By Peter Rosengren
From city corporate high-flyers and business types to simple parishioners, hundreds surged forward after a special Mass in St Mary’s Cathedral last week to venerate first class relics of one of the greatest saints of the modern era.
The picture was repeated at several venues throughout Perth over the last week.
Visiting Franciscan Capuchin Fr Ermelindo Di Capua, OFM Cap had to repeatedly call for people to be patient as they crowded around the sanctuary steps to be blessed by the relics of St Pio of Pietrelcina, popularly known as Padre Pio.
An estimated 700 people or thereabouts converged on St Mary’s on Tuesday, 10 August to participate in a special Mass followed by veneration of and blessing by the relics.The Rosary, Eucharistic adoration and Benediction led by Mt Lawley parish priest Fr Timothy Deeter commenced the evening.
Padre Pio died in 1968 in his monastery in Pietrelcina, Italy, but global devotion to his holiness has continued to grow with every passing year; the saint’s life was filled with miracles that astonished even Vatican investigators and some clergy cynical of the reality of his supernatural experiences.
Perth has been the first stop in a national tour of the relics brought to Australia by fellow Capuchin Fr Ermelindo, who worked beside Padre Pio as his English translator from 1965 to 1968.
Three pieces of dried blood from Padre Pio’s Stigmata and a mitten he used to cover the wounds are the first and second class relics Fr Ermelindo brought for veneration.
It was clear from the crowds flocking forward in St Mary’s that many were hoping for cures to illness or infirmity. Throughout his life Padre Pio accomplished many healings that flabbergasted contemporaries through his prayer and own suffering although he repeatedly pointed out that it was God, not he, who healed.
Along with Fr Ermelindo, several Perth clergy concelebrated the evening’s special Mass together with Monsignor Michael Keating, Dean of St Mary’s Cathedral and Archbishop Barry Hickey as the principal celebrant. Also concelebrating were Fathers Tiziano Bogoni, Jean-Noel Marie, Norbertine Fr Stephen Cooney O.Praem. of York and Salvatorian and Franciscan of the Immaculate clergy.
In his homily Fr Ermelindo, who worked beside Padre Pio for three years as his English translator until the saint’s death in 1968, said the saint’s legendary holiness was simple but profound and accessible to all. The key, elements were, first, Christ present in the Eucharist and the Mass, then the image of Christ suffering and dying on the Cross and deep personal prayer.
An indispensable element of Padre Pio’s spirituality was devotion to Mary, Christ’s mother, who he always regarded as the most beautiful of all women; the Rosary was one of his favourite prayers and he prayed it numerous times every day, Fr Eermelindo said. Along with few other individuals in the history of the Church, Padre Pio was a stigmatist, one who bears the actual physical signs of the crucifixion. He shares membership of an extremely select group in Church history with other figures such as St Francis of Assisi, a key reformer of corruption and decay in the Church in the late 12th and early 13th century, whose distinctive spirituality became a key force shaping the Church for centuries.
When regarded as authentic, the stigmata are usually seen as the sign of a deep intimacy with, and closeness to, Christ. While the wounds cause great suffering to the individual who receives them they are regarded as a gift, a sharing by Christ of his own suffering and redemptive role with an individual. Both men and women have received the stigmata with women appearing to predominate, including St Catherine of Siena and St Gemma Galgani. Huge crowds also turned out at a number of venues around Perth, especially at Whitfords Parish where Parish Priest Fr Jospeh Tran had distributed more than 2000 flyers in the leadup to the visit of the relics to his parish, and at Infant Jesus Morley on 14 August for the Italian community.