Tens of thousands of people packed St Peter's Square as Pope Benedict XVI celebrated Mass for Easter Sunday, the most joyous day on the church calendar.
The piazza, decorated with yellow tulips, blossoms and other spring flowers, overflowed with the faithful as Pope Benedict processed into the square in his golden vestments. A choir sang hymns.
The Mass commemorates Jesus Christ's resurrection.
''Let the Easter light of the risen Christ enlighten our minds and hearts,'' Benedict said.
After yesterday's Mass, Benedict was to deliver Easter greetings in 60 languages, as well as his annual Urbi et Orbi speech Latin for ''to the city and the world'' in which he typically outlines issues of concern around the globe.
Pope Benedict had sounded hoarse by the end of Saturday's three-hour Easter vigil, but he appeared well-rested by yesterday morning.
Meanwhile, Christian pilgrims from across the globe filled every nook of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem yesterday to celebrate Easter on the spot many believe Jesus was crucified and resurrected.
The cavernous interior of the church, considered by most Christians as their holiest site, was filled with the glow of thousands of candles for Easter Sunday as worshippers crowded into its labyrinth of chapels and crypts.
A 63-year-old history teacher from Germany, Frieda, said, ''I am the happiest person in the world right now. I have dreamt about this for 40 years.''
A 56-year-old worshipper from Nazareth, Haifa Hannaniya, said she was attending Easter services in the church for the first time. ''It is so peaceful and nice. It is hard to express our feelings about being here.'' The smell of incense and the hum of prayers filled the air as the pilgrims glimpsed Christianity's most revered sites the spot where Jesus was crucified by the Romans, the slab of stone where his body was laid afterward and embraced by his mother, the tomb where he was buried and resurrected.
''Hallelujah!'' intoned the crowd periodically as the white-robed Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, the top Catholic leader in the Holy Land, conducted Mass.
It was the first Easter service led by the new patriarch Fuad Twal, who took over the post last year.
Christianity's holiest site is shared uneasily by six denominations of Jesus Christ's followers Greek Orthodox, Catholic, Armenian Orthodox, Egyptian Copts, Syrian Orthodox and Ethiopian Orthodox.
Last year, during Orthodox Palm Sunday, Israeli police rushed into the church to break up fist fights between dozens of Greek and Armenian worshippers, to be promptly pummelled with palm fronds by feuding worshippers.
As Western Christians marked Easter Sunday, Orthodox churches were celebrating Palm Sunday, a week ahead of their own Easter ceremonies.
The day began with the two Muslim families who have held the keys to the Holy Sepulchre for centuries opening the doors to the throng of pilgrims.
Many stopped just after the entrance, kneeling down to kiss the stone slab on which Jesus is believed to have been laid out and washed for his burial after his crucifixion on Good Friday.
A procession circled the grotto on the site where Jesus is believed to have been buried, before marching into a limestone plaza bathed in bright sunshine and then filing through the narrow streets of Jerusalem's walled Old City, holy to all three of the world's largest monotheistic faiths. AFP
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