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Huge Crowd Overflows St. Peter's for Historic Canonization

An estimated 800,000 people — many of them from John Paul II's native Poland — filled St. Peter's.
Image: VATICAN-POPE-MASS-CANONISATION-AERIAL
The crowd in St Peter's square during the canonization Mass of Popes John Paul II and John XXIII on April 27, 2014.MASSIMO SESTINI / Italian National Police via AFP - Getty Images

Two 20th-century popes who changed the course of the Catholic Church became saints Sunday as Pope Francis honored John XXIII and John Paul II.

An estimated 800,000 people — many of them from John Paul II's native Poland — filled St. Peter's, the streets around it and bridges over the Tiber River, a huge turnout but only half the size of the crowd that came out for John Paul's 2011 beatification.

— The Associated Press