Local

Arlington church to host St. Padre Pio relics

Catholic News Service

NEW YORK — Relics of St. Padre Pio, a Capuchin priest who bore
the stigmata of Jesus, will be on public display in several U.S. dioceses and
archdioceses in May and again in the fall, including St. Ann Church in
Arlington May 20-21.

padre pio web

The Saint Pio Foundation announced that the tour corresponds with
the 130th anniversary of the Italian-born saint’s birth. The items on display will include a glove St. Pio wore to cover the stigmata, a lock of hair, a piece of cloth with a blood stain from the stigmata and a fragment from his bed, according to the Saint Pio Foundation.  

The tour will include 12 locations nationwide starting May 6-8 at
the Cathedral of Sts. Peter and Paul in Philadelphia.

Hours that each site will be open for veneration and other events
related to the tour were to be announced by each diocese.

Additional stops include:

— May 9 at St. Paul Cathedral, Pittsburgh.

— May 10-11 at the Cathedral Basilica of the Immaculate
Conception, Denver.

— May 13 at Cathedral of the Risen Christ, Lincoln, Neb.

— May 18-19 at St. Andrew Church, Pasadena, Calif.

— May 20-21 at St. Ann Church, Arlington.

— Sept. 17-18 at St. Patrick Cathedral, New York.

— Sept. 20 at Cathedral of St. Joseph the Workman, La Crosse,
Wis. 

— Sept. 20 at Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist, Milwaukee.

— Sept. 22-23 at Basilica of St. John the Evangelist, Stamford,
Conn.

— Sept. 24 at St. Theresa Church, Trumbull, Conn.

— Sept. 29 at Cathedral of Mary of the Assumption, Saginaw, Mich.

Born Francesco Forgione May 25, 1887, to a poor family near
Italy’s Adriatic coast, he entered the local Capuchin novitiate at the age of
15. He was ordained a priest in 1910 and almost immediately began informing his
superiors that he was experiencing spiritual and physical signs, along with a
number of health problems.

Beginning in 1918, at the age of 30, the priest reported bleeding
from his hands, feet and side — the stigmata wounds of Christ’s crucifixion.
The wounds were said to have lasted 50 years, until his death.

Biographers reported that St. Padre Pio was uneasy about such
phenomena, declaring, “I only want to be a friar who prays.” St.
Padre Pio’s alleged signs and special powers soon helped attract massive crowds
to his southern Italian monastery in San Giovanni Rotondo. His Capuchin
superiors tried to limit his public appearances and planned to transfer the priest,
but they backed down after popular outcry.

With donations, St. Padre Pio opened a small hospital next to the
monastery in 1925, the forerunner to a much larger health complex he had built
in the 1950s. After years of ministering to long lines of penitents and after
suffering several more bouts with illness, St. Padre Pio died in 1968.

St. Padre Pio was canonized by St. John Paul II in 2002.

Padre Pio relics at St. Ann Church

May 20 — Open to public
6:30-9 p.m.

May 21 — Open to public 7
a.m.-6:30 p.m. (Not available during Mass. See below for schedule.)

Veneration ends 10 minutes before each Mass and resumes
following Mass.

Mass schedule on Sunday: 7:30 a.m., 9 a.m., 11 a.m., 1:30
p.m. (Spanish)

Padre Pio Mass May 21 at 5:30 p.m.

St. Ann Church, 5300 N. 10th St., Arlington, 703/528-6276.

 

Related Articles