The Saint Pio of Pietrelcina Parish n Antipolo City will be elevated to a diocesan shrine status on Monday, Sept. 23, to coincide with the feast day of its patron- Saint Padre Pio.
Diocese of Antipolo Bishop Ruperto Santos will preside over the solemn mass and declaration with Antipolo Auxiliary Bishop Nolly Buco at 4 p.m.
The celebration may be viewed live through the Official Facebook page of St. Pio of Pietrelcina Parish and the Antipolensis Facebook page.
“We are inviting the faithful to witness this event. It is with great joy that we announce the elevation of the parish to a diocesan shrine. Its official titular title will now be the Diocesan Shrine and Parish of Saint Pio of Pietrelcina,” said Bishop Santos on Monday, Sept. 23.
Meanwhile, thousands of devotees of Padre Pio, known as the miraculous healer and intercessor, will offer special prayers to mark the feast day 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 Sept. 23, 1968, and was both beatified on May 2, 1999, and canonized on June 16, 2002, by Saint John Paul II.
Padre Pio has a huge following in the country and across the world.