Roundabout

Roundly speaking, the Italians seem to like tacking the term 'rotondo' on to various names, so after Easter when four of us vehicularized to visit Saint Padre Pio's home, we were heading to San Giovanni Rotondo--Saint John the Round, or something around that.

The Capuchin monastery has had several enlargements added to it, since it's become an incredibly popular pilgrimage site among Italians, the most popular if the Vatican doesn't beat it out.

The mural at left is from the new church behind the main altar, where you can see Saint Pio asking Mary and Jesus what to do with all these visitors. Actually there's a bunch of angels, and the one to the left has a crown of flowers, so its probably much more profound, like, 'Where should we put the angels and the flowers?'

John Paul II canonized Padre Pio in 2002, and he is the opposite sort of saint from what a modern religion would want to have: accounts describe him walking in the air, showing up in two places at once, and most well known of all, having the stigmata of Christ's wounds on his hands, feet and side--all this doesn't square with becoming sensible and, well, normal.

The four of us were able to go behind closed doors because we'd been put in contact with Brady White, whose career as Santa Claus put him in great shape to bring us Christmas in late March. The Franciscan Friars of course still live in the monastery, so it was privilege for us to be able to go in and see the quarters where Padre Pio lived.

We were able to sit where he sat.









He was known to eat about as little as we did while sitting in his place.



Padre Pio was praying in front of this crucifix when he received the stigmata:





























Also in the corridor of the convent we came by this plaque. In the box below are numbered tokens--they correspond to the list which has different categories of souls in purgatory to pray for:



















It has 100 different designations, with the last, for good measure, being 'for all the souls in purgatory'.



With Padre Pio dying in 1968, I don't imagine this foosball table dated back to his time:















And of course, the most recent addition, across the hill from the convent, is the large church capable of seating, well, many people.












Brady was able to bring us down to the crypt where Saint Pio has been buried.











Or, at least, was.



Padre Pio was exhumed at the beginning of the month and was found to be partially incorrupt, as in 2003 when his body was examined in preparation for his beatification. Normally a million pilgrims come to San Giovanni Rotondo each year; this summer visitors will be able to see his body, and many more pilgrims are expected.











In the meantime, his body is kept here in the same crypt as his tomb.





Padre Pio was already well known in his lifetime. People came to him from all over for confession, which he would hear for hours on end. Many wrote him with prayer intentions or thanksgiving for answers received. It got to the point that the monastery had to create its own post office to handle the incoming mail; teams of friars were assigned to read through the letters.











The letters of thanksgiving have been kept.




The thousands of letters with intentions were first read and prayed for, and then the letters themselves would be burnt.










The three fireplaces can be seen to the left; and the church and convent in the background.