Pope allows homeless man to be buried inside Vatican

St Peter's basilica in Vatican City. Photo / Franco Origila

Pope Francis has taken his embrace of homeless people a step further by allowing a homeless man to be buried inside the Vatican for the first time in the history of the Holy See.

Willy Herteleer, who is thought to have been Belgian, had been well known for years around St Peter's Square, sleeping rough and begging from passersby. The Flemish-speaker died last month at about the age of 80 and the Pope, who has made concern for the poor a keynote of his papacy, consented to him being buried in the Teutonic Cemetery, in the shadow of St Peter's Basilica.

The cemetery is normally reserved for German-speaking clergy and members of German religious foundations in Rome, and its proximity to St Peter's means that burial plots are highly prized.

The unusual request came from Amerigo Ciani, a monsignor, who had befriended the homeless man and told the Pope about his death.

A Vatican insider said: "It is without doubt the first time that a homeless person has been buried within the walls of the Vatican."