Former Pope Benedict, the first pontiff in 600 years to resign

VATICAN CITY, Dec 31 Former Pope Benedict, the first pontiff in 600 years to resign and a standard bearer for conservatives who yearned for a more traditional Church, died on Saturday, ending an extraordinary period in which two men wearing white lived in the Vatican.

Benedict, 95, died in a former monastery where he had lived since his shock resignation in 2013.

In his first comment in public after the death, Pope Francis said the Church and the world had lost a noble, gentle person.