Padre Pio Pilgrimage Church in San Giovanni Rotondo, Italy
The leisurely 415 km. drive from Assisi to Padre Pio’s Shrine through the japanese coast of Italy, heading south to the mountainous area south of Rome, took about 5 hours. We stopped by the seaside metropolis of Pescara for a late luxurious seafood lunch and arrived on the small city of San Giovanni Rotondo because the solar was setting. It took us fairly some time driving round in circles on the lookout for our resort till we realized that it was good in entrance of the walkway resulting in the shrine.
Padre Pio Pietrelcina, the saint, has many devotees within the Philippines, and there’s additionally a devoted shrine for him in Sto. Tomas, Batangas. He turned well-known for having stigmata and making miracle cures, and having supernatural talents similar to bilocation (being in two locations without delay), making him controversial within the Catholic institution.
When he died, aged 81, in 1968, his fame had unfold globally, with hundreds of thousands of individuals believing his therapeutic powers and his canonization in 2002 additional elevated his believers many occasions over. His physique was exhumed in 2008, and greater than one million individuals filed previous his corpse, which was stated to be nonetheless in good situation when it was placed on show.
The Church-Shrine was in-built 2004 to accommodate the hundreds of thousands of devotees who’ve made his hometown a significant pilgrimage web site. Designed by Italy’s most well-known architect, Renzo Piano, who additionally designed the ultra-modern Pompidou Middle in Paris, the construction is formed like a shell with arches radiating from the principle altar.
The interiors fuse with the broad piazza exterior additionally constructed with the identical stone. The one barrier between the 2 areas are massive stained glass home windows depicting photos from the Apocalypse.
The 6,000 sqm. construction can maintain 6,500 seated individuals and may attain 10,000 if standing solely, and as many as 30,000 can match within the outside plaza. Beneath the church is the crypt the place the Saint’s physique could be seen.
His face, which has a really peaceable countenance, is coated with a silicone masks, and his cranium is roofed by his monastic temper. He appears to be sleeping, wearing his darkish brown Capuchin gown.
It’s good to stroll across the broad exterior house. There’s a tall Cross with a bell tower with eight majestic bells, and there are 24 olive timber representing the 12 Prophets and 12 Apostles of Christ. A close-by fountain with operating water symbolized the River Jordan.
Close by stood the Santa Maria del Grazie (Our Woman of Grace) church the place Padre Pio used to say Mass and obtain confessions. He was additionally initially buried there in a crypt.
There’s a Through Crucis within the forested hill behind the church, however we have been too drained to climb it, so we simply purchased some souvenirs and ate one other hearty meal close by. Boy, doing a pilgrimage certain does make you hungry!
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Concerning the Writer
Al P. Manlangit is a Filipino architect based mostly in Kuwait who likes to journey and take pictures everytime he will get the possibility to take action. The genres that he explores are panorama, structure, and road images which turn out to be useful wherever he goes. He blogs at designerq8.com, specializing in fascinating locations he visited with quick tales to inform behind every body.