05:37 GMT - WE ARE CLOSING THIS LIVE REPORT on Pope Francis's canonisation mass for Sri Lanka's first ever saint in Colombo.
A child holding a flag bearing the image of Pope Francis attends the canonisation mass for Joseph Vaz in the Sri Lankan capital
Hundreds of thousands of people thronged the capital to join the celebration as the country seeks to carve out a more peaceful future after nearly four decades of civil war.
05:33 GMT - - Grand gesture - - Cinnamon Grand, one of the country's top hotels, which is located close to the Galle Face Green, is offering pilgrims soft drinks as they being to leave after the end of the mass.
Earlier in the morning, the same hotel had offered coffee to pilgrims who had waited all night for the pope to arrive.
One hotel staff member told AFP he had never seen such large crowds in the area.
05:31 GMT - - Waving flags - - Children, many waving flags emblazoned with the pope's face, can be seen sitting on the shoulders of family members so they can peer above the mass of faithful that throngs the shoreline of the capital.
Young and old have come from every corner of the country of 20 million to see the "people's pope" preach for peace and reconciliation in the war-scarred country, including from the country's Tamil minority.
05:22 GMT - - Jungle church - - Now the mass has ended, the pope will head to a small church in the jungle that was on the front lines of the conflict between government troops and guerrillas seeking a separate homeland for the country's Tamil minority.
The Our Lady of Madhu church in the mainly Tamil north provided sanctuary during the fighting, and is now a pilgrimage destination for Christians from across the ethnic divide.
05:12 GMT - - Pride of Goa - - Calling Joseph Vaz "a gift", Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith of Colombo spoke at the end of the papal Mass about how the new saint is the "pride of Goa... God’s precious gem for Sri Lanka".
He thanked Goa for the "gift of your son" and mentioned how many Indian Catholics from Goa have travelled to Sri Lanka for Vaz' canonisation.
05:09 GMT - - Asia push - - The pope's latest trip to Asia comes at a time when the church is focusing on the region's growing Catholic population.
Two Indians were among six new saints named in November at a huge mass in Saint Peter's Square in Rome, while during a trip to South Korea five months ago the pontiff beatified 124 martyrs, including the country's first Catholic priest Andrew Kim Taegon.
05:07 GMT - - Final procession - - The pope leads clergy in a final procession from the altar as the mass comes to an end, after giving a last blessing to the mass of faithful and receiving a collection for the church's charitable activities.
05:05 GMT - - 'Little Pearl of the Indian Ocean' - - Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith of Colombo extended his greetings to the pope, welcoming "the people's pope" to "the little Pearl of the Indian Ocean, our beloved Sri Lanka".
04:43 GMT - - Umbrellas - - After almost an hour and a half of the mass -- and several hours before waiting for the pope to arrive -- many in the crowds have now pulled out umbrellas to shield themselves from the Sri Lankan sun.
04:38 GMT - - Communion - - Hundreds of priests carrying white umbrellas are now taking up position around Galle Face Green in order to distribute communion to the hundreds of thousands of people attending the Mass. Distributing communion to so many is proving to be a major operation.
04:29 GMT - - Sign of Peace - - The pope has led the congregation in offering the Sign of Peace. The choir is singing the Agnus Dei as people turn to those around them and hug or shake hands saying the words "Peace be with you."
04:21 GMT - - Political posters - - While the pope's call for reconciliation at the mass may carry political overtones for many in Sri Lanka, coming after last week's vote when long-standing president Mahinda Rajapakse was unseated by challenger Maithripala Sirisena, the pontiff himself has been very clear that his trip is purely religious.
In the run up to the papal visit, the church released a statement urging "all the political groups to refrain from using either the Holy Father or his visit to Sri Lanka for the political campaign of the presidential election" after reports images of Pope Francis were being used in the campaign.
04:18 GMT - - Statue of Saint - - A large statue of Sri Lanka's first saint Joseph Vaz holding a crucifix has been given prominent place in the sanctuary near the papal altar.
04:13 GMT - - Religious freedom - - In his message to the people of Sri Lanka, Pope Francis once again pressed his view that “religious freedom is a fundamental right".
He told the crowds of faithful in Colombo that all must be free to express religious convictions, "free from intimidation and external compulsion".
04:04 GMT - - Religious divisions - - In religiously divided Sri Lanka, where only 6 percent of the population is Catholic, the Pope's words that Saint Joseph Vaz "like us… lived in a period of rapid and profound transformation" when "Catholics were a minority and often divided" and suffered "occasonal hostility and even persecution", will still ring true for many in the country today.
04:03 GMT - - First missionaries - - Christianity first came to Sri Lanka via 6th century Persian traders who built the island's first church. But it was not until the Portuguese arrived nearly 1,000 years later in 1505 that it became widespread.
Over the next century, missionaries spread Catholicism along the coast, where the faith still has its strongest hold.
04:01 GMT - - Translation - - Pope's sermon, given in English, has been translated into Sinhala and Tamil.
03:58 GMT - - Pope John Paul II - - The first papal visit to Sri Lanka took place in 1970, when Pope Paul VI made a brief stopover at the airport to meet the faithful.
Pope John Paul II visited in 1995, drawing hundreds of thousands of worshippers to a seafront mass in Colombo.
03:55 GMT - - Pilgrims - - Sunil Perera, 62, told AFP that he travelled seven hours by bus, leading a group of 60 Catholic pilgrims, from a village at Embilipitiya in the island's deep south to attend the papal mass.
03:53 GMT - - Respect - - In his sermon, the pope urged Catholics in Sri Lanka to work with people of other religions and to treat those of other faiths with "respect" and "sensitivity".
03:49 GMT - - Name of peace - - Pope Francis says Saint Joseph Vaz "showed us the importance of transcenting religious divisions in the name of peace".
03:47 GMT - - Healing wounds - - The pope's words touch the hearts of Sri Lankans who are still trying to heal the wounds of a 37-year conflict that pitted government troops against Tamil separatists.
03:45 GMT - - Message of reconcilliation - - The pope says: "We also see in him (Vaz) a challenge to persevere in the path of the gospel" in order to emulate "the message of reconcilliation to which he dedicated his life".
03:42 GMT - - Papal sermon - - The pope is now giving his sermon - highlighting the work of Joseph Vaz who he calls: "a powerful sign of God's love for Sri Lanka..."
03:39 GMT - - Photographis of loved ones - - Among the faithful attending the mass, many are clutching photographs of loved ones who cannot not be there, among them 54-year-old Srimathi Fernando, whose husband is recovering from a heart attack.
"I came early to grab a spot in front so that I can show this picture to the Holy Father and get a blessing for him," she says.
03:36 GMT - - Security - - Providing tight security for the papal mass are some 21,000 police constables and officers deployed around Galle Face Green.
03:33 GMT - - Readings - - The readings and prayers of the faithful have been conducted in, Latin, Sinhalese and English.
03:28 GMT - - Archbishop of Colombo - - Among the messages welcoming the pope to Sri Lanka was one from the Archbishop of Colombo Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith.
"It is with great pleasure that I greet and welcome, His Holiness Pope Francis I – the People’s Pope, to the little Pearl of the Indian Ocean, our beloved Sri Lanka. The visit of Pope Francis – who within a short period of time won a special place in the hearts of the world as a compassionate, humble, peace loving Servant of God, is like having a special Messenger of the Prince of Peace himself – Our Lord Jesus Christ, among us.
"We are a nation which suffered immensely for 30 long years – with the loss of many innocent lives ranging from the unborn to the elderly, irrespective of race, caste, creed or social standing due to acts of Terror. The war with weapons is over… and now, the war of reconstruction, reconciliation of those lives that were directly or indirectly affected as a result of the conflict has begun, simultaneously. Hence, it is indeed very opportune at this point of time, that Pope Francis I, … graces us with his presence in Sri Lanka."
03:19 GMT - - Gospel - - The Gospel and scriptures are being carried up to the altar.
03:16 GMT - - Exhaustion - - Covering the ceremony, AFP video journalist Charlotte Turner says: "Exhaustion has set in among a group of schoolboys who have already been up for hours. Many are now huddled together on the sandy ground fighting sleep and shielding their faces from the bright sun."
03:06 GMT - - National holiday - - Sri Lanka has declared today a national holiday in honour of the pope’s visit, to allow more people to attend the mass.
03:03 GMT - - Religious leaders - - Yesterday, the pope met with Buddhist, Hindu and Muslim leaders and urged them to work together for reconciliation, saying religion should never be a cause for violence.
Only around six percent of Sri Lanka's 20-million-strong population is Catholic, but the religion is seen as a unifying force because it includes people from both the Tamil and majority Sinhalese ethnic groups.
02:59 GMT - - Songs of praise - - Choir members dressed in blue and white pinafores raise their voices to accompany the pope in celebrating the mass. In the crowd, the faithful hold mass booklets, rosaries, prayer books and photos of the pope.
02:57 GMT - - First saint - - Today’s mass will witness the canonisation of Sri Lanka's first saint, Joseph Vaz, a 17th century missionary from Goa credited with reviving the Catholic church on the island at a time of persecution by Dutch colonisers.
Vaz went to Sri Lanka in 1687 to minister to the scattered faithful after Dutch colonisers who had seized the island's coastal areas from the Portuguese began persecuting Catholics for fear they would remain loyal to their former rulers.
He travelled from village to village ministering to Catholics from both the Tamil and the majority Sinhalese ethnic groups.
He had to disguise himself as a beggar because the Dutch had banned Catholic priests from the island, and he spent several of his 23 years in Sri Lanka in jail for his work.
By the time of his death in 1711 he had largely rebuilt the Catholic Church, earning him the title "Apostle of Sri Lanka".
He is credited with caring for smallpox victims abandoned by their families out of fear of contagion.
02:54 GMT - - Altar kiss - - Pope Francis has kissed the altar to start the mass and is now blessing it and a state of the Virgin Mary with incense.
02:52 GMT - - Procession - - A procession of cardinals, bishops, priests and other religious leaders has begun leading to the main altar where the pope will say mass and lead the canonization of Sri Lanka's first saint, Joseph Vaz.
02:49 GMT - - Handicapped - - AFP's photographer Lakruwan Wanniarachchi says dozens of men, women and children in wheelchairs were given assistance and put close to the altar where the pope will celebrate mass.
02:47 GMT - - Sri Lankan bishops - - Shortly after his arrival, the pope, aged 78, cancelled a planned meeting with Sri Lankan bishops, with one security official saying he was "exhausted" after a long journey from the airport exposed to the hot sun.
Travelling in an open-top car with no protection from the strong sun, the pope took over an hour to travel into the city from the airport on roads thronged with well-wishers.
The Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi told the media yesterday that the meeting with the bishops had been cancelled due to the pope's late arrival from the airport.
But a source working on security arrangements who asked not to be named told AFP the pontiff looked "exhausted" after his journey.
02:45 GMT - - Pope arrives - - Pope Francis is driving around Galle Face Green accompanied by Sri Lankan cardinal Malcom Ranjith. Police have formed a human chain to hold back tens of thousands of people who have been staying at the green overnight to get to close to the papal route.
02:41 GMT - - Thousands of faithful - - AFP Sri Lanka photographer Lakruwan Wanniarachchi says he has never seen such a large crowd at Galle Face Green as thousands turn out to welcome Pope Francis.
02:30 GMT - Pope Sri Lanka Mass: LIVE REPORT - WELCOME TO AFP’S LIVE REPORT on Pope Francis’ visit to Sri Lanka. At least a million worshippers are expected to attend the papal mass on the seafront in the capital Colombo.
Worshippers began lining up yesterday for the open-air service on Galle Face Green, with thousands camping out overnight for a glimpse of the first pope to come to the island in two decades.