Saint Pio relics visit diocese

Headline: Saint Pio relics visit diocese
 
By Sonia Mullally
DCA Editor
 
The popular saint known as Padre Pio has gained “rock star” status since his death in 1968 and canonization in 2002, it’s perhaps fitting that he’s on an international tour.
 
The third stop on a 40-diocese spring tour coordinated by the Saint Pio Foundation was at the Cathedral of the Holy Spirit in Bismarck on March 12. Thousands of the faithful, from across the diocese and beyond, showed up to venerate the six relics on display, attend Mass, and take part in Eucharistic adoration and the sacrament of reconciliation.
 
The relics, on loan to the foundation, included: his glove; crusts of wounds; cotton-gauze with Saint Pio's blood stains; a lock of hair; his mantle; and a handkerchief soaked with his sweat hours before he died.
 
“I am always motivated when contacted by smaller dioceses,” said Luciano Lamonarca, who as founder and president of the Saint Pio Foundation in New York City organized the relics tour for the 50 ^th anniversary of the saint’s death. “It’s a spiritual sign from Padre Pio to bring him to those who might never have a chance to visit him.”
 
The former rector of the Cathedral of the Holy Spirit, Msgr. Tom Richter, had visited with his friend, Fr. Marcel Taillon, St. Thomas More Parish in Rhode Island. That parish had hosted the relics last fall. From this, Msgr. Richter contacted the Saint Pio Foundation to request the relics come to the Bismarck Diocese. Once that was set into motion, the details were arranged with Bishop Kagan and Lamonarca.
 
In Italy, Lamonarca, explained that most every Catholic home has a photo of Padre Pio hanging on their wall. But, his personal devotion to the saint came year later after he had come the United States in 2008 to pursue a career as an opera singer.
 
After his wife, Valentina, suffered a miscarriage in the fifth month of pregnancy, the couple went through some dark times. On the first anniversary of the loss, they visited the tomb of Padre Pio to ask for his intercession. “Like everyone does, we asked for some sort of sign from him,” Lamonarca said.
 
On their visit to Italy they met a monsignor who had been a friend of Padre Pio. He showed them a handkerchief soaked with the blood of the saint. Lamonarca said that when that handkerchief was pulled out of its storage bag, “it was as if the room was filled with 1,000 roses.”
 
A flowery odor is associated with certain saints like Padre Pio. The blood that flowed from his stigmata was reported to have smelled like roses.
 
“[The smell] was so strong; my wife and I started to cry,” he said. “The monsignor said that we would have many challenges and sacrifices, but we would be parents and that Padre Pio had a big vision for me.”
 
In 2013, Lamonarca began making connections with people working to promote Padre Pio’s legacy. Then in 2014, he started the foundation. And, on Sept. 3, 2015, he and his wife had their son, Sebastian.
 
“My mission, all my efforts and direction with the foundation are to thank God for the blessing of a healthy, beautiful child,” he added.
 
He said that he continues to pray to Padre Pio for himself and others that this is what the saint would want for his legacy. From Bismarck, Lamonarca boarded a plane for San Bernadino, Calif. to display the relics continuing the 40-diocese tour.
 
About Padre Pio
 
St. Pio was born on May 25, 1887 in Pietrelcina, Italy, and baptized Francesco Forgione. He first expressed his desire for priesthood at age 10. To pay for the preparatory education, his father, Grazio Forgione, emigrated to the United States in 1899, where he worked for several years.
 
The future saint entered the Capuchin order at age 15, taking the name Pio. He was ordained a priest in 1910 at the age of 23. During his lifetime, Padre Pio was known as a mystic with miraculous powers of healing and knowledge, who bore the stigmata. Stigmata is the term the Catholic Church uses to speak about the wounds an individual receives that correspond to the crucifixion wounds of Jesus Christ. They can appear on the forehead, hands, wrists, and feet.
 
His stigmata emerged during World War I, after Pope Benedict XV asked Christians to pray for an end to the conflict. Padre Pio had a vision in which Christ pierced his side. A few weeks later, on Sept. 20, 1918, Jesus again appeared to him, and he received the full stigmata. It remained with him until his death on Sept. 23, 1968. Pope John Paul II canonized him in 2002.
 
Those devoted to St. Pio regard these wounds as signs of holiness and miraculous fact that they never became infected, though they did bleed. So much so, that St. Pio is said to have changed his fingerless gloves twice a day.
 
As Catholics, we pray for the intercession of the saints to help us become good and holy people in our mission to live eternal with Our Lord. We venerate their relics as recognition of a true and intentional disciple of God and to hopefully imitate that type of discipleship.