PilgrimstaysSan Giovanni Rotondo in the Gargano peninsula of Puglia is the second most visited Marian (and more broadly saint) shrine in Italy after Loreto, and arguably the most popular saint-pilgrimage in the entire world, drawing approximately seven million pilgrims per year. All of this devotion centres on one figure: Padre Pio of Pietrelcina, the Capuchin friar who bore the stigmata — the wounds of Christ — for fifty years and died here in 1968. Padre Pio received the visible stigmata in 1918 — the first stigmatic priest in Church history — and bore them until his death. He was known for bilocation, the ability to read souls in the confessional, miraculous cures, the ability to smell violets or roses before his appearance, and extraordinary holiness of life. He spent fifty years in one friary, hearing confessions for up to sixteen hours a day. He was beatified in 1999 and canonised by Pope John Paul II in 2002. The new Renzo Piano-designed Pilgrim Church of Santa Maria delle Grazie (2004) accommodates 30,000 worshippers and is one of the most significant pieces of modern sacred architecture in the world. The old friary church is more intimate and retains the atmosphere of Padre Pio's life. His incorrupt body has been on display since 2008 and is the focus of unending veneration.
Seven million pilgrims per year — the most visited saint shrine in the world Padre Pio bore
the stigmata — the five wounds of Christ — visibly from 1918 until his death in 1968
He is said to have spent up to sixteen hours per day hearing confessions throughout his fifty
years here The incorrupt body of Padre Pio has been on display since 2008 and continues to
draw vast crowds The Renzo Piano-designed Pilgrim Church (2004) is one of the finest examples of modern
Crypt, below the new church Padre Pio's incorrupt body has been on display since 2008, encased in a glass reliquary. His face, reconstructed in a silicone mask to preserve the incorrupt state, looks as it did in the photographs taken during his lifetime. The queue to venerate him moves slowly. What pilgrims feel as they pass his body is not easily described.
Adjacent to the new church complex The small 16th-century church where Padre Pio celebrated Mass for fifty years.
is preserved in a side chapel. The atmosphere is intimate and charged. This is where the man himself lived and prayed and suffered.
which Padre Pio, who prized the heard Word, would have appreciated. The Wounds of the Stigmata (relics) — Treasury of the complex Gloves stained with blood from the stigmatic wounds of Padre Pio's hands are preserved in the treasury. The stigmata appeared on September 20, 1918 and were visible until hours before his death in September 1968. Fifty years of wounds.
Hilltop surrounding the complex [OUTDOOR] San Giovanni Rotondo sits at 558 metres on the Gargano plateau. The views over the Apulian plain and toward the Adriatic are vast and still. Padre Pio chose to spend fifty years in this one isolated spot, and standing on the hillside one can understand the deliberateness of that choice.
For fifty years, Padre Pio remained in one small friary on a hill in southern Italy. He did not travel. He did not give interviews. He heard confessions sixteen hours a day. The world came to him. This is the most striking reversal in modern Catholic life: the most visited saint shrine in the world is centred on a man who never went anywhere. The lesson is not mysterious: holiness is not mobile. It stays in one place, and everything else moves toward it.
“My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”
Read in full on Bible Gateway →San Giovanni Rotondo, in the Gargano peninsula of Puglia, is the second most visited Marian (and more broadly saint) shrine in Italy after Loreto, and arguably the most popular saint-pilgrimage in the entire world, drawing approximately seven million pilgrims per year. All of this devotion centres on one figure: Padre Pio of Pietrelcina, the Capuchin friar who bore the stigmata — the wounds of Christ — for fifty years and died here in 1968.
Padre Pio received the visible stigmata in 1918 — the first stigmatic priest in Church history — and bore them until his death. He was known for bilocation, the ability to read souls in the confessional, miraculous cures, the ability to smell of violets or roses before his appearance, and extraordinary holiness of life. He spent fifty years in one friary, hearing confessions for up to sixteen hours a day. He was beatified in 1999 and canonised by Pope John Paul II in 2002.
The new Renzo Piano-designed Pilgrim Church of Santa Maria delle Grazie (2004) accommodates 30,000 worshippers and is one of the most significant pieces of modern sacred architecture in the world. The old friary church is more intimate and retains the atmosphere of Padre Pio’s life. His incorrupt body has been on display since 2008 and is the focus of unending veneration.
