VATICAN CITY - When the light switched on in Pope John Paul II's apartment after sunset Saturday, a cheer rose in the crowded St Peter's Square below.
The applause was immediate. Thousands of pairs of eyes -- some of them moist -- gazed at the small curtained window on the third floor of Apostolical Palace as at a beacon: the pope had clung to life one more day.
"Viva il papa!" came the roar. "Giovanni Paolo!" the pilgrims cried, using John Paul's name in Italian.
The pride and the sorrow was evident in the faces of many.
The 84-year-old pontiff was at death's door, they knew -- that was why they were there. But they also felt his tenacious grip on life was proof their prayers were being heard.
"Even with his passing he is setting an example for the world," said Danny Kearney, a 40-year-old Catholic from Belfast, Northern Ireland, who had come to join the vigil in the square with his family.
Nearby, two nuns in blue and white habits knelt on paving stones, their eyes closed as they quietly mouthed prayers, oblivious to the currents of people moving around them. Others stood in small passive groups.
Children sat astride parents' shoulders. Young Italians, come to see a pope who had been installed before they were born, wandered around, using mobile telephones to find friends or take pictures. A few sat by themselves, counting rosary beads.
"He is the only pope I have ever known and he is very important in my life," said Federica Pasculli, a 17-year-old Rome student.
An Italian couple stood quietly behind a pram, placing it so that their new-born faced the pope's third-floor window.
On building roofs a short distance from the Vatican, the bright lights of television news cameras could be seen, catching the scene in the square and beaming it around the world.
John Paul Donovan, a 25-year-old American, felt compelled to come. His Christian names were sign of his faith -- and the pontiff's influence on it.
"My parents are very devout Catholics and I was named after the pope's first trip to America in 1979," said Donovan, who works at a US military base in southern Italy.
"It is nice to be close to the pope when you know he is in his last moments," he said.
Many were conscious they were witnessing a historic moment. John Paul II, the third-longest serving pope in history, revolutionized the papacy and contributed to the collapse of communism in eastern Europe.
Marie-Francoise Herveau, a teacher accompanying more than 100 secondary school students from France on a study trip to Rome, said she tried to explain to the youngsters the importance of the pope's death.
"I told them they were going to witness a moment in history," said Herveau, as the group arrived in the sun-filled square. "Some cried, some asked questions, but I think they understood."
John Paul II was in a "very serious" condition, gradually losing consciousness, the Vatican said in the latest of a series of health bulletins that did not hide the inevitable.
Yet, for now, for just a little longer, the light of the pope's apartment window stayed on. And Christians at the Vatican and around the world reached out to it, with their faith.
04/02/2005 19:41 GMT