Pope Francis Laid To Rest, President Trump & Melania Attend Funeral

Pope Francis made it to his final resting place ... and President Trump and Melania watched in person, attending the late pontiff's funeral in Rome from the front row.

Francis -- who publicly opposed Trump's approach to several issues like immigration and climate change -- was laid to rest Saturday morning in a mostly plain coffin at the Basilica of St. Mary Major ... following a funeral mass at St. Peter's Square, where over a quarter of a million people were in attendance, according to Vatican News.

He's the first pope in more than a century to be buried outside of the Vatican ... the last one was Leo XIII, who died way back in 1903.

Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re -- the dean of the College of Cardinals -- presided over the mass ... and he's going to be instrumental in selecting the next pope.

Trump and Melania were there ... and so was Joe and Jill Biden, Prince William, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, French President Emmanuel Macron, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, Spain's King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia, Argentinian President Javier Milei, and others.

Just minutes before the funeral began, Trump and Zelensky met in the heart of the Vatican -- and Zelensky even described it as a "good" and "symbolic meeting," thanking Trump for the opportunity to talk.

Before his death, Francis asked for his tomb to be "in the ground; simple, without particular decoration, and with the sole inscription: Franciscus."

The funeral is the start of the Novemdiales ... a 9-day mourning period with special masses daily.