At Wadowice, the hometown of Karol Wojtyla, and all over Poland, the faithful have been flocking to church to keep a continuous vigil of prayers and hymns for the dying Pope John Paul II.
"Parishioners have reacted in a very mature way. They are aware that the Holy Father is leaving for the other side," Jakub Gil, a priest in the Basilica of Our Lady in Wadowice, told reporters.
"They know that Wadowice is the home of John Paul II and they feel themselves to be members of his family," the priest added, who has officiated at midnight masses and led prayers in this basilica, where the young Karol Wojtyla also served. Around 30 priests from neighboring parishes kept vigil during the lonely hours of the night, before the congregation swelled again at dawn.
In St Anne's church in Warsaw, thousands of faithful kept vigil in relays through the night, praying, chanting or in silence, with four priests kneeling at the altar, many of them in tears.
Prayer vigils were held during the night all over Poland, and in the staunchly Catholic region of Krakow, where Karol Wojtyla was archbishop from 1963 until 1978, when he became pontiff. Crowds of faithful were gathering again early Saturday outside the archibishop's palace in Krakow, where many had remained until the middle of the night. After being elected pope, John Paul II made eight visits to Poland, the last in August 2002.
In Gdansk, in the north of the country, it was not only churches which held vigils for the pope. In the city's theater actors gave an all-night recital of his poetry.
A rock concert was cancelled Friday at Krosno and a football match abandoned in mid-game at Poznan, when supporters spontaneously left the stadium on hearing news that the pope was dying.
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