Amid tight security, people flocked to the seafront venue in the Sri Lankan capital on Wednesday by bus and rail.

Worshippers had begun lining up on Tuesday for the open-air seafront service at Colombo's Galle Face Green park. Thousands camped overnight for a rare chance to see the pope, the last pontiff to visit the island being John Paul II in 1995.

Pope Francis kissed the altar at the start of the mass, where a priest began the ceremony with a reading. The pontiff, after reading mass, declared Sri Lanka's very own Joseph Vaz to be a saint.

Secret masses in Ceylon

Vaz was born in India, in 1651, in Portuguese-ruled Goa, but spent most of his life as a missionary in Sri Lanka. He arrived during a Dutch occupation that had seen Calvinism become the official religion, and traveled the island - then Ceylon - ministering to clandestine groups of Catholics.

The canonization is viewed as one example of Francis's readiness to name saints, particularly in certain developing parts of the world where there is a demand for new holy figures. Some say Vaz does not technically qualify because the Catholic church has not attributed two miracles to him.

Wartime wounds fester

Upon his arrival on Monday, Francis called on the Buddhist majority country to reveal the truth about its long civil war. The conflict saw the mainly Hindu Tamils and largely Buddhist Sinhalese pitted against each other.

The pope's visit comes only days after the surprise defeat of controversial president Mahinda Rajapakse, who has been accused of presiding over wartime rights abuses.

Newly-elected President Maithripala Sirisena has promised an independent domestic inquiry into the abuse allegations.

rc/jm (AP, AFP, dpa, Reuters)