Saints Peter and Paul in Naperville to host the only 2023 Padre Pio Relic Tour in Illinois
Francesco Forgione, OFMCap, better known as Padre Pio, was an Italian Franciscan Capuchin friar, priest, stigmatist, and mystic. He was beatified in 1999 and canonized in 2002 by Pope John Paul II.
His relics are exposed in a golden crypt in the sanctuary of Saint Pio of Pietrelcina, next to the convent of San Giovanni Rotondo, now a major pilgrimage site.
He has become one of the world's most popular saints.
The U.S.-based Saint Pio Foundation sponsors tours of the relics of Padre Pio in (arch)dioceses and parishes across North America.
The majority of those attending the relics tour would never be able to travel to San Giovanni Rotondo or Pietrelcina to visit the places where the saint was born, lived, and died.
Now hundreds of thousands of the faithful can have a "spiritual encounter" with Padre Pio, to pray to him, and to ask for his intercession.
The Relics of Padre Pio will be displayed for veneration on Tuesday, July 11, at Saints Peter and Paul Catholic Church, 36 N. Ellsworth St. in Naperville.
Veneration follows an opening Mass at 8 a.m.; veneration ends at 6:30 p.m., prior to a 7 p.m. closing Mass.
Free parking is available in all church lots, as well as neighborhood street parking.
Faithful visitors are asked to process through the veneration line that begins at the main (west) church doors; a handicap entrance and exit is located on the north side of the church. Recitation of the Holy Rosary and witness talks will occur throughout the day.
The relics will be displayed near the altar, with pews reserved for silent prayer and devotion.
Freewill donations can be made to the Saint Pio Foundation. Religious items and books will be available for purchase from 9 a.m. to 6:30 p.m.
Visit sspeterandpaul.net/events/padrepio for more information.
In the Catholic Church, relics are physical objects associated with a saint or candidate for sainthood - part of the person's body or something with which he or she was in contact. Relics are not worshipped, but treated with religious respect.
Touching or praying in the presence of such an object helps a faithful individual focus on the saint's life and virtues, so that through the saint's prayer or intercession before God, the individual will be drawn closer to God.
The authentic relics of Saint Pio of Pietrelcina, which are available for public veneration, are the following:
• The crusts of his wounds
• Cotton gauze bearing his blood stains
• A lock of his hair
• His handkerchief soaked with his sweat only hours before he died
• A piece of Padre Pio's mantle/garment
The Saint Pio Foundation is a premier national charitable organization that promotes awareness of Saint Pio and his mission by working with institutions and individuals who share the same vision to serve "those in need of relief of suffering."
Funds raised by the Saint Pio Foundation are used to provide grants to American Catholic health care, and educational, social, religious, and cultural partner organizations.
Saints Peter and Paul was founded in 1846 and is the oldest established parish in DuPage County - currently one of the most active in the Diocese of Joliet. Throughout its history, the parish has been a vibrant and vital part of the Naperville community through dozens of ministries that focus on parish life, worship, evangelization, and Christian service.
Today Saints Peter and Paul Catholic School educates over 475 students in preschool through eighth grade, and the parish serves more than 4,000 families. Its campus includes seven buildings, including its Gothic edifice with bell tower, on a seven-acre campus in the heart of Naperville, a Chicago suburb with a population over 145,000.