Where is pius xii buried

John Lateran in Rome. It was a less-than-dignified exit from the mortal realm, especially considering the unfortunate subject: Eugenio Pacelli, otherwise known as Pope Pius XII. Source Getty. Perhaps equally mysterious is why Vatican officials allowed Riccardo Galeazzi-Lisi, reportedly notorious for his incompetence, to oversee the embalming of the man who led the Catholic Church through the darkest days of the 20th century.

In , when Pius ascended to the papacy, he made the Italian eye doctor his personal physician. Whatever the case, the Vatican swiftly paid for its mistake.

In October , as the pontiff lay dying from a long illness in Castel Gandolofo, just south of Rome, the doctor had struck a deal with French newsweekly Paris Match to provide exclusive photos of his holy patient on his deathbed.

After the corpse exploded during the procession, Galeazzi-Lisi and Nuzzi were forced to re-embalm Pius overnight. Then there was the infamous embalming. Requiring no injections or incisions, the procedure called for the application of various oils and resins to deoxidize the body, and for a cellophane sheet to be wrapped around the cadaver for almost 24 hours. As it turned out, that was a mistake.

But it was too late: Decomposition had already started, and when the body was finally displayed in St. That marked the end of the road for Galeazzi-Lisi. Galeazzi-Lisi died in at As for the lessons learned? That took a while. Pope Paul VI was only lightly embalmed after his death, in , and his body embarked on a similar process of decomposition inside St.

Pope John Paul II, the most recent pontiff to have died in office, forwent the procedure altogether. He was, however, preserved for viewing with a formaldehyde-based fluid in a process shrouded in secrecy — perhaps, considering recent history, for the better.

When he was 41, the most famous monk on the planet got married, and a second reformation began. It has linear, symmetrical plan, almost in the shape of a cross.

In the apse, is the simple white sarcophagus on a travertine base, following the pontiff's wish, with the inscription PIUS P. XII on the front and the monogram of Christ on the lid.

A gracious fresco of the Virgin with Child was placed above the sarcophagus in The fresco, generally attributed to Pietro Vannucci called il Perugine or to his school, comes from the sacristy of the old basilica.

To provide ventilation, in the vault of the chapel is an oculus with with a bronze grid dated The low travertine arches are decorated with carvings while four niches are inserted in the pilasters below. Each one is surmounted by the coat of arms of the pope. In the big spaces in the walls, are two modern mosaics representing scenes from the Apocalypse: to the left The Seven Candlesticks and to the right The Dragon with Seven Heads symbolizing respectively Good and Evil.