With hymns and eulogies, South Africans of all colors and creeds remembered Nelson Mandela in a day of prayers on Sunday, holding him up as an example of freedom and forgiveness to build a better nation and world.

At churches, mosques, synagogues and community halls from the Limpopo River to the Cape, millions offered praise and reflected on a man celebrated as "Father of the Nation" and as a global beacon of integrity, rectitude and reconciliation.

Mandela, South Africa's first black president who steered his nation out of apartheid and into multi-racial democracy, died on Thursday at the age of 95 after months of illness.

Since then, the country has been gripped by an outpouring of emotion unrivalled since Mandela's release from 27 years of prison in 1990 and his subsequent election victory. Crowds have piled flowers, candles, balloons and messages outside his Johannesburg home.

At the cavernous Regina Mundi church in Soweto, South Africa's largest Catholic Church, hundreds of mourners young and old gathered to pray for Mandela and the nation's future.

"We are praying for both," said Gladys Simelane, an office manager. "People are praying that there will be change, that we will come together."

Mandela's former wife Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, dressed in black, attended a Methodist service in the northern Johannesburg suburb of Bryanston, where President Jacob Zuma hailed the values of the country's most beloved statesman.

"He believed in forgiveness and he forgave, even those who kept him in jail for 27 years," Zuma said in a eulogy.

"He stood for freedom. He fought against those who oppressed others. He wanted everyone to be free."

The day of prayers opens an official program of mourning that includes a memorial service in a Johannesburg stadium on Tuesday and a state funeral next Sunday at Mandela's Eastern Cape ancestral home of Qunu - expected to be one of the biggest gatherings of world leaders in recent history.

U.S. President Barack Obama and U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon will be among those at Tuesday's memorial.

Mandela's passing, though long expected as he succumbed slowly to a lung ailment dating back to his days in the notorious Robben Island penal colony, has plunged South Africans into soul-searching mode, six months before presidential and legislative elections.

President Jacob Zuma's ruling African National Congress faces a clamor of calls for better leadership after several years in which South Africa has experienced violent labor unrest, growing protests against poverty, crime and unemployment, and corruption scandals tainting Zuma's rule.

It remains one of the most unequal societies in the world, still some way from the "Rainbow Nation" ideal of shared prosperity and social harmony that Mandela proclaimed when he won the country's first multi-racial elections in 1994.

In Cape Town's St George's Cathedral, where anti-apartheid campaigners sought solace and refuge in the 1980s, some in the packed congregation of locals and tourists shed tears during a tribute to Mandela by the Anglican dean, Michael Weeder.

"He was an exposition of the African spirit of generosity," said Weeder. "And as he dies, he lives again and again. He is resurrected in every act of kindness."

At the Rivers Pentacostal Church in Johannesburg, mourners, some draped in South African flags, watched a video hailing the Nobel Peace Prize laureate as "a rare man, a true non-racist and a breed of politicians South Africa needs again".

In a country where many follow evangelical denominations, some held outdoor services in fields and parks. In the northern Johannesburg suburb of Sandton, members of the Paradise Apostles of Jesus Christ Church hailed "the father of Africa" in a ceremony by a muddy stream where several people were baptized.

Muslims in the mostly Indian neighborhood of Lenasia in south Johannesburg held a commemoration in a local hall.

Newspaper editorials urged South Africans and the world to learn from a man hailed as "the Great Reconciler' for the way he broke and bridged the apartheid racial divide that split South Africa for centuries, and brought its people together.

"Mandela's legacy speaks of tenacity, courage, commitment and a relentless striving for justice - qualities we will require as we continue on our journey to build a new country and forge a nation with a common purpose," the Johannesburg Sunday Times said in an editorial.-Reuters