Roman Catholic faithful began visiting the tomb of Pope Francis on Sunday, filing past the simple white tomb in St. Mary Major Basilica a day after he was bade farewell by the powerful of the world and a crowd of hundreds of thousands.

Hundreds of people filed past the tomb of Pope Francis from early on Sunday morning in the Roman basilica where he chose to be buried in a break from tradition. No pope had been laid to rest outside the Vatican in more than a century,

After the funeral service, the Pope's coffin was carried in an armour-plated ‘Popemobile’ through crowd-lined streets, across the River Tiber and past the Colosseum towards the basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore, where Pope Francis requested to be buried.