Thousands of Roman Catholics, many with posters urging Pope Benedict to visit, packed the largest cathedral in ex-Soviet Belarus to attend a papal Mass broadcast into the building on big screens.
About 4,000 made their way late on Saturday evening into the 17th century cathedral in Belarus, where Catholics make up about 14 per cent of 10 million residents. Hundreds more stood in a downpour in front of a screen in the square outside.
"I am just delighted to be here. Did you hear the applause when the Pope spoke Belarussian?" said Leonid, 46, a farmer from Grodno district, 70 kilometres west of the capital.
"But I am a little disappointed because I had hoped, just a bit, that he would say he was coming to Belarus," he said.
The mass was translated into Belarussian, the country's official but relatively rarely spoken official language, and beamed into the cathedral with the help of state television.
The cathedral, turned into a sports hall in Soviet times, was dotted with posters in various languages reading: "Belarus greets the Holy Father and awaits his visit."
Belarus is accused by Western countries of infringing basic human rights and its president, Alexander Lukashenko, is barred from both the US and EU.
But though the country is overwhelmingly Orthodox, strife between different confessions is rare and both Catholic and Orthodox holidays are officially observed.
"I am so grateful for this, but I'm not sure to whom I'm supposed to be grateful," said Vladislav, 17, a student. "Is it the state? Someone else?"
Pope Benedict's predecessor, John Paul, visited several ex-Soviet states, but was unable to fulfil his dream of visiting Russia - or Belarus on its western border.
Relations between Rome and the 220 million-strong Orthodox Church, divided since the Great Schism of 1054, became more tense under Pope John Paul.
Russian Orthodox patriarch Alexiy II rejects a papal visit on grounds that Catholics have tried to poach congregations and claim property in ex-Soviet states, particularly Ukraine, home to more than five million mainly eastern-rite Catholics.