Saint's relics on display at Naperville church
Sacred relics of one of the Catholic church's modern-day saints will be on display Friday in Naperville.
The single public veneration in Illinois will display six relics of Saint Padre Pio from 9 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. in Naperville at Ss. Peter and Paul Catholic Church, 36 N. Ellsworth St.
To honor the saint, the Rev. Brad Baker will celebrate Mass at 7 p.m. in the church.
The veneration of holy relics has a long history to Catholics. The North American tour of the St. Padre Pio relics follows a successful tour across the United States last year, and hopes to give thousands of believers an opportunity to experience the power of praying to Saint Padre Pio.
The revered relics will include cotton gauze with Saint Pio's blood stains, a lock of the saint's hair, and Saint Pio's mantle, glove and handkerchief.
"Padre Pio was one of the few saints that was able to bilocate," said Michael Lewandowski, pastoral associate at St. Joan of Arc Catholic Church, who leads a monthly lecture and discussion at the Lisle church on individual saints. "This meant that, on certain occasions, he could literally be in two places at once."
Lewandowski said the saint also had the ability to read souls and to know what was in a person's heart. Many followers reached out to have the Capuchin friar hear their confessions.
Pio often spent 16 hours a day hearing confessions and offering his counsel to people, many who came from great distances.
Padre Pio also bore the crucifixion wounds of Christ called stigmata, meaning that he bled from the same areas that Christ did during His crucifixion, said Ron Frederick, one of roughly 100 volunteers who are organizing the Naperville visit.
Many miracles have been attributed to the saint, who was born in Pietrelcina, Italy, on May 25, 1887. By the age of 10, Pio knew he wanted to be a priest. His father came to the U.S. for several years to work and earn the extra money needed to finance his son's education.
Pio entered the Capuchin order of monks at the age of 15 and was ordained a priest in 1910 at the age of 23.
Pio's life, miracles and witness to the Gospel are inspiring, and many Catholics have a devotion to him, Lewandowski said. People travel to Italy to see his incorrupt body and to visit the places where he lived. Saint Pio was known as a mystic with miraculous abilities to heal.
During his lifetime, Pio planned a full service hospital in San Giovanni Rotondo, named the Casa Sollievo della Sofferenza, or Home for the Relief of Suffering. It opened in 1956 in the south of Italy and continues today.
Padre Pio died on Sept. 23, 1968, clutching his rosary. He was canonized a saint on June 16, 2002, by Pope John Paul II, who had himself traveled from Poland to Puglia, Italy, in 1947 to go to confession with Padre Pio. The shrine of Padre Pio receives millions of pilgrims each year.
Officials, who worked a full year on the opportunity to bring the Pio relics to Naperville, anticipate a large number of worshippers. In September 2017, relics were displayed at St. Ita Parish in Chicago and roughly 11,000 worshippers came.
The display at Ss. Peter and Paul is sponsored by The Saint Pio Foundation to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the saint's death. That organization will have available for purchase books and items related to Saint Padre Pio in the entryway of the church.