VATICAN CITY, May 1, 2011 (AFP) - Exhilarated pilgrims thronged Saint Peter's Square for John Paul II's beatification on Sunday, many having camped nearby after a night of prayer dubbed by the Vatican a "Feast of Faith".
The million-strong crowd -- many of them young people who said they were inspired by the late pope's passion -- filled the square and snaked back along the main Rome avenue leading to the Vatican during the ceremony.
Family priests carried young children on their shoulders to get a better view and the elderly and disabled were helped to the front as groups from all over the world mingled and showed off their John Paul II T-shirts.
Some pilgrims intoned religious songs near Saint Peter's famous 17th-century colonnade, where a large poster with John Paul's image hung with one of the late pope's famous phrases: "Open wide the doors to Christ."
Thousands of pilgrims had come from John Paul's native Poland, and some of them waved flags from the historic trade union movement Solidarity, which the late pope supported in its struggle against communist power in the 1980s.
"I feel very excited. It's a great opportunity to share this historical moment. We didn't sleep all night but I'm more excited than tired," said Belen Lavilla, 12, who came by boat from Barcelona with hundreds of young people.
Teenage volunteers for World Youth Day -- an international event initiated by John Paul II in 1985 -- waved brightly coloured flags and held up framed photos of the pope, who they said had "re-energised the world's young."
Exhausted but jubilant pilgrims in crumpled clothes with sleeping bags under their arms cheered as Pope Benedict XVI rode into Saint Peter's Square aboard his "popemobile" and waved to the crowds before kicking off the ceremony.
Forty-eight-year-old Margerit Solik, a Polish woman in a cream-coloured national dress with red flowers, said: "It's a great day full of emotion!"
Stanislaw Motyka, 62, who also wore a traditional Polish costume, said the vigil before John Paul's beatification had been "absolutely magical".
Holding a photograph showing him shaking the late pope's hand in 1985, Motyka said he had followed the globe-trotting John Paul II on as many trips as possible during his lifetime. "My only hope is to live to see him be made a saint," he said.
Volunteers handed out a service booklet for the beatification in six languages as well as bottles of water for the pilgrims, many of whom took shelter under parasols as the sun beat down on Saint Peter's Square.
Large speakers relayed religious songs and some of John Paul's most beloved prayers in honour of the Virgin Mary.
"We have come to thank him for all his good work," said Olivier, a pilgrim wrapped in a French flag, as he strummed a guitar near the square.
Therese, a woman from Benin in a colourful tunic with John Paul's portrait, said: "He was a charismatic man. I would have liked to have spoken to him."
Fabrizio, a Polish-Italian friar, said: "He gave us freedom in Poland. Freedom from communism, but also a kind of inner freedom."
A woman from Nigeria, Ada, said simply: "He was a light for the world."
