Saint Pio continues to inspire faithful of Fort Worth, says Saint Pio Foundation head
Luciano Lamonarca, the founder and CEO of the Saint Pio Foundation, holds a relic of the Franciscan friar on June 6, 2025.
WHITE SETTLEMENT – Saint Pio holds a special place in the heart of Italian opera singer Luciano Lamonarca.
The tenor was raised with a fondness for the Franciscan friar because they hailed from the same region of Italy, and his devotion grew strong after an encounter with a relic of the saint helped Lamonarca and his wife heal from the pain of a miscarriage.
Lamonarca credits the saint’s intervention for the miraculous birth of his son in 2015.
In 2014, Lamonarca founded the Saint Pio Foundation so that others would be educated and inspired by the Italian saint, who died in 1968 and was canonized by Saint John Paul II in 2002.
Although the foundation is based in New York, it has established St. Pio chapels where a first-class relic of the saint is displayed in three dioceses: Fort Worth, Pittsburgh, and Salina, Kansas.
Lamonarca explained, “What I want to create is a way for the faithful and local community and surrounding communities to have access to St. Pio at all times and be very, very mindful” of the contemporary saint.
Saint Pio, who endured poor health and spiritual battles with courage, patience, and devotion to prayer, teaches the faithful to cope with suffering, said the foundation’s CEO. Among his other physical ailments, for 50 years Saint Pio bore the stigmata, the five wounds Jesus suffered during his crucifixion.
“Sufferings are inevitable – it’s the way you bear them. If you really give them to God, to Jesus, you offer them for the good of this world because you accept the suffering. So no better person than Padre Pio to teach you that,” Lamonarca said.
The relic of St. Pio in the Diocese of Fort Worth is a blood-soaked piece of cloth from the wound in the Franciscan friar’s side. It resides in a reliquary in front of the altar at St. Peter the Apostle Church at 1201 Cherry Lane in White Settlement.
Bishop Michael Olson installed the relic on September 18, 2024, at the parish in west Tarrant County. About 800 people, including Lamonarca, attended the installation Mass and related events.
Since its installation, more than sixty groups have come to St. Peter Church to venerate the relic of the saint, and the relic has traveled to 10 parishes for veneration in the northwest region of the Diocese of Fort Worth.
Lamonarca said, “When I started [exploring the establishment of St. Pio chapels], I didn't know what devotion was out there. The devotion is immense.”
Bishop Olson has announced that each of the five churches designated as pilgrimage sites in the Diocese of Fort Worth for the Year of Jubilee will welcome the relic for two days of veneration, beginning with Immaculate Conception of Mary Parish in Wichita Falls on June 28-29.
On June 6, the Diocese of Fort Worth hosted a meeting with Lamonarca and some of the board of the Saint Pio Foundation.
Lamonarca remarked, “It is our delight and my distinguished honor to be here today to personally donate this relic in perpetuity to the Diocese of Fort Worth.”
The relic is on display at St. Peter the Apostle Church daily, and three days per month the reliquary is removed to allow pilgrims the opportunity to touch the relic. Hours can be found at stpeterfw.com/visitation-hours-and-pilgrimages.