Hundreds of thousands cheer as Vatican declares Pope John Paul II a saint #CarryGobySeanKellz #FutureGroupNG via @myentertain9jar

HUNDREDS of thousands of worshippers witnessed Pope John Paul II becoming a saint today in an audacious ceremony at the Vatican.

It was estimated that a million made their way to the squares of Rome[AP]

The current Pope Francis declared the much loved pontiff and his predecessor John XXIII saints in St Peter’s Square this morning.
It was even more historic as the retired Pope Benedict XVI attended to witness the event.
A reigning and retired pope have never celebrated Mass together in public before.
Francis decided to canonise John and John Paul together to show the unity of the Catholic Church by honouring popes beloved to conservatives and progressives alike.  

Pope Francis declared his predecessors saints today [ REUTERS]

It was the first time a retired and reigning Pope were together for mass [AP]

He said in Latin that after deliberating, consulting and praying for divine assistance: "We declare and define Blessed John XXIII and John Paul II be saints and we enrol them among the saints, decreeing that they are to be venerated as such by the whole church".
 Applause broke out from a crowd that stretched from St. Peter's to the Tiber River and beyond.
 Benedict was sitting off to the side of the altar with other cardinals. He had arrived in the square on his own to cheers and applause, wearing white vestments and white bishops' miter. He stood to greet Italy's president and later Francis when he arrived, and sang along during the hymns that followed the canonisation rite.
 Italy's interior ministry predicted 1 million people would watch the Mass from the square, the streets surrounding it and nearby piazzas where giant TV screens were set up to accommodate the crowds eager to follow along.   

The ceremony was witnessed by massive crowds of people [ REUTERS]

Many travelled from Pope John Paul II's home of Poland [ AP]

 By the time the ceremony began, Via della Conciliazione, the main boulevard leading from the square, nearby streets and the bridges across the Tiber were packed.
 Polish pilgrims carrying the red and white flags of John Paul's beloved homeland had been among the first to push into the square well before sunrise.  
One of the visiting Poles, David Halfar said: "Four popes in one ceremony is a fantastic thing to see and to be at, because it is history being written in our sight. "It is wonderful to be a part in this and to live all of this."  
 Most of those who arrived first at St. Peter's had camped out overnight nearby using air mattresses and sleeping bags. Others hadn't slept at all and took part in the all-night prayer vigils hosted at a dozen churches in downtown Rome.  
 Benedict had promised to remain "hidden from the world" after resigning last year, but Francis coaxed him out of retirement and urged him to take part in the public life of the church.   

Members of the Catholic church were in attendance [ REUTERS]

Little boys dressed as the pontiff [ AFP/GETTY]

But celebrating Mass together with Francis was a first for the 2,000-year-old institution and a reflection of Francis' desire to show the continuity in the papacy despite different personalities, priorities and politics.
 Pope John XIII, who reigned from 1958-1963, is a hero to liberal Catholics for having convened the Second Vatican Council. The meetings brought the church into the modern era by allowing Mass to be celebrated in local languages rather than Latin and by encouraging greater dialogue with people of other faiths, particularly Jews.
 During his quarter-century papacy from 1978-2005, John Paul II helped topple communism through his support of Poland's Solidarity movement. His globe-trotting papacy and launch of the wildly popular World Youth Days invigorated a new generation of Catholics, while his defence of core church teaching heartened conservatives after the turbulent 1960s.