On July 16, 2009, at 82 years old, Benedict XVI fell and fractured his right wrist while staying at a vacation chalet in the Italian Alps.
He underwent a 20-minute surgery with local anesthesia to repair the injured wrist and wore a cast for about a month afterward.
Santiago de Compostela
Benedict XVI visited Santiago de Compostela, the city in Spain that is home to the Shrine of St. James and the destination of the world-famous “Camino de Santiago” (or “Way of St. James”) pilgrimage, during the first of his two visits to Spain.
During the Nov. 6–7, 2010, trip, he also traveled to Barcelona to consecrate the Sagrada Família church, designed by Catalan architect Antoni Gaudí.
World Youth Day in Madrid
The following year, Benedict XVI again visited Spain, this time for World Youth Day in Madrid Aug. 18–21, 2011.
Visit to Benin
The pope visited Benin, a country in western Africa, from Nov. 18–20, 2011. It was the 23rd of 25 international trips Benedict XVI took during his eight-year pontificate.
Visit to Mexico
A few weeks before his 85th birthday, Pope Benedict XVI visited the city of León in the Mexican state of Guanajuato, from March 23–26, 2012.
Visit to Cuba
Benedict landed in Cuba on March 26, 2012, after visiting Mexico. He traveled to the cities of Santiago de Cuba and Havana 14 years after the landmark visit of John Paul II.
His appointments included a visit to the Shrine of the Virgen de la Caridad del Cobre and a private meeting with Fidel Castro, which took place after he said Mass in Havana’s Revolutionary Square.
Public audiences
Wherever he traveled, the pope would take time to personally greet some of the many people who had come to see him. These meetings often included encounters such as this touching moment with a young boy.
Visit to Lebanon
Benedict XVI’s final foreign trip was to Lebanon on Sept. 14–16, 2012, where he promulgated his post-synodal apostolic exhortation on the Middle East, following the 2010 Synod on the Middle East.
Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls
The pope made several visits to the Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls, one of the four major basilicas in Rome, during his pontificate. Every year in January, he celebrated ecumenical vespers with other Christian leaders at the important church to mark the conclusion of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity.
Resignation announcement
On Feb. 11, 2013, Pope Benedict XVI shocked the world with the surprise announcement of his intent to resign. He delivered the news in Latin to cardinals gathered at the Vatican for a consistory.
Castel Gandolfo
On Feb. 28, 2013, the day of his resignation, Benedict XVI took the Vatican helicopter from Rome to Castel Gandolfo for his final time as pope. He officially resigned the papacy at 8 p.m. local time from the papal residence in Castel Gandolfo.
During his pontificate, Benedict XVI would spend his summers at the Pontifical Villas in Castel Gandolfo, which was conceded to the Holy See as an extraterritorial possession under the Lateran Pact of 1929.
The villa had served as the papal summer residence since the reign of Pope Urban VIII during the 17th century.
Hannah Brockhaus is Catholic News Agency’s senior Rome correspondent. She grew up in Omaha, Nebraska, and has a degree in English from Truman State University in Missouri.
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