St. Padre Pio relics to be hosted in the diocese

By Bill Doyle
CFP Correspondent

The National Centre for Padre Pio in Barto, Pennsylvania, is displaying relics of St. Padre Pio in an exhibit traveling throughout the nation and one of the stops will be at St. Anne and St. Patrick Parish in the Fiskdale section of Sturbridge.

The parish is home to the St. Anne Shrine and will serve as the only stop on the tour in the Worcester diocese.

On June 16, Mass will be celebrated at 7 p.m., and Joseph Santoro, external program coordinator for the National Centre for Padre Pio and regional delegate to the United States for the International Crusade of Holy Relics, will speak at 8 p.m. In addition to bringing the relics, Mr. Santoro will talk about what they represent and who St. Padre Pio was.

The next day, June 17, the relics will be available for public viewing and veneration from 9 a.m. until 4 p.m., followed by Mass celebrated by Bishop McManus.

All events will take place at St. Joachim Chapel and Parish Center at 16 Church St. Everyone is welcome and there will be no admission charge. St. Joachim Chapel fits about 250 people.
“The parishioners are excited over it,” said Assumptionist Father Luc Martel, the parish’s administrator.

St. Padre Pio was born Francesco Forgione in 1887 in Italy and died there at age 81. He was a Capuchin friar, mystic and priest who bore the stigmata – the wounds of Christ – on his hands, feet and side for more than 50 years.

“What was God’s purpose in putting these marks on this man’s hands?” Father Martel asked. “Only God knows, but it’s unusual and I think that’s what interests people.”

Known for his miraculous healings, prophetic insights and long hours hearing confessions, he drew thousands to a deeper faith. As pope, St. John Paul II canonized him in 2002.

“The fellow had the marks of Christ on his hands for 50 years,” Father Martel said. “That’s unusual. There aren’t too many other people in the history of the church who have had the stigmata. So I think that attracts people because he was certainly a very well respected priest and confessor, who spent hours and hours every day in the confessional, praying a great deal and counseling a lot of people.”

Father Martel said he received a call from Bob Lamberti, who was familiar with St. Anne Shrine and recommended that St. Anne’s arrange a date on the Padre Pio relics tour before the tour visited St. Leonard’s Church in Boston June 21 and 22. Father Martel contacted the National Centre for Padre Pio and scheduled June 16 and 17.

Father Martel said the parish gift shop has had a number of visitors interested in Padre Pio souvenirs.

“I suspect, yes, that there will be a lot of people who are interested in spending time viewing these relics and reconnecting with the saint,” Father Martel said.

Father Martel spent 24 years in Rome with the Augustinians of the Assumption and he discovered how important Padre Pio was to the Italians.

A relic is an object or article of religious significance, usually the physical remains or personal effects of a saint or other person.

Father Martel said he expects five or six relics will be displayed at St. Joachim Chapel and he believes one of them will be a part of a garment, probably a vestment, with a blood stain from Padre Pio. He doesn’t know what the other relics will be.

Other Padre Pio relics on display at various times in the past have included his glove, a lock of his hair and his handkerchief soaked with his sweat just hours before he died, among other things.

“This is something that is very mysterious, but that’s God’s will,” Father Martel said.
St. Anne Shrine has had a relic of its own since 1893, a fragment of St. Anne’s hand bone. St. Anne is revered as the mother of the Virgin Mary and the grandmother of Jesus Christ. The parish processes with the relic on each night of its Novena to recognize the goodness of St. Anne. The Novena will be held July 18-26.

Father Martel expects many people will visit the Padre Pio relics in hope of being cured of their ailments. The same is true of numerous people who visit the St. Anne Shrine where a portion of the St. Anne relic is located under glass under the statue of St. Anne.

“You’ve got the crutches and the canes and so forth,” Father Martel said, “of people who say, ‘I was cured here.’”

In a separate visit, the Padre Pio Foundation of America will host a full-size, authentic habit worn by Padre Pio that will be on display at the National Centre for Padre Pio in Barto, Pennsylvania, Oct. 11-14 and at St. Pius X Church in Middletown, Connecticut, Oct. 15-18. Brought by Capuchin friars from San Giovanni Rotondo, Italy, the relic will leave Italy for the first time.

To learn more about these relic stops and the life of Padre Pio, visit the website for the National Centre for Padre Pio at padrepio.org and the Padre Pio Foundation of America at padrepio.com.