Blood of Pope John Paul to be venerated at beatification (VIDEO)

A vial of blood of the late Pope John Paul II will go on display at his beatification ceremony this Sunday and be available for veneration, the Vatican announced Tuesday.

Four containers of blood were taken from the pope during the last days of his life in 2005 in case they were needed during a transfusion, AFP reports. The blood, which was held at the Vatican's Bambino Gesu hospital in Rome, was never used and has remained in a liquid state due to an anti-coagulant in the containers.

Two of the vials have been kept by Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz, who was the late pontiff's personal secretary and is now the archbishop of Krakow, and the other two remain at the hospital, AFP states.

The hospital's vial that will be on display Sunday will then be kept with other relics at the Vatican, the Guardian reports.

More than 50 heads of state and several hundred thousand pilgrims will be in Rome Sunday for the beatification ceremony, it states. Beatification is the final stage before possible sainthood.

However, the decision to display the pope's relics has also been met with some reservations, the Independent reported in January.

John Paul II died on April 2, 2005, after nearly three decades as pope. He was 84.