On 2 April 2005, at 21:37 CEST (UTC+2), Pope John Paul II died at the age of 84 in his private apartment at the Apostolic Palace in Vatican City. His funeral, held on 8 April, was one of the largest gatherings of Christianity's faithful in history, with approximately four million mourners converging on Rome. The ceremonies followed the revised papal funerary rites that John Paul II himself had established in 1996 through the apostolic constitution Universi Dominici gregis, which governed both the selection of his successor and the rituals surrounding his death and burial.
The funeral rites included a lying in state at St. Peter's Basilica, a Mass of Repose, and a Requiem Mass celebrated by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, then Dean of the College of Cardinals. John Paul II's burial was conducted according to his wishes for simplicity, and he was interred beneath St. Peter's Basilica. Dignitaries and religious leaders were present from around the world, including Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I—the first such attendance since the East–West Schism. Many countries declared periods of national mourning, and prayers were offered worldwide for the late pope. The funeral was followed by the Novendiales, nine days of official mourning and liturgical observances.