Pope Francis arrived in Holguín, Cuba Monday morning to an incredibly warm welcome and visited a holy pilgrimage and conducted a public Mass.

Thousands of people packed into the eastern city's Plaza de la Revolución (Revolution Plaza) to greet the Pope as he began the celebration of Mass, the Washington Post reports. Attendees wore white shirts and wide brimmed hats to help keep cool under the hot sun, but the sweltering heat did little to quell the good spirits of the people waiting for the Pope's arrival.

"A pope has never been here before," said 61-year-old Marta Betancourt to the Miami Herald. "May he bless us, and continue to proclaim peace through the world. I am very Christian. My faith in God brought me here.''

The visit is one of great significance for many of Holguin's residents. It is the third largest providence in Cuba and features such holy sites as the Loma de la Cruz (Hill of the Cross), which Pope Francis was scheduled to visit later in the day. He also planned to stop at John Paul II's monument at the church of San José.

Pope Francis has been praised by many Catholics for his progressive ideals. The Pope helped reinforce that image when he called upon Cubans to follow the lead of Jesus by overcoming resistance to change.

"He invites us slowly to overcome our preconceptions and our reluctance to think that others, much less ourselves, can change," said Francis at the morning Mass. He urged Cubans to serve people in lieu of ideologies.

"We have a pope who is one of us,'' said Silvia Pelegrín, who made a pilgrimage to Holguin to see the Pope. "He himself has experienced all that is our lives as Latin Americans. He has achieved a renewed friendship between the United States and Cuba."

This is Pope Francis' second stop on his three-day tour of Cuba. He previously visited Havana to meet with Fidel Castro, and now plans to head to Santiago before leaving for the U.S.