Pope Shenouda III led Egypt's Coptic Christian church for more than three decades.

Egypt's Coptic Christian Pope, Shenouda III passed away on Saturday March 17, 2012 at the age of 88, the BBC said, citing state media and cathedral sources. The leader of the Middle East's largest Christian minority was said to have been suffering from cancer that had spread to several organs.

His political adviser, Hany Aziz, told Reuters news agency that Shenouda died from health complications and old age. Shenouda had recently returned to Egypt after seeking treatment abroad. Nader Habib newspaper reported that thousands of Egyptian Christians who gathered at the Abbaseya Cathedral in Cairo to pay their final respects to Pope Shenouda, chanted, "Don’t say the Pope died ... The Pope is in Heaven!"

Tens of thousands of Egyptian Coptic Christians held an overnight vigil in Cairo on Saturday to mourn the death of their spiritual leader. Many wept as they prayed for the pope outside the city's main cathedral. The vigil was followed by a Sunday morning mass, with the dead pope's body sat in the papal chair dressed in ceremonial robes.

Meanwhile, Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, head of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, issued a decree to give Copts the coming three days off to pay their final respects to Shenouda. The Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party, which has the largest number of seats in Egypt’s Parliament, praised Pope Shenouda for what it described as his nationalistic past and significant contributions.

Following Shenouda's death, the eldest member of the Holy Synod's archbishops is expected to act until a new patriarch is elected. According to Khaleej Times newspaper, the 117^th Coptic Pope with worldly name of Nazeer Gayed, was born on August 3, 1923 in the Egyptian city of Asyut. He was a graduate of Cairo University and the Coptic Orthodox Seminary. In 1962, he was appointed as Dean of the Coptic Orthodox Theological Seminary and enthroned as Pope Shenouda III in 1971. Shenouda III was an active proponent of interfaith dialogue. Coptic Christians make up 10 per cent of Egypt's population of 80 million.