Former Pope Benedict XVI has reportedly fallen ill with shingles after returning to the Vatican City from a visit to Germany where he went to visit his dying brother.
Shingles is a disease caused by the varicella-zoster virus, especially by reactivated virus in an older person, characterized by skin eruptions and pain along the course of involved sensory nerves.
Benedict, 93, is said to have become extremely frail and his voice is barely audible, according to his biographer, Peter Seewald who visited him to present him with his biography, Daily Mail reports.
Seewald in a meeting with newspaper Passauer Neue Presse on Saturday said the German-born Benedict appears optimistic and has said he might pick up writing again if he regains his strength.
Benedict had been in Bavaria, Germany in June to pay his dying brother Georg Ratzinger a final visit, who died shortly after.
It was Benedict‘s first trip outside Italy since 2013, the year he resigned the papacy due to health concerns.
Benedict, who until his appointment had been theological enforcer to John Paul II, held the role until 2013, when he became the first to resign the title in 600 years.
Pope Benedict, whose original name is Joseph Ratzinger, now lives in a small former monastery inside the Vatican and is being cared for daily by a team of doctors.
