# Where do they bury the Pope? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 3, 2005, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-do-they-bury-the-pope/297465 "2005-04-03T00:52:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![ltfire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ea924/32.png) [@ltfire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ltfire)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2005, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-do-they-bury-the-pope/297465/1 "2005-04-03T00:52:30Z")
Is he sent back to his home country, or, is there a place in the Vatican for internment? ---
**Author:** ![Reeder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Reeder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reeder)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2005, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-do-they-bury-the-pope/297465/2 "2005-04-03T00:56:39Z")
> [@](#): > > Tradition calls for popes to be buried in St. Peter’s Basilica. Pope John Paul II might have asked to be buried in Poland. [http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/europe/04/02/ritual.pope.death/index.html](http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/europe/04/02/ritual.pope.death/index.html) ---
**Author:** ![Josh\_dePlume](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Josh\_dePlume](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Josh_dePlume)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2005, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-do-they-bury-the-pope/297465/3 "2005-04-03T01:30:38Z")
> [@ltfire](#): > > Is he sent back to his home country, or, is there a place in the Vatican for internment? I take it you mean _interment_. ---
**Author:** ![ltfire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ea924/32.png) [@ltfire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ltfire)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2005, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-do-they-bury-the-pope/297465/4 "2005-04-03T01:38:03Z")
> [@Josh\_dePlume](#): > > I take it you mean _interment_. You are absolutely correct. Spelling putz that I am, I actually added the ‘N’ at the last minute. :smack: ---
**Author:** ![Duckster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duckster/32/1244_2.png) [@Duckster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duckster)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2005, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-do-they-bury-the-pope/297465/5 "2005-04-03T02:46:32Z")
In the ground? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2005, 6:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-do-they-bury-the-pope/297465/6 "2005-04-03T06:27:18Z")
> [@](#): > > Tradition calls for popes to be buried in St. Peter’s Basilica. So it’s burial at See. ---
**Author:** ![Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a587f6/32.png) [@Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freddy_the_Pig)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2005, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-do-they-bury-the-pope/297465/7 "2005-04-03T19:53:50Z")
> [@Duckster](#): > > In the ground? Don’t laugh. Three of the popes (Innocent XI, Pius X, and John XXIII) aren’t in the ground at all, but [on display in glass coffins](http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2001/124/13.0.html) in the above-ground portion of St. Peter’s. To my eyes, they make for rather macabre viewing. ---
**Author:** ![Ale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@Ale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ale)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2005, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-do-they-bury-the-pope/297465/8 "2005-04-03T20:21:24Z")
Slightly related, I think I have a vague memory of reading about the Popes´ room being permanently sealed after their deaths, my mind is playing me tricks or is that actually done? ---
**Author:** ![BobT](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8e8cbc/32.png) [@BobT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobT)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2005, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-do-they-bury-the-pope/297465/9 "2005-04-03T20:32:17Z")
The room is sealed until everything is squared away and the possessions and papers safely stored. If it were permanently sealed, they would run out of rooms I would think. The room is sealed off to prevent looting. ---
**Author:** ![Diceman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Diceman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diceman)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2005, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-do-they-bury-the-pope/297465/10 "2005-04-04T01:38:25Z")
According to the news, people in Poland are trying to get John Paul’s body buried in the cathedral in Krakow (where he was bishop, back in the day). Apparently, this is a long shot, but it would be cool if the Church officials would allow it. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2005, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-do-they-bury-the-pope/297465/11 "2005-04-04T02:14:17Z")
> [@Otto](#): > > So it’s burial at See. [rimshot] 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Mighty\_Girl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7bcc69/32.png) [@Mighty\_Girl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mighty_Girl)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2005, 4:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-do-they-bury-the-pope/297465/12 "2005-04-04T04:07:38Z")
I was doing a tour of Italy two years ago and hubby and I made the customary visit to the Vatican. When we took the (paid) tour of St. Peter’s Basilica we went to some underground parts where the tombs of past popes are. Since it was a Wednesday and we had the chance of seeing the Pope that day, and he looked just as sick as he was when we died, we were speculating which of the empty tombs he’d get. I was raised a Catholic but converted 😉 to Atheism a few years back, still I am glad I had the chance to see the Pope at that time. And I have the pictures. ---
**Author:** ![zagloba](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/977dab/32.png) [@zagloba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zagloba)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2005, 6:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-do-they-bury-the-pope/297465/13 "2005-04-04T06:25:55Z")
> [@Diceman](#): > > According to the news, people in Poland are trying to get John Paul’s body buried in the cathedral in Krakow (where he was bishop, back in the day). Apparently, this is a long shot, but it would be cool if the Church officials would allow it. Incidentally, he celebrated his first mass in the crypt of Wawel cathedral, IIRC. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2005, 12:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-do-they-bury-the-pope/297465/14 "2005-04-04T12:25:22Z")
Would it be allowed that they might say, bury his body in the Vatican, but allow his heart to be buried at the Cathedral in Krakow? (Like they did with Marie of Roumania’s heart?) ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2005, 12:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-do-they-bury-the-pope/297465/15 "2005-04-04T12:27:36Z")
If there’s a problem with finding a place, there’s space behind the Auto Body shop, and I’ve got an old shoebox we can put him in. And for music at the service, **Tuckerfan** and I can provide a rousing rendition of the Wiffenpoof Song. Can’t beat _that_, eh? We’ll do it up brown, & first class all the way! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e19adc/32.png) [@Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2005, 1:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-do-they-bury-the-pope/297465/16 "2005-04-04T13:05:38Z")
The pope’s buried wherever he wants to be buried, and the Cardinals are saying PJP2’s final resting place will be a crypt under St. John’s Basilica. ---
**Author:** ![Cliffy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/59ef9b/32.png) [@Cliffy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cliffy)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2005, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-do-they-bury-the-pope/297465/17 "2005-04-04T14:48:35Z")
> [@Freddy the Pig](#): > > To my eyes, they make for rather macabre viewing. When I went to Italy for the first time many years ago I was astounded all the relics. At many churches there are shelves and shelves of finger bones, teeth, and even pieces of femur, displayed. Otensibly these are body parts of saints. On one occasion we saw a jar with a bunch of little bits in it that was supposed to have pieces of a half-dozen saints. Yeah, that’s respectful. Of course, even worse than this or the whole corpses **Freddy** mentions (there’s one in the cathedral at Pisa, too, I recall) is the case of St. Catherine of Sienna. She took orders in Sienna but after some years there left and was an important aide of Rome during the early years of the Great Schism. She was buried in Rome, but after the Siennese begged for her return they got to take her _head_ with them, which is entombed in a cathedral there. –Cliffy ---
**Author:** ![Duckster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duckster/32/1244_2.png) [@Duckster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duckster)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2005, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-do-they-bury-the-pope/297465/18 "2005-04-04T15:20:42Z")
> [@BobT](#): > > The room is sealed until everything is squared away and the possessions and papers safely stored. If it were permanently sealed, they would run out of rooms I would think. > > The room is sealed off to prevent looting. Who would have thought. Potential thieves in the Vatican. ---
**Author:** ![Mehitabel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8797f3/32.png) [@Mehitabel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mehitabel)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2005, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-do-they-bury-the-pope/297465/19 "2005-04-04T15:58:21Z")
Hundreds of years ago, yes. Popes had often been cardinals from powerful Italian families, and cardinals that had not been chosen and their retainers would walk off with their stuff in the confusion after the deaths. It’s no longer needed–the caring Polish doctors and nuns are hardly suspects, and the nurses and Swiss Guards and cardinals behave themselves too–but like many other things in my Church, intertia rules. Nowadays I would guess it’s a good way to keep out the press, etc. They just carried his catalfaque around St. Peter’s Square, tiliting him up so the people he loved so much could see him one last time, and he’s lying in state in St. Peter’s Basilica. Snif. CNN has an instant translation of the actual service, no idiot network chatterers. I’ve lined up to see Cardinals Cooke and O’Connor lying in state in St. Paddy’s, and it’s quite a solemn yet spiritual experience. And if you’re Jewish or Muslim and wondering if it’s creepy to see the body, not really. Although like O’Connor, the last suffering of the Pope shows on his face. Some dead people look really dead, especially people who were so lively and expressive as the Pope, even near the end. It was the eyes. Like in two of my grandparents, the Parkinson’s patient’s unharmed mind cannot be erased from the eyes. Anyway, JPII left no explicit instructions so he’s going under the altar in the vault. A “part of him” however, maybe a piece of clothing, _might_ go to Krakow, though. I love how pagan we still are sometimes. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![zagloba](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/977dab/32.png) [@zagloba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zagloba)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2005, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-do-they-bury-the-pope/297465/20 "2005-04-04T16:17:14Z")
> [@Barbarian](#): > > The pope’s buried wherever he wants to be buried, and the Cardinals are saying PJP2’s final resting place will be a crypt under St. John’s Basilica. I think you mean St. Peters.