its conduct in Gaza – was sending only its Holy See ambassador.
Francis, who died on Monday aged 88, was "a pope among the people, with an open heart", who strove for a more compassionate, open-minded Catholic Church, Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re said in his homily.
There was applause from the masses gathered under bright blue skies as he hailed the pope's "conviction that the Church is a home for all, a home with its doors always open".
Francis sought to steer the centuries-old Church into a more inclusive direction during his 12-year papacy, and his death prompted a global outpouring of emotion.
Maria Mrula, 28, a student from Germany, said she drove 16 hours to be at the funeral.
"Giving to the poor and being with the poor", Francis had inspired many, she said.
"The Church is alive," she said. "It was great being here."
Italian and Vatican authorities mounted a major security operation for the ceremony, with fighter jets on standby and snipers positioned on roofs surrounding the tiny city state.
Red-robed cardinals and purple-hatted bishops sat on one side of the altar in St Peter's Square during the funeral, with world dignitaries sitting opposite.
In front of the altar lay the pope's simple cypress coffin, inlaid with a pale cross.