Feast of Saint Padre Pio to be celebrated Sept. 23

Two feast masses will be celebrated Wednesday (Sept. 23) at the St. Pio of Pietrelcina Chapel of the Philippine Center for St. Pio on E. Rodrigues Jr. Avenue, Quezon City, at 10 a.m. and at 3 p.m. bin solemn observance of the feast of the well-loved Saint Padre Pio, the great apostle of the confessional.
 
Devotees are encouraged to join the Eucharistic celebration online as only about 54 persons (10 percent of the church’s capacity) will be allowed inside the church.
 
Commemorative masses will also be offered at the National Shrine of St. Padre Pio in Sto. Tomas, Batangas.  
 
In 2018, the incorrupt heart relic of the miraculous healer was brought to the country on a pilgrim tour.
 
Across the world, thousands of devotees will offer special prayers to mark the 52nd death anniversary of the popular Italian priest.
  
Padre Pio devoted his life to prayer and the Holy Eucharist at the monastery of San Giovanni Rotundo in Italy. He was a sought-after spiritual adviser, healer, and confessor.  After he began to manifest the stigmata, the five bleeding wounds of Christ, making him the first stigmatized priest in Church history, he became a point of pilgrimage for the pious.
 
Born Francesco Forgione on May 25, 1887 in Pietrelcina, Italy, he was ordained a Capuchin priest in 1910. He founded the House for the Relief of Suffering Hospital and started a prayer group, which today, has about 400,000 members all over the world. He died on September 23, 1968 and was both beatified on May 2, 1999 and canonized on June 16, 2002 by Saint John Paul II. Many miracles have been attributed to his intercession that has resulted to widespread devotion.