Saint Pio makes a home in the hearts of diocesan faithful
The relic of Saint Padre Pio that will stay permanently at St. Peter's - a bandage that covered his chest wound from the stigmata - is seen in front of the altar during the installation Mass. Bishop Michael Olson blessed and installed the relic at St. Peter the Apostle Parish on Sept. 18, 2024. (NTC/Juan Guajardo)
FORT WORTH — Even at the end of a 12-hour day of welcoming visitors to Saint Peter the Apostle Church in Fort Worth, Mary Tobola buzzed with energy.
A volunteer with the parish’s St. Vincent de Paul ministry, Tobola was asked to help distribute prayer cards, sell devotional items, and give guests a brief summary of the relics of Saint Padre Pio on display in the church.
Tobola and other volunteers offered much hospitality, considering about 2,000 people visited the parish on Sept. 18 to venerate the relics of the Italian saint. The day began with daily Mass with Father Alexander Ambrose, HGN; continued with a temporary display of five first-class relics; and concluded with an evening Mass with Bishop Michael Olson, who blessed and installed a permanent relic in the west Fort Worth parish.
The evening closed with the premiere of a docudrama, “Saint Pio of Pietrelcina: Man of Hope and Healing.”
A PLACE FOR A SAINT
Fr. Ambrose, the pastor, expressed that the parish is “blessed and happy” to be home to St. Pio’s relic, which he hopes will “touch people’s lives because he has been a great saint, an exemplary saint.”
At the morning Mass Sept. 18, Fr. Ambrose touched a relic and prayed for his parishioners and visitors “that they be strengthened in their faith, that their love for God grow, and that our diocese be blessed.”
St. Pio, explained Fr. Ambrose, was devoted to the Holy Eucharist — “daily nourishment for us to grow as the children of God” — and the pastor hopes that pilgrims who visit the relic will grow in their love for the Eucharist.
The relic, a bandage stained with blood from the wound on St. Pio’s side, now resides permanently in a reliquary in front of the church’s altar. It is on display in the church daily, and three days per month the reliquary will be removed to allow pilgrims the opportunity to touch the relic. Hours can be found at stpeterfw.com/visitation-hours-and-pilgrimages. The church is located at 1201 South Cherry Lane in west Fort Worth.
The diocese obtained the relic in partnership with the Saint Pio Foundation, which has granted relics to six U.S. dioceses — in the north, south, west, east, and center of the nation, forming a giant cross. Fort Worth is the southern end of the cross and is the second location to receive a relic.
A relic is a physical object associated with a saint, such as part of the body or a personal possession. The Catholic Church teaches that relics are venerated to help the faithful focus on the saint’s life and virtues and to draw closer to God through prayer and intercession of the saint.
In a Guadalupe Radio Network interview on Sept. 16, Bishop Olson explained that a relic is “a tangible reminder and devotion for our ongoing conversion to live our lives, both internally and externally, in accord with the Gospel.”
ABOUT SAINT PADRE PIO
Saint Pio was born in 1887 in Pietrelcina, Italy, and joined the Capuchin order at the age of 15. He was ordained a Franciscan priest in 1910 and served in the military as a friar during World War I.
In 1918, he received the stigmata, the five wounds Jesus suffered during His Passion, and the painful wounds remained for 50 years. He was also known for having visions and the gift of healing. His holiness and love for others drew many to seek him in the celebration of Mass and in the confessional, where he sometimes remained from sunrise to sunset.
He endured spiritual suffering and poor health with courage, obedience, and devotion to prayer.
After his death in 1968, his reputation for sanctity and miraculous manifestations grew across the world. Pope John Paul II beatified Padre Pio in 1999 and canonized him on June 16, 2002.
THE SAINT’S LEGACY
More than 800 people attended the installation Mass for the permanent relic.
In his homily, Bishop Michael Olson cited Padre Pio as an example of humility and obedience, “dedicated to the celebration of the sacrament of penance and reconciliation, whereby he administered the mercy of God generously to penitents.”
He reminded the congregation that Padre Pio “loved to repeat, ‘I am a poor Franciscan who prays,’ convinced that ‘prayer is the best weapon we have, a key that opens the heart of God.’”
Following the Mass, a long line of people waited to kneel in prayer before the relic, sometimes touching it with a rosary or prayer card.
After welcoming people all day, Tobola stood in the narthex chatting with friends about the day’s events.
Earlier in the afternoon, she took advantage of a quiet moment to spend a few minutes in prayer with the five visiting relics: a lock of hair, a crust of Saint Pio’s wounds, a glove, a piece of his mantle, and a handkerchief which had mopped his sweat.
She asked the saint to intercede for some special intentions. The experience “made me feel so special because I was able to go in there and ask for special blessings for [her family]. It moves me.”
The saint has been special to Tobola since early in her 50-year marriage when she and her husband asked the Italian saint for his intercession when her husband had a serious health condition.
She observed that many visitors were also devoted to the saint.
“It warmed me to watch people go in, and their reaction to the relics, and some even came out in tears,” she said, noting some drove from Plano or Granbury.
Although the parish doesn’t expect a large influx of visitors like the first day, pilgrims from far and near will be welcomed as they spend some time in prayer with a saint.