Taking Delight In St. Padre Pio’s Life

By Clarion Herald Staff
Photos By Peter Finney, Jr.

Young and old trekked to Notre Dame Seminary on Oct. 5 to venerate relics of St. Padre Pio (1887-1968), the Capuchin Franciscan priest from Italy revered for his holiness and his devotion as a confessor. A steady stream of visitors, including parents with their children, walked through the Notre Dame Seminary Chapel.

The relics of St. Pio included a glove he wore covering the stigmata – the wounds of Christ – that he bore from his early 30s. Also on display were a vestment he wore, bone fragments, a handkerchief, a lock of his hair and a cotton gause bandage bearing his blood. The visitors said prayers before the relics and touched rosaries and prayer cards to the reliquaries. Padre Pio was beatified in 1999 and canonized in 2002 by Pope John Paul II.