Three mourners have died of suffocation while paying their final respects to Egypt’s Coptic Christian spiritual leader, a church official said.
Anba Younnes said the three died of suffocation inside Cairo’s main Abbasiya cathedral as tens of thousands of mourners gathered yesterday to catch a glimpse of Pope Shenouda III’s embalmed corpse.
Pope Shenuda’s body had been placed upright on display on a wooden throne in a Cairo cathedral.
He died on Saturday, aged 88, after a long illness, setting in motion the process to elect a new patriarch for the Middle East’s largest Christian community.
He led the Copts, estimated at 10 per cent of Egypt’s population of more than 80 million, for a whole generation, during which the country was hit by a wave of Islamist militancy from which he sought to protect his flock.
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Mourners converged on St Mark’s Cathedral in a queue that stretched for nearly a mile as military vehicles lined the road outside.
President Obama was among those who paid tribute, hailing Shenouda as an advocate for tolerance and religious dialogue, while Benedict XVI offered prayers.
Shenuda’s body, dressed in formal robes with a golden crown on his head and a staff cradled on his shoulder, was placed upright on the tall ornate papal throne where it will remain sitting in state until the funeral on Tuesday.
A bishop knelt to one side pressing his head to the throne as thousands of worshippers hoping for a final blessing from their spiritual leader took pictures of Shenuda on their mobile phones amid tears and wails of grief.
Pope Shenuda will be buried at St Bishoy monastery of Wadi Natrun in the Nile Delta, where he spent time in exile after a dispute with the late president Anwar Sadat, state media reported.
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Coptic bishops from around the world will fly to Egypt to choose a successor.