Padre Pio on Display
Padre Pio's body will be on display, starting today, according to CNN, the BBC, the Telegraph, and this interesting MSNBC piece, etc.
A million pilgrims are expected to see the saint between now and mid-September
Per Catholic Online:
SAN GIOVANNI ROTONDO, Italy (CNS) - The body of St. Padre Pio will be exhumed, studied and displayed for public veneration from mid-April to late September, said the archbishop who oversees the shrine where the saint is buried.
Archbishop Domenico D'Ambrosio, papal delegate for the shrine in San Giovanni Rotondo, announced Jan. 6 that he and the Capuchin friars of Padre Pio's community had decided it was important to verify the condition of the saint's body and find a way to ensure its preservation.
"A further motive for rejoicing," he said, stems from the fact that the Capuchins, with Vatican approval, "have authorized the exposition and public veneration of the saint's body for several months beginning in mid-April."
In addition to marking the 40th anniversary of Padre Pio's death Sept. 23, 1968, the public veneration of his remains also will coincide with the 90th anniversary of the day on which he was believed to have received the stigmata, bloody wounds recalling the crucifixion wounds of Jesus.
According to the Capuchins, Padre Pio received the stigmata Sept. 20, 1918.
Per the New York Times:
Capuchin friars at the sanctuary at San Giovanni Rotondo in southern Italy, where Padre Pio's tomb is visited by seven million pilgrims annually, said that "parts of the body" had been found to be "intact". Archbishop D'Ambrosio said the body was in "surprisingly good condition. As soon as we got inside the tomb we could clearly make out the beard. The top part of the skull is partly skeletal but the chin is perfect and the rest of the body is well preserved. The knees, hands, mittens and nails are clearly visible.........If Padre Pio allows me, I might say he looks as though he just had a manicure''. The body would be placed in a glass covered coffin for veneration on 24 April for a period of "several months".
The exhumation of the saint, who was credited with over a thousand miraculous cures, had been approved by the Vatican's Congregation for the Causes of Saints. The Congregation's Prefect, Cardinal José Saraiva Martins, noted that the body of Pope John XXIII, who died in 1963, had also been exhumed when he was beatified, the step before sainthood. The body was found to be unusually well preserved.
Vatican officials said Padre Pio's body had been injected with formalin for burial but "no special measures" were otherwise taken to preserve his body.
Here are pictures of the thousands at San Giovanni Rotundo today. (Via AOL news)
One surprise: It is said that when Pio's body was exhumed, there was no sign of stigmata.
Comments?
One of our C & G teachers had been healed from terminal cancer via St. Pio's intercession.
Anyone else have a Padre Pio story?
posted by Sherry W @ 6:12 AM
6 Comments
6 Comments:
exuming this corpse was noting short of barbaric. no wonder intelligent men no longer want to be priests. How could any educated person believe that praying to rotting corpse is proper.
I find this morbid as well. I don't really see how it glorifies God.
Dear Anon:
As a former Protestant, i can certainly understand the "ick" factor but you have got a hold of some bad information.
Catholics *don't pray* to rotting corpses. For that matter, we don't pray *to* saints at all.
We ask saints (who are in heaven with God and therefore, living in God's eternal now beyond time and space) to pray for us.
The saints glorify God tremendously through their holiness, their love of God and neighbor, their heroic faith and deeds, their extraordinary creativity and magnanimity (daring to do great things for God).
And when we revere (we *don't* worship them) these great older brothers and sisters of ours, we are rejoicing in one of God's great masterpieces and being challenged to become a saint ourselves.
Padre Pio was famous for working truly extraordinary miracles routinely during his life on earth. Now that he is living in the fullness of heaven, quite naturally, people continue to ask him to pray for them.
Mark Shea has a lovely piece on the Catholic view of relics and the very common "ick" factor it has for many Americans - Catholic or not.
Here http://www.mark-shea.com/relics.html
By the way, tons of highly intelligent men are priests and are preparing to become priests. I know. I've worked with hundreds of them.
The six - twelve years of graduate school required to become a Catholic priest is far more rigorous than the education required for ordination in any other Christian group. And there are already 405,000 priests.
The difference is that the number of Catholics is so large (1.2 billion) - so *much* larger than any other Christian group - that we need hundreds of thousands more clergy than non-Catholics do.
In that sense, we are victims of our own success.
I can understand revering the saints in the sense that their lives are good examples for us as Christians, but I honestly do not see why that necessitates exhuming their bodies for public display. In a way, I think it almost dishonors them to treat their bodies like a museum exhibit to be gawked at. Anyway, their spirits are alive in Heaven, and their bodies should "rest in peace" until the final resurrection.
Anonymous: there are enormous numbers of accounts of miraculous cures being effected through seriously ill people touching relics of saints. Not too different in fact from people getting their hands on St Paul's handkerchiefs or allowing St Peter's shadow to fall on them to effect cures - see Acts of The Apostles.
There is also a book published by Tan not all that long ago called "The Incorruptibles" that deals with the business of saint's bodies staying incorrupt after death. The important thing is the Catholic Church doesn't make relic veneration compulsory - the Catholic can take it or leave it but anyone who is Catholic is all too often aware of how blessings can remain attached to relics, or for that matter to miraculous images such as The Guadalupe Madonna in Mexico City. Now that is an unfathomable mystery that placed alongside relic veneration renders complaints about such practices as almost "sour grapes" or, shying away from the mystery of God. Let's face it if God can become incarnate, suffer and die and rise from the dead: why should it be unthinkable or impossible that blessings continue to flow to those who seek help from venerating the body of a known servant of that same God? Does it not help us to make that connection between spirit and matter which 1700 years ago so vexed Augustine in his theological tussles with the Manicheans who tried their best to seperate matter and spirit?
Lighten up a little Anonymous. Nobody is forcing you to go and gawk (as you say)at Padre Pio forty years on from his death. If it's not for you well that's fine by me, but I would suggest that most of those going won't be going to "gawk" but in reality will be seeking a spiritual experience of the mystery of the Triune God, and part of that may be some sort of healing, either spiritual or physical.
Cheers
Steve Sparrow
Michael G Casey email michaelgcasey@hotmail.com
Email michaelgcasey@hotmail.com
Web http://groups.msn.com/michaelgcaseywritingsite
Padre Pio and Me ©
By
Michael Casey
It’s a contradiction in terms immediately , how can I copyright a Saint . A brand new saint at that . I first heard of him through some Religious reading I did . I feel embarrassed to admit it , but I am a practising Catholic , its not fashionable to have any Faith but its mine so I admit it . Immediately the prejudice begins , but if I WERE A Jew or a Muslim , it would be the same . I do feel that my catholic tastes have given me a broader outlook on life , as has my eclectic tastes and rubbing shoulders with a wide variety of people .
But I want to talk about Padre Pio . I had a crisis and was reading about him at the time , so I said my prayers to him and the way forward was revealed . Though Padre Pio always says go Higher , he is just a stepping stone on the way to a better place . What is so hard to understand about Padre Pio is how he suffered . He had the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune . Condemned by his own superiors , made to be quiet for a decade and so forth . Science Fiction teaches or rather amuses us about Time Travel , but with Padre Pio it really happened , he wanted to share in Christ’s agony so he thought , what if he too could have and suffer the wounds on that day of Crucifiction . So it came to pass that he suffered for 50years . He had the indignity of medical examinations and of being thought just to be a mental patient , but his work and life proved his holiness .
So it’s nearly 1990 and I hear about him and read a few books , its hard to understand the value of suffering in this age of quick fix pain killers and the lets have a fix , whatever the fix might be , sex, drugs and rock and roll or whatever . Its like suddenly studying again after years of lying fallow , the learning curve is enormous . So too is it with Padre Pio , the idea behind his life is enormous , but so too is the capacity for love and help .
My favourite story is how Padre Pio explains that The Wedding Feast at Cena happened because Jesus could not refuse his mother . Very Italian , or Irish or Spanish and so on , but could any of us refuse our mothers?
So I thought more about what Padre Pio said , and his motto of Pray Hope Don’t Worry became my own . Carpe Diem is another good motto but perhaps this can be used by any Hedonist , or other kind of selfish person .Padre Pio reminds us to pray and that pray is not wasted , its perfume that is never wasted is a phrase I like . My mother always used to say that if you couldn’t sleep you should say the Rosary , and she was right . Though in todays world an hour on the Internet or with MTV might do the trick .
So why the devotion to Padre Pio , I’ll cut to the chase.
My mother died suddenly but peacefully in her sleep , my brother tried CPR , but she was gone . Imagine the angusih amongst her 6 children and her husband of nearly 50 years . All except me , my mother had said no tears when she go ,so I never cried , I was the odd one out .I know how prayerful she was , so I had no need of tears .
Eight bare weeks later my brother , the same brother heard our dad fall out of bed , so he ran to his bedroom . My brother was facing the exact same situation , he tried CPR , the ambulance was called , an injection was given straight to the heart . On weekends there is a doctor in the ambulance , so Luck , if that’s the word was with us . The next day 4 of my brothers and sisters came around to tell me the news . When my sister had come around 8 weeks previously I knew somebody was dead but I assumed it was my dad , he’s die first we all thought . So now 8 weeks later it was his turn to die .
At the hospital dad was given 1 week to live , I cried like a baby , worse than a baby , but I loved him , so I told he he should go to our mother and not hang on if he didn’t want to . The next day I was in my sister’s house crying , we picked hymns for his funeral .Yet my father survived , 19 patients on a heart ward , 18 died my dad survived . Padre Pio was beseiged by my prayers , I put Padre Pio’s photo under his pillow . Dad lost his mind , he was in Dudley Rd for 3months , 12 weeks , more than half of them all tubed up . His life hanging in the balance . At the same time somewhere in Florida another man was at deaths door , he was a totally stranger to me , I didn’t even know his name , I’d never met him , he was give 24hours to live , a Chinese man from Shanghai was at deaths door . The Chinaman survived .My dad’s memory was totally wiped , he did not know who I was, I’m your son was greeted with , am I married . I was the favourite son , he did not even know me . But still we prayed , it’s a feeling in your guts , just like when you are nearly killed as you cross the road , its in your guts and in your heart , Jesus save my dad , Jesus save my dad , Padre Pio help !!! This goes around your head like a merry go around or a kaleidascope . Finally dad awoke . He said that he can remember hearing the doctor say to wheel him down to the end of the ward , because he’d be dead soon . At that moment my dad awoke, and the doctor dropped his cup of tea in shock . No not an instanteous miracle , but as Dr Singh had said if he were 30years younger he’d have a heart transplant because dad’s heart was rubbish .
Now , when I told my brother that dad was reading a newspaper he was shocked . His memory had come back . He knew who we all were .Every day for three months I walked the corridor at Dudley Rd , the longest hospital corridor in Europe , 1 kilometre long . Finally he left the hospital , my sister had found a good home for him to live in , he was far too weak to live in the family house .
For 3 years dad survived , like a Godfather with all his children making constant visits . Finally I met my future wife . It was her uncle who had miraclously survived at the same time as my father . It was her uncle who encouraged us in our love . From Shanghai to Birmingham .These great men , her uncle and my father never met , but I know Padre Pio must have helped both of them . Further prayer was needed to bring me and my wife permanenetly together . A Chinese miracle happened . Now we are wed , we have a 2year old and please God a healthy second baby in the Autumn . The improbability of our meeting , plus the fact that both men HAD to live for us to be married and have a family , this may be a coincidence to some but I know a miracle when I see one. A miracle is something that makes you feel humble , it makes you know that God has whispered your name . When I look at my wife , I feel humble . Seeing our daughter laugh and play also makes me humble as will our new baby.
Then you can look back and know that prayer is like perfume that can never be wasted , your life has led you to where you are now , yes at times sad and terrible , but be humble in the sight of God means something , not just for me , but for all Believers .
I once stood by the fridge and said to Padre Pio , I give up , you take over , all I want is to be married , and perhaps have a family , and do something useful with my life . That was just before my eyes were opened to my wife . I used to say that I got 2 out of my 3 wishes . Perhaps my current occupation is my 3rd wish , or a more outstanding miracle is waiting in the wings , but as Padre Pio said ,always ask for the big Grace .Perhaps
we have to be humble enough to deserve it , because I believe it to be a fact that , truly great people are humble because they know just how little they really know.
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