Pope Benedict's Last Tweet From @Pontifex

Pope Benedict gave his final public address to 150,000 of the faithful in St. Peter's Square today, and sent his final tweet to over 1,500,000 followers on twitter.

The Pope started tweeting from @Pontifex in December and quickly gathered a huge international following. Pope Benedict has been called the first Twitter and Facebook Pope because of his engagement with social media which has risen in influence during his tenure.

Pope Benedict urged the Church to engage in social media to spread the faith to the next generation, saying: "The digital environment is not a parallel or purely virtual world, but is part of the daily experience of many people, especially the young."

It will be up to whomever is chosen as the next Pope to decide whether to carry on with the same twitter handle or start a new one.

Here are the Pope's final 10 tweets.