WAITING hours for a brief goodbye, pilgrims young and old prayed, sang hymns and shaded themselves from the sun with umbrellas as they queued yesterday to see Pope John Paul’s crimson-robed body at St Peter’s Basilica.

Huge groups of pilgrims, students and clergy poured out of buses at St Peter’s Square today, joining queues that stretched miles through the surrounding streets to wait for a brief glimpse of Pope John Paul’s body.