山姆的小島心情

By Dominic Bailey BBC News, Krakow

Krakow feels the loss personally

The sound of deep, tolling church bells rolled out across Krakow, stopping people in their tracks as they realised that Pope John Paul II, "their Polish pope" had died.

In the central Mariacki church, people looked up from their prayers, and at each other.

Silent text messages confirmed their fears and many burst into tears. The waiting was over - he was dead.

Outside in the market square, faces looked up at the church's illuminated twin towers, lost in thought as the bells tolled on.

Gradually people started to move away. Wherever they had been going before 2200 on Saturday, they now knew where they should be going - and drifted with the crowds to churches and squares around the town.

"We were shocked, even though we knew he was an old man near the end of his days," said physician Jacek Pietrzyk, 54.

He said he remembered the excitement and jubilation of the bright June day when the Pope had returned to Poland years before.

Now, he said, there was sorrow.

'Shock'

Everyone in the town where Pope John Paul II had been a priest and bishop seemed to feel the same way.

Surely they should have been prepared after his health worsened over recent years, months and days?

But they did not realise how much the Pope's passing would really hit home.

How can you be prepared for this? He was special Wiola

"I can't imagine how the next few days will be. I can't even think of the next pope or not seeing him at the Vatican window or anything at all."

At Franciszkanska Square, thousands gathered outside the house where the Pope had lived while bishop.

Candles flickered in the tulip beds and men and women alike wept openly.

Friends passed through the crowds, nodding wordlessly. What was there to say?

"How can you be prepared for this?" said Wiola, 23, as she lit more candles. "People will pray for him and remember the best about him. He was special."

The window from where he used to greet the crowds - a focus in recent vigils - was now open. The wooden cross was draped in a red stole.

Theatres and cinemas had earlier announced cancellations to allow people to pray for the Pope. Even the Pope's favourite football team, Cracovia, cancelled their match.

Team scarves now hung among the flowers and messages pinned to the railings.

Hearts in Krakow

Pope John Paul II was, after all, the people's Pope.

The one-time actor and former goalkeeper was known as an energetic, humorous and courageous man, revered by most Poles as a pope, a priest, a fellow countryman and a friend.

Hundreds had turned to Krakow's churches in the Pope's last days

Even "lapsed" Catholics among the crowds were surprised by their own reaction to news of his death. Some of the faithful tried to make sense of it.

Jennie D'Ascoli, 31, and Marcy Fong, 46, from California, had arrived in Krakow on Saturday morning as part of a pilgrimage.

They said they felt sad, but blessed by the coincidence.

At 2300, masses were being said in churches across the city.

Those who could not fit into the basilica were told that the priests would bring the communion out to them.

The shock of the news was even evident in the voices of the celebrants as they led the mass at Wawel Cathedral - from where the bell that had announced the Pope's death had sounded.

The last time it rang was when he was chosen as Pope in 1979.

Earlier in the day, a priest in the Pope's home town of Wadowice was asked whether he would like Pope John Paul II to be buried there.

He said it was very unlikely as popes were meant to be buried in the Vatican. But perhaps, he said, his heart could be brought back to Krakow.

For many people in Krakow that could at least ease some of the pain in their own hearts tonight.