ROME-A crowd of some 800,000 pilgrims from around the world attended the historic simultaneous canonisation of two popes,  the Vatican press office said Monday.

 Around 500,000 gathered in St Peter’s square and on Via della Conciliazione to participate in the solemn mass celebrated by Pope Francis, while the remaining 300 thousand watched the ceremony on large screens installed in one of the most picturesque locations around the city, including Piazza Navona, Piazza del Popolo and outside the Collosseum. Many of those who came had camped out overnight to ensure a good spot for the ceremony, and others had barely slept at all, having taken part in all-night prayer vigils held in a dozen churches around Rome.

 Among the 850 cardinals and bishops present at Sunday’s mass was Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, seated to the left of the altar together with Cardinal Angelo Sodano, Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re and Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz.

 Across the courtyard, a hundred international delegates watched the ceremony, among whom 34 heads of state and government, including Italian President Giorgio Napolitano and Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, President of the European Council Herman Van Rompuy, and, representing Pope Wojtyla’s homeland, Polish President Bronislaw Komorowski, Prime Minister Donald Tusk, and former president and founder of the Solidarity movement Lech Walesa. Among the guests of honour were King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofia of Spain, as well as King Albert II and Queen Paola of Belgium.

 Ten thousand security officers were deployed along with 26 thousand volunteers and paramedical teams to watch over the flow of the faithful and the curious towards St Peter’s square and, according to Rome’s Mayor Ignazio Marino, all security measures functioned as designed. “Pope Francis thanked the Public Security Forces!” tweeted Italian Minister of Interior Angelino Alfano, following the pope’s final remarks at Sunday’s ceremony, “It is a great honour. Hurrah for the women and men in uniform who protect us.”