VATICAN CITY — Pope John Paul II, who in life attracted millions of worshippers and admirers to gatherings across the globe, in death received an immense homage yesterday from close to 150,000 pilgrims who gathered for an open-air Requiem in St. Peter's Square.

As soon as Cardinal Angelo Sodano, who presided at the Mass, mentioned the late pope's name, the sea of worshippers applauded loudly. In his written homily, Sodano referred to John Paul as "the Great," an honorific applied only to two of the church's 263 previous pontiffs. "He died with the serenity of the saints," Sodano told the crowd.

Inside a marble-covered hall, John Paul's body lay in state for viewing by cardinals and dignitaries. The ceremony was broadcast to the outside world for the first time in the history of the Roman Catholic Church.

The dual events provided an indication of what is fast becoming a mammoth pageant of grief and adulation, arguably without parallel in the church. Rome is preparing to host 2 million or more pilgrims for John Paul's yet unscheduled funeral.

Train stations and stadiums are being opened for campers. Hotels are reporting full occupancy. The pope's body will lie in state at St. Peter's Basilica for viewing by the public beginning this afternoon.

In St. Peter's Square yesterday, ardent Catholics mixed with religiously indifferent tourists. Italians mingled with migrant workers who waved flags of their home countries: India, Colombia, Albania, Romania and, in several parts of the square, Poland.

HERBERT KNOSOWSKI / AP Mourners stand before a sea of burning candles at the bishop's residence in Krakow, Poland, yesterday. Before becoming pope, John Paul II served in Krakow as a priest and later archbishop.

Many mourners clutched pictures of John Paul. All seemed eager to praise him. "The least they can do is make him a saint," said Antonella Rado, who drove to Rome overnight from southeastern Italy. "He will always be among us."

As the faithful lingered in the vast piazza, they created scores of makeshift shrines, placing candles, flowers, holy pictures, rosaries, photographs of the pope and scribbled messages at the base of nearly every lamppost.

Some mourners knelt in solitary silence while others gathered in groups and prayed and sang boisterously. Giant television screens set up in front of St. Peter's Basilica replayed scenes from the epic papacy of John Paul II.

The morning after John Paul died in his Vatican apartment at age 84, officials issued the precise cause of death: septic shock, a term for severe infection that causes organ failure, and collapse of the cardiovascular system.

Among the underlying causes for his catastrophic decline was Parkinson's disease, the statement said. It was the first time the Vatican has acknowledged the pope suffered from the disease that outside physicians estimate began to afflict him about 15 years ago.

The statement said the Vatican's chamberlain, Cardinal Eduardo Martinez Somalo, confirmed the pope's death, as required by church regulations. Martinez Somalo is the interim spiritual leader of the church, though he lacks the governing authority.

In past eras, the chamberlain is said to have authenticated a pope's death by tapping his forehead three times with a silver hammer and calling out his name three times. On Saturday, confirmation was by means of 20 minutes of monitoring with a special electrocardiograph.

The pope's body lay atop a bier yesterday in Clementine Hall, a reception room down the hall from the apartment where he died. John Paul was attired in red vestments. A white miter was set on his head, which rested on three golden damask pillows. The pope's familiar long, silver pastoral staff was tucked under his left arm. Folded hands held a wooden rosary.

Visitors viewed John Paul from a couple of yards in front of his feet. A pair of Swiss Guards dressed in 16th-century orange and blue uniforms flanked the bier. Cardinals in white lace doffed scarlet skullcaps as they bowed and kneeled before the body.

Tears rimmed the eyes of Archbishop Stanislaw Dziwisz, the pope's private secretary and longtime friend. Dziwisz and other Polish clerics and nuns who made up John Paul's "household," as it was called, sat in pews to the pope's left.

Italian politicians, led by President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, paid respects. Gregorian chants and prayers recited in Latin echoed through the room.

Somalo sprinkled the body with holy water. "We thank you, God, for the good things that you gave your church through him," he said. "O God of mercy, our Pope John Paul II received the light of faith while he lived on Earth. Now he is coming to you, his lamp lit."

Some dignitaries took pictures with cellphones that double as cameras.

Outside in the square, Archbishop Leonardo Sandri, who was the pope's voice when he was unable to speak because of illness, delivered a Sunday prayer that Vatican officials said John Paul had been scheduled to deliver yesterday. "I do it with much honor and so much nostalgia," Sandri said before reading the prayer.

When he began, listeners sighed and some held their hands to their mouths or over their eyes. "To all humanity, which today seems so lost and dominated by the power of evil, selfishness and fear, our resurrected Lord gives us his love which forgives, reconciles and reopens the soul to hope," the message read.

Sodano, in his spoken remarks, did not describe John Paul as "the Great." The phrase, a title reserved for popes who are expected to be recognized as saints, was in the written text, however, and under Vatican rules, what is written is official. There was no explanation for the inconsistency.

The only other popes to be called "the Great" were Pope Leo I, a fifth-century pontiff who warded off an attack on Rome by Attila the Hun, and Pope Gregory I, who at the turn of the seventh century protected Rome against invading Lombards and provided the city's hungry with food from Vatican stores.

Information from the Chicago Tribune is included in this report.