Sixty thousand people stood so quietly in St Peter's Square that from 100 yards away one could clearly hear the water gently flowing in the square's two handsome fountains.
Just minutes earlier, a huge wave of applause rippled across the square as the voice of Archbishop Leonardo Sandri relayed the news of the death of John Paul II to the crowd: "Pope John Paul II has returned home to the Father."
It was 10pm on Saturday night. About half an hour before, the Pope had died.
Archbishop Sandri's announcement came as a brusque interruption to a prayer vigil that had started more than an hour earlier as pilgrims and tourists alike had gathered to pray for the Pope. After the round of applause, an eerie calm descended on the square, a quasi-silence that lasted seven or eight minutes.
Some people got down on their knees to pray, some wept openly, but the vast majority of those gathered in St Peter's simply stood quietly, as if trying to assimilate the rite of passage, the historical and unique moment of the death of John Paul II.
Even those TV reporters doing their "live" reports from the square were practically whispering into their microphones, relating the news in serious and grave tones.
Even though the Catholic Church is a "universal" church and even though a few Polish flags fluttered amongst the crowd, the gathering had a peculiarly Roman feel to it. As the news of the Pope's death spread, the already-crowded square became even more filled up as Romans, complete with babies, dogs, bicycles and fidzanzati (fiances) streamed in.
In these parts, they have seen emperors, empires and Popes come and go for much of the last 2,000 years. Il popolo too has its rituals to respect. So it was last Saturday night as the popolo once more got out on the street to pay tribute to a Pope called "un uomo buono" (a good man) on posters throughout the city yesterday.
About an hour after the Pope died, the Campana Sant Andrea, the huge bell high up on the right-hand side of the facade of the Basilica of St Peter's, tolled long and loud. The bell tolled for 84-year-old Karol Wojtyla, the 264th pontiff to sit on the seat of Peter and the second-longest serving Pope in church history after Pius X1 (1846-1878).
Even as the bell tolled, the lights in all the rooms of the pontifical apartment were turned off as some of the Pope's closest collaborators re-enacted age-old rites following the death of a Pope.
The Pope had died at 9.37 on Saturday evening. About an hour and a half before his death, Mass for Divine Mercy Sunday had been said in his bedroom, presided over by his long-serving private secretary, Archbishop Stanislaw Dziwisz. During the Mass, both the Viaticum and the Sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick, once colloquially known as the last rites, had again been administered to the Pope.
Throughout Saturday a steady stream of senior Curia figures had visited the papal apartment to bid farewell to the Pope, kneeling briefly by his deathbed to pray for him. Vatican medical bulletins reported that the Pope had begun to drift in and out of consciousness throughout Saturday while the official Vatican death certificate records that he died of "septic shock" (sepsis or blood infection) and "heart collapse".
Present with the Pope at the time of his death were his extended Polish clerical "family" comprising his two personal secretaries, Archbishop Dziwisz and Monsignor Mieczyslaw Mokrzycki, as well as Cardinal Marian Jaworski, Archbishop Stanislaw Rylko, Father Tadeusz Styczen, Sister Tobiana Sobodka and three Sacred Heart of Jesus nuns. Also present, of course, was the Pope's personal physician, Dr Renato Buzzonetti.
It was the latter who, having verified that the Pope was dead, then passed a candle in front of his face. According to this ancient rite, if the candle's flame does not flicker, then the Pope is dead. At that point, a linen veil was placed over the Pope's face.
Shortly after the death, the Pope's closest collaborators, including the cardinal secretary of state, Angelo Sodano, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, Archbishop Sandri, the camerlengo (chamberlain) Cardinal Eduardo Martinez Somalo, and the vice-camerlengo Archbishop Paolo Sardi then arrived in the apartment.
In accordance with tradition, it was the camerlengo, Cardinal Somalo, who formally announced in the papal apartment, "Vere, Papa mortuus est" (Truly, the Pope is dead). He did this after first removing the linen veil and then calling out the Pope's baptismal name (Karol) three times.
The camerlengo then used a small silver hammer bearing the papal coat of arms to destroy the papal ring, the pescatorio, or "Fisherman's ring", thus re-enacting a custom that goes back to the Middle Ages. Once, the camerlengo would also have used that same hammer to strike the Pope three times on the forehead as another way of verifying death, but that custom has been dropped.
Back out in the square, the initial calm had been interrupted by Cardinal Sodano who formally began an hour-long prayer service that included the recital of prayers for "eternal rest", the Lord's Prayer, Hail Marys and readings from scripture including Psalm 130.
At the end of the service, Archbishop Sardi told people: "The prayers are over. Now go back to your homes or, if you like, stay here in silence."