Solidarity activist Bronislaw Geremek was honored by hundreds at a funeral Mass in Warsaw’s historic old town Monday, with former President Lech Walesa calling him “the greatest of all Poles.”

Geremek was highly respected as a scholar, statesman and key adviser in the Soviet bloc’s first free trade union, Solidarity, which helped topple communism in Poland and across the Soviet bloc. He also served as Poland’s foreign minister and since 2004 as a member of the European Parliament.

The 76-year-old died July 13 in a car accident in western Poland.

President Lech Kaczynski, Prime Minister Donald Tusk and Walesa were among those at the Mass in St. John’s Cathedral. Geremek’s coffin, draped in Poland’s red and white national flag, was flanked by four rifle-bearing soldiers.

“What I’ll tell you today is of no use to you, but conscience demands the truth in the face of death: in my view, you were the greatest of Poles, the greatest of patriots,” Walesa said. “I thank God that I met you.”

Warsaw archbishop Kazimierz Nycz read a letter noting Pope Benedict XVI’s sadness at the death of Geremek, who was also a widely respected medieval historian.

“His departure is a huge lost to the world of scholarship and politics,” the Vatican letter read.

Members of the Solidarity trade union, one in a yellow worker’s helmet and others holding up union banners, stood to the side of the church in homage.

Geremek was to be buried at Warsaw’s historic Powazki cemetery.