PALM BEACH GARDENS | St. Pio of Pietrelcina (Padre Pio) is one of the most revered 20th-century saints, and even though many would like to visit the area of Italy that he called home, taking a pilgrimage is out of reach for most. So, the saint known as the “man of hope and healing” is coming to the Diocese of Palm Beach as part of an exclusive Florida engagement.
On Monday, Sept. 16, the Cathedral of St. Ignatius Loyola, 9999 N. Military Trail in Palm Beach Gardens, will host events that will include veneration of five St. Pio relics, rare photos of the saint and the pre-release screening of the new docudrama, “Saint Pio of Pietrelcina: Man of Hope and Healing,” produced by the Saint Pio Foundation and EWTN. Veneration of the relics will begin at 11 a.m. and continue throughout the day until 5:30 p.m., with Mass at 6 p.m. followed by showing of the hour-long film. Relics are either parts of a saint’s body, possessions that a saint owned or something used by a saint. In veneration of relics, the faithful pray for the saint’s comfort and intercession to God. The St. Pio relics at the cathedral will include crusts of his stigmata wounds, a handkerchief used during a Mass to wipe his tears, a lock of St. Pio’s hair, one of his white gloves and a piece of his cloak.
The docudrama, narrated by actor Joe Mantegna, features appearances by actors Gary Sinise and Robert Davi and Cardinal Edwin O’Brien, grand master emeritus of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem, and others who knew the saint and had regular contact with him. Sept. 16 will be the first of five public screenings of the film before its official release near St. Pio’s Sept. 23 feast day. The other showings will be in Texas, Pennsylvania, California and New York.
Luciano Lamonarca, CEO and founder of the Saint Pio Foundation, said the film will offer extraordinary insights into the Capuchin Franciscan friar’s life and dispel some of the myths surrounding him.
“We are trying to present a St. Pio more human and close to people,” he said. “Relics are important tools for the faithful. The vast majority will never get the opportunity to visit Pietrelcina or San Giovanni Rotondo (St. Pio’s home from 1916 until his death in 1968). Our mission is to bring St. Pio to them.
“One thing I try to change in the scenario of the people is that St. Pio was not that dark man that some people think of. They think he was serious, challenging, not always loving,” Lamonarca said. St. Pio showed appropriate reverence for the Mass, Lamonarca said, but he also liked to tell jokes, laugh and spend time with people. In the film, a Capuchin friar says the portrayal of St. Pio as an overly serious man was not the Pio he knew.
Prior to the docudrama screening, Lamonarca, an opera singer and philanthropist from Italy’s Puglia region who lives now in New York, and Davi, who starred in the movies “Die Hard,” “License to Kill” and others, will offer reflections on how St. Pio has touched their lives.
Father Albert Dello Russo, chancellor of the Diocese of Palm Beach, who is Lamonarca’s friend and will be the main celebrant at the 6 p.m. Mass, said it’s intriguing to know that St. Pio bore the bodily wounds of Christ (stigmata) for much of his life.
“This is where I’ve started wondering: Why did God do that to that man? And then, what is the message? Clearly, it’s something special, but it’s also an affliction,” he said.
The collection of 10 photographs that will be displayed will emphasize the many sides of St. Pio’s life and legacy. The gallery of photos, shown at the Vatican on April 29, 2024, can be downloaded for free at www.saintpiofoundation.org/photographs-of-saint-pio.
Less than 60 years after his death, the faithful keep being drawn to St. Pio’s holiness and wisdom. Father Gavin Badway, rector of the Cathedral of St. Ignatius Loyola, said many local parishioners knew the saint or had family members who knew him. “He’s a saint of our time. People still know him. We’re not that far removed from someone having shaken his hand,” he said.
Father Badway said that, since it will be the only Florida event of this kind, he expects a large regional crowd at the cathedral. He encourages all in need of comfort or heavenly aid to stop by the cathedral and appeal to St. Pio.
“If you need a miracle — and a lot of people do in their lives, especially for healing — come,” he said. “You never know. You may not get it, but at least if you come you have a chance, based on your faith, that you could receive this miracle from God.”
To learn more about the Saint Pio Foundation, visit www.saintpiofoundation.org. To view the official trailer for “Saint Pio of Pietrelcina: Man of Hope and Healing,” go to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e6KRS9-PClE.
The life of St. Pio of Pietrelcina
Born Francesco Forgione in 1887 in Pietrelcina, Italy, the future St. Pio entered the Capuchin order at age 15 and was ordained a priest in 1910, according to OSV News. Between 1915 and 1918, he served intermittently in the Italian Army’s medical corps during World War I, but was ultimately discharged due to poor health. He returned to his monastery at San Giovanni Rotondo in southern Italy, and in 1918 received the stigmata (the wounds of Christ), the first priest to receive such marks in the history of the Catholic Church.
Amid sustained physical and spiritual suffering — compounded by austerity and long hours of prayer — he established Casa Sollievo della Sofferenza, now a renowned national research hospital located in San Giovanni Rotondo. The Capuchin also devoted himself to the healing of souls, often spending more than 15 hours a day hearing confessions. Padre Pio died in 1968 and was canonized in 2002 by then-St. John Paul II, with whom he had been friends since 1947.
