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Pope Francis has honoured his predecessor Benedict XVI at the former pontiff’s funeral, before a crowd of tens of thousands of faithful at the Vatican, The Independent reports.

At the funeral's end, the coffin was carried by 12 white-gloved pallbearers back into St Peter's Basilica for interment in a crypt below the main floor.

Crowds of people began arriving in the Vatican area as early as 4am five and half hours before the funeral, with some estimates placing the number in St Peter’s Square at 100,000.

Francis arrived in the square in a wheelchair to preside over the two-hour service. Troubled by a bad knee, the pontiff sat in a chair looking down on the coffin, slightly hunched and glum-faced as choirs sung in Latin. Then Francis, himself speaking in Latin, began the ceremony by inviting the faithful to acknowledge their sins.

Francis did not dwell on Benedict's specific legacy in his homily and only uttered his name once, in the final line, delivering instead a meditation on Jesus's willingness to entrust himself to God's will.

"Holding fast to the Lord's last words and to the witness of his entire life, we too, as an ecclesial community, want to follow in his steps and to commend our brother into the hands of the Father," Francis said.

More than 1,000 Italian security personnel were called up to help safeguard the event, and air space around the tiny Holy See has been closed off for the day. Italy ordered that flags around the country be flown at half staff.

Those attending the funeral included Germans in traditional Bavarian outfits carrying flags and standards of the area of Germany where Benedict was born.

Benedict, a world renowned theologian, died at 95 on Saturday in a monastery within the Vatican gardens, where he moved after becoming the first pontiff in 600 years to stand down, opening the way for the election of Pope Francis, who has proved a more reformist, hands-on leader.