On September 18, Bene Italian Village will welcome the relics of the Italian Franciscan priest St Pio of Petrelcina, better known as “Padre Pio”.
Mass will be celebrated by Bene’s Father Felice followed by veneration of the relics. For many, this will be a rare opportunity to witness the relics and honour the saint widely known for his suffering, humility and miracles.
For Fr Felice who twice met Padre Pio, it will be his great privilege to receive the relics in the chapel of the Italian Village where he celebrates Mass each week.
The first-class relics of Padre Pio will include a pair of his gloves, cotton gauze with bloodstains, crusts of his wounds, a lock of his hair, his mantle and a handkerchief soaked with his sweat hours before his death.
Padre Pio is one of the few saints who has suffered the wounds of Christ—the stigmata—generating much interest and controversy. He was beatified in 1999 and later canonised in 2002 by Pope John Paul II.
The visitation of his relics this year will hold a special significance as it commemorates the centenary of his permanent stigmata apparition in 1918, and the 50th anniversary of his death in 1968.
DATE: 18 September 2018
TIME: 10:30am
PLACE: Bene Italian Village, 6 Mumford Avenue, St Agnes