In a solemn and majestic funeral on the steps of St. Peter’s Basilica, the Roman Catholic Church on Saturday laid to rest Pope Francis, the first South American pope, whose simple style, pastoral vision and outsized footprint on the world stage both reinvigorated and divided the institution that he led for a dozen years.

Heads of state, royals and religious leaders sat with an array of Catholic prelates in brilliant red robes around a closed cypress coffin holding the body of Francis, who died Monday at 88. Atop his coffin, the pages of an open book of the gospels fanned in the breeze.

Hundreds of thousands of faithful filled and spilled out of St. Peter’s Square and streamed down the long avenue to the Tiber River. In the previous days, about 250,000 waited on long lines to say farewell to the pope, whose body was dressed in red vestments and scuffed black shoes, as he lay in state before the basilica’s altar.

Pope Francis’ simple coffin was brought out of the basilica and into St Peter’s Square for the ceremony.Credit…Eric Lee/The New York Times

“The guiding thread of his mission was also the conviction that the church is a home for all, a home with its doors always open,” said Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, dean of the College of Cardinals, in his homily during the Requiem Mass on Saturday.

As the cardinals arrayed around him prepared to head into a conclave next month to choose Francis’ successor, Cardinal Re avoided obvious political overtones but highlighted Francis’ pastoral and inclusive approach and his humble style as key to the esteem in which Francis was held inside and outside the church.