by Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
Staff Writer
(March 5, 2008) Just after midnight on March 3, the body of St. Pio of Pietrelcina was exhumed at San Giovanni Rotondo shrine where it had been buried since his death in 1968. The exhumation took place in order to have the body prepared to go on public display next month in commemoration of the fortieth anniversary of his death.
Medical experts from the Vatican’s Congregation for the Causes of Saints and local church dignitaries were present to verify the condition of the corpse after it was exhumed following a three hour service that ended at 12:30 a.m. local time.
According to the local Archbishop, the body was found to be “well preserved,” particularly the hands.
“You can clearly see the beard, knees, hands, the nails,” Monsignor Dominico D’Ambrosio told the press. “If Padre Pio will forgive me it’s as if he has just had a manicure.”
Monsignor D’Ambrosio noted that there were no signs of the stigmata which had disappeared at the moment of the saint’s death. “From the very beginning (of the exhumation) you could clearly see his beard. The upper part of his skull is visible, but his chin is prefect and the rest of his body is well preserved.”
After being preserved by morticians, the body will be on display for several months after which it will be returned to the tomb in Santa Maria delle Grazie church in San Giovanni Rotondo. The exhumation and months-long display in a large church will allow better access for pilgrims during the anniversary celebration.
“I am convinced that we all have the duty to allow future generations the chance to venerate the mortal remains of Saint Pio of Pietrelcina and to conserve them as well as possible,” Monsignor D’Ambrosio said.
An enormously popular saint, there are more than 3,000 “Padre Pio Prayer Groups” worldwide with a membership of nearly three million. An estimated seven million pilgrims visit his tomb annually and the hospital he founded in San Giovanni Rotondo, called the Casa Sollievo Della Sofferenza, or “The House for the Relief of the Suffering” is one of the largest in southern Italy.
A humble Capuchin priest, he was born in 1887 and ordained a priest in 1910. Best known for his extraordinary gifts such as perfume, bilocation, prophecy, reading of souls and miraculous cures, he received the stigmata eight years later while kneeling in prayer before a crucifix. He would bear the wounds of Christ until his death in 1968, at which time they miraculously disappeared.
During his canonization in 2002, Pope John Paul II noted that throughout his life, “he always sought greater conformity with the Crucified, since he was very conscious of having been called to collaborate in a special way in the work of redemption. His holiness cannot be understood without this constant reference to the Cross.”
Padre Pio loved to repeat “I am a poor Franciscan who prays” because he was convinced that “prayer is the best weapon we have, a key that opens the heart of God.”
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