Padre Pio’s Shrine and St Michael's Cave Church in Italy

One of the places I was looking forward to seeing in Italy was Padre Pio’s place in San Giovanni Rotondo.  I’ve read a couple of books about him and I really love his wisdom.   I’m a big fan. When you’re highly aware that you’re imperfect, you really have to find idols that would inspire you to be better.  Haha…  

Here’s one anecdote which I think most of us could relate -

Once a woman asked him, “Tell me how to pray. I am always distracted.” Padre Pio replied, “You must not be distracted voluntarily. But if you’re distracted, continue to pray … our Savior knows that you are not an angel praying to Him but a poor woman…. And when you find it difficult to concentrate, don’t waste more time stopping to consider why and the wherefore. It’s like a traveler who loses his way. As soon as he realizes he is on the wrong road, he immediately sets himself on the right road again...”

The best tip ever on praying because I easily get distracted!  Haha…

Anyway,while at San Giovanni, we were able to visit the Padre Pio Shrine. The Shrine receives 7 million visitors every year! Wow… 

Main altar of the Padre Pio Shrine

Inside the Padre Pio Shrine

Right below the main church is another chapel which houses the tomb of Padre Pio. Here's how it looks like -    

 

This is the queue for those who wish to pay respects to Padre Pio.

 

This is the closest you could get to Padre Pio’s incorrupt body.  

Exiting at the back of the Shrine, here’s how the Shrine looks like from outside.

If you continue walking farther from the Shrine, it will lead you to the Church of Sta Maria della Grazie where Padre Pio used to celebrate mass.  

On the left (the small structure) is the original church

Here's inside the small church (the original church) - it's here where Padre Pio used to celebrate mass. 

We were lucky to have been able to hear mass there - concelebrated by about 6 Filipino priests. Wow.  :) 


Inside the chapel is Padre Pio’s confessional.  He devoted much of his life to hearing confessions and he could read through people’s sins. He knew when you’re not confessing all your sins, or when you’re not sincere, or when you go there only out of curiosity.  He also knew what a penitent’s sins were even before confessing!  
 

 Below the church lies the place where Padre Pio’s body was once on display for public viewing. (I think that was for a year between 2008 and 2009.  Too bad though, I heard about it too late or I could have gone earlier. Sigh…)

In his lifetime, Padre Pio received thousands of letters from people all over the world asking for prayers.  Guess who’s one of them?  Blessed JP2 when he wasn’t a Pope yet!  As the story goes - 

“In 1962, Bishop Karol Wojtyła, wrote to Padre Pio asking him to pray to God for Dr. Wanda Poltawska, a friend in Poland who was suffering from cancer. Later, Dr. Poltawska's cancer was found to have regressed; medical professionals were unable to offer an explanation for the regression. It is also rumored that during this time that Padre Pio had predicted Wojtyła would become Pope.”  Wow…
 
Here’s a snapshot of some of the letters he received.  Letters were in shelves, floor-to- ceiling, wall–to-wall. 

Letters to Padre Pio

And here’s Padre Pio’s room.  It felt surreal standing in front of it.  It was in this place where he spent a lot of time suffering from his stigmata.

 There were also some Padre Pio relics on display like these  -

Right outside the church is a beautiful staircase.  It’s the entrance to the Way of the Cross.

While in the area, we also visited St. Michael’s Cave in Gargano, Italy.

It is said that St. Michael the Archangel appeared here in the 5th century.  Here's the fascinating story -

In the year 490, when a nobleman of this small village lost the best bull in his herd, he went searching for him and found the bull kneeling in a deserted cave. The cave was inacessable and so to put the animal out of its misery, the nobleman shot an arrow at it, but to his amazement the arrow turned around and struck him instead! Stunned by this apparently supernatural event, the man went to see the local bishop for advice. The Bishop, uncertain of whether this was of divine origin or not, ordered 3 days of prayer and fasting. The Bishop, however, had his doubts about the apparition, thinking perhaps he had just dreamed it, decided to ignore it and put it out of his mind.

St Michael appeared to the Bishop in 3 various incidents after that and a church was built.

Here’s the entrance to the Church

 

And here's inside the underground cave church -  

  
You could really feel that it's a holy place. It is said that a lot of popes and saints have visited this church including Padre Pio who frequented it since it's near San Giovanni.   St. Francis of Assisi also visited St. Michael's Church and it is said that he considered it to be so holy that he would not even enter it.  It's a good thing I found out about the story of St. Francis after the tour, otherwise, I would have felt so uncomfortable going inside the cave!  If St. Francis felt he was unworthy, I was inifinite times unworthy. Wahaha....