Gianluigi Guercia / AFP - Getty Images

The dead body of Pope Shenouda III, the spiritual leader of the Middle East's largest Christian minority, sits dressed in formal robes on a wooden throne at the Saint Mark's Coptic Cathedral in Cairo's al-Abbassiya district, for the people to bid farewell to him on March 19, 2012.

Tens of thousands of Egyptian Christians converged on Saint Mark's Coptic Cathedral in Cairo to bid farewell to Pope Shenouda III, who died on March 16 at the age of 88 after a long illness, Agence France-Presse reports. 

Based on his wishes, Pope Shenouda will be buried on Tuesday at St. Bishoy monastery in Wadi Natrun in the Nile Delta, where he spent his time in exile after a dispute with late president Anwar Sadat. 

His death set in motion the process to elect a new patriarch for the Middle East's largest Christian community. 

Gianluigi Guercia / AFP - Getty Images

Christian Copts push to enter Saint Mark's Coptic Cathedral in Cairo on March 19, 2012 where tens of thousands bade farewell to Pope Shenouda III.

Gianluigi Guercia / AFP - Getty Images

Coptic nuns mourn the death of Pope Shenouda III in Saint Mark's Coptic Cathedral on March 19, 2012.

Gianluigi Guercia / AFP - Getty Images

Copts wait in line to enter Saint Mark's Coptic Cathedral on March 19, 2012.

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Khaled Desouki / AFP - Getty Images

A Coptic Christian mourns the death of Pope Shenouda III, the spiritual leader of the Middle East's largest Christian minority on March 18.

Khaled Desouki / AFP - Getty Images

An Egyptian Christian Copt mourns the death of Pope Shenouda III, spiritual leader of the Middle East's largest Christian minority, in Saint Mark Cathedral in Cairo.

Christians gathered on Sunday to pay final respects to Pope Shenouda III, who sought to soothe sectarian tension in his four decades atop Egypt's Orthodox Church but saw increasing flare-ups in the majority Muslim nation in the last months of his life.

Friction has worsened since President Hosni Mubarak, who suppressed Islamists, was ousted last year. Since then Shenouda, who died on Saturday aged 88, often called for harmony and regularly met Muslim and other leaders.

Christians, who comprise about a tenth of Egypt's 80 million people, have long complained of discrimination and in the past year stepped up protests, which included calls for new rules that would make it as easy to build a church as a mosque.

Shenouda had served as the 117th Pope of Alexandria since November 1971, leading the Orthodox community who make up most of Egypt's Christians. His funeral will be held on Tuesday, Egyptian state media reported. 

-- Reuters contributed to this blog post

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Related links:

• Christians gather to bid farewell to Egypt's Pope 
• Pope Shenouda, religious peacemaker and Mubarak ally 
• Pope of Egypt's Coptic Christian Church dies

Esam Omran Al-Fetori / Reuters

Egyptian Christians gather to mourn the death of Pope Shenouda III, the head of Egypt's Coptic Orthodox Church, outside the Abbasiya Cathedral in Cairo on March 18.

Ammar Awad / Reuters

A Coptic Christian priest holds candles next to a picture of Egyptian Coptic Christian Pope Shenouda III in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem's Old City on March 18.