On Friday 8th of April, huge crowds of pilgrims waved Polish flags in honour of the first Polish-born Pope, singing hymns in the cobbled streets. The Via Della Conciliazione was packed with people, and around the street’s of Rome thousands gathered to watch the ceremony on giant television screens.

Applause and bells rang out in St Peter's Square, as Pope John Paul II was laid to rest.

Hundreds of thousands of mourners surrounding the Vatican to hear the Mass, among them there were, four kings, five queens and at least 70 presidents and prime ministers paid their respects during the three-hour, open-air requiem mass in St Peter's Square, the biggest funeral in history.

About 2500 dignitaries of all faiths and races, including US President George W. Bush, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, Britain's Prince Charles, and an array of Arab leaders, rubbed shoulders with the poor to say farewell.. Millions of Catholics from around the globe crammed surrounding streets trying to catch a glimpse while the worldwide TV audience was estimated at more than one billion.

A 12 pallbearers carried John Paul's simple cypress coffin, emblazoned with the papal emblem and the letter "M" symbolising his devotion to the Virgin Mary, out of the church. The coffin was laid on the steps of the vast church where, more than 26 years ago, Karol Wojtyla first emerged as pontiff to stun the world with his vitality and charisma. A copy of the New Testament was laid on top of the coffin of the Pope's coffin.

John Paul's long-serving private secretary, Archbishop Stanislaw Dziwisz, and the master of the liturgical ceremonies, Archbishop Piero Marini, placed a white silk veil over the pope's face before the coffin was closed. "We can be sure that our beloved Pope is standing today at the window of the Father's house, that he sees us and blesses us," Cardinal Ratzinger said as he pointed up to the third-floor window above the square.

The 165 cardinals filed behind the coffin, they each kissed the five crosses that symbolised the wounds in the body of Jesus Christ and which also solemnly celebrate resurrection. Than the cardinals followed the Pope's coffin back into the basilica, where it was sealed into a zinc coffin, then into another wooden casket. In a private ceremony, the coffin was placed into a marble tomb in the grottoes beneath St Peter's alongside 147 of his predecessors. .

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