Vatican City ? A simple marble slab was placed Saturday in St. Peter’s Square on the spot where the late Pope John Paul II was shot in an assassination attempt 25 years ago.

The stone, which was quickly covered with flowers from the faithful, has been placed to help people “remember from now on that dramatic event,” John Paul’s successor, Pope Benedict XVI, announced in a message read to thousands of faithful during a Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica.

Set flat into the square replacing cobblestones, the white stone bears the date in Roman numerals of May 13, 1981, when a Turkish gunman gravely wounded John Paul.